B-wood’s Royal Family #11-Bachchans P.132 - Page 7

Yeah, I was gonna ask the same
Sasur ji is amazing, but I wud like to see Abhi baby 😳

wow gr8 articels esp ash interview! 👏
thx alot 4 sharing guys! 😊

Aishwarya Rai at Cannes: Italian or Indian?

What will Bollywood's leading star be wearing down the red carpet?
Ever since she arrived by horse drawn carriage and dressed in a stunning golden yellow sari for the premiere of her film Devdas at Cannes in 2002, Aishwarya Rai's annual presence has added a unique Bollywood hue to the red carpet proceedings. The following year, the Armani-clad Rai was the first Indian actor to sit on the judges' panel and her 2004 appearance, decked in Chopard and a Neeta Luila skimpy white dress, made waves. Black was her colour of choice in 2004 and last year, she arrived hand in hand with fellow L'Oreal brand ambassador, Andie MacDowell. This year Rai will attend with hubby Abhishek and father in law, Amitabh Bachchan. On May 18th, her historical romance Jodha Akbar will be introduced and speculation is rife as to what the gorgeous Rai will be wearing. My guess is that, in her most important role to date as the respectable Bachchan bahu (daughter in law), the recently married Rai will be adorned in a traditional sari. Designer, of course!

Scoring at Cannes

With the UK's FA Cup Final taking place on Saturday, Bollywood is set to showcase its first major football film Goal at Cannes on Friday 18. "It's about a bunch of British Asian lads who the world believes cannot play the game and how they emerge victorious," the film's lead, the hunky John Abraham told me when I visited the sets in Green Street, east London last week. "I play Sunny from Southall," he added. Fans of the beautiful brawn will see Abraham's new look in the film: he sports a new haircut. Will he be exposing as much of his body as he did in his own John Abraham 2007 calendar? "I am in my best physical shape, so let's wait and see!" John laughed.
The busy Big B
Amitabh Bachchan is a busy man: he has two major releases, Cheeni Kum and Shootout at Lokhandwala, scheduled for release on Friday, May 25. The former will have its premiere in Cannes on Monday 21 with Bachchan in attendance. He will then hop over to London for the film's West End premiere on Tuesday 22. This is not the first time Bollywood's mega-superstar has had two simultaneous releases. Both Aetbaar and Khakee were released on the same day in January 2004. This had the effect of dividing his audience with the effect that one of the two ultimately sinks at the box-office, as Aetbaar did. "This will not be a problem as both films belong to separate genres," a spokesperson for Cheeni Kum stated. Here's looking forward to a double dose of the Big B!

Spidey swings into India

Bollywood's global growth continues but Hollywood has failed to infiltrate the potential one billion plus Indian market. With the exception of the James Bond series and the Jurassic Park trilogy, very few Hollywood films are successful in India. The mass non-English speaking Indian audience appear to prefer the traditional song and dance massala Bollywood formula. This may change: last week Spiderman 3 became the first Hollywood film to be released with over 600 prints and in several dubbed versions across the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the original English, Peter Parker will be heard speaking several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bhojpuri. Will this marketing strategy work? Preet Bedi, CEO of Percept Pictures the film's Indian distributor is confident: "Spiderman 3 is about a superhero and has universal appeal, the distinction between Hollywood and Bollywood has finally collapsed."

Director's cut
For seventeen years, R. Balakrishnan has had such a good time in advertising that he nearly forgot what he really wanted to do was make movies. "I walked into Mudra for an interview thinking that the logo (of the two hands) belonged to Ramesh Sippy's company," says Balki, National Creative Director, Lowe.

The movie finally got made. Written in 25 days, Cheeni Kum is a "pucca Bollywood film" insists Balki. A love story, written with the leading cast of Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in mind, is that of a 64-year-old chef and a 34-year-old woman.

"I didn't want an older man-younger woman story. I wanted it to be a regular, plausible relationship, a love story that you could imagine happening to people you knew," says Balki.

The exciting casting also includes the effortlessly funny Paresh Rawal who plays Tabu's father. "Amitabh is playing a 64-year-old dude. He is not the 'Sexy Sam' of KANK (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna) but an understated, sarcastic guy who has preserved some of his machismo, and can't get himself to say sweet, mushy lines," says Balki.

The background score — there is no singing in this movie — has been composed by the director's all-time favourite, Chennai-based maestro Ilayaraaja. The four tracks, including the one playing in the promos currently on air, are, however, old classics. "I wanted the rest of the country that hasn't had the opportunity to listen to the genius to hear the best of Ilayaraaja."

"Tabu is superb! Amitabh's brilliant, he's so funny, and does it with such a poker face." But despite the excitement today, Balki is as critical about his movie as he is about his campaigns and says he might just want to run away and hide by the time the movie premieres on May 24 in London and May 25 in Cannes.

From all the campaigns that Lowe has worked on, Balki can only pick Saint Gobain, Bajaj and some work for Unilever that makes the cut. The rest is nothing out of the ordinary. "If you are happy with what you have done, you will find no reason to move forward and do better work," he says. The personal philosophy of taking each day as it comes also applies to Lowe, and Balki says he professes no vision for the agency.

"A lot of us in the advertising industry are slightly out of touch with reality," he says. "We are in the business of ideas, and yet we behave like a service industry, more concerned with maintaining relations, and charging commissions as if we were a bank," he explains. "Our machinery is the minds we have, and we should be focussed on creating new solutions, coming up with new ideas. But despite being in a lateral business, we are even structured in a linear way.

And this is true for everybody in the industry, including Lowe," says Balki.

The preoccupation with awards is, however, something that Lowe shall not suffer from. "We don't believe in awards. Even Cannes is another excuse to have fun. Those who went drinking in Goa will go drinking in Cannes," says Balki. All that is expected from those at Lowe is conscientious work.

For Balki personally, the immediate challenge is to balance advertising and filmmaking. "It is difficult. A lot of that energy goes into just staying true to your story and keeping the freshness of the idea alive," says the first-time director, already working on his next movie project. Pa, a father-son relationship story, features Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.

Sometime in the future, Balki also hopes to work with his other favourite actor, Kamal Hassan, whose Moondram Pirai (Sadma in Hindi) he has watched 22 times. Among directors admired are Baalu Mahendra, Bharatiraja, Mani Ratnam and Karan Johar, who, according to Balki, is among the most honest and fun filmmakers.

So is Cheeni Kum. "A light and fun movie" since, says the director, "I don't have much depth in me." We shall take that with a pinch of salt.

Amitabh Bachchan may face the heat from new UP government

With the intrepid Mayawati's unprecedented triumph in Uttar Pradesh elections, the Samajwadi Party, which has been supported unequivocally by Big B, is in for trouble.

DNA reports that the new Chief Minister has decided to target the friends of Samajwadi Pary general secretary Amar Singh and Amitabh Bachchan's name tops the 'hate list'.

Though no one in her secretariat is willing to talk as yet, informed sources say that documents of Bachchan's land deal in Barabanki, a district adjoining Lucknow, are being scrutinized by the new government. The matter has been discussed in the first cabinet meeting.

The report says, "This can spell trouble for Bachchan as the plot of agricultural land got the actor a certificate establishing him as a farmer in 1983. He needed this certificate to buy 20 acres of agricultural land near the prime hill station Lonavala in Maharashtra in 2000.

The laws of Maharashtra require that only farmers can buy agricultural land.

Earlier in 2005, the Pune district authorities had issued a notice to Bachchan asking him to prove his status as a farmer.

Mayawati has declared, however, that she will not resort to 'personal vendetta'."

Maya glare on Amit

The Mayavati government has moved against Amitabh Bachchan within three days of the swearing-in, taking its first step against Mulayam Singh Yadav's high-profile friends.

The government's weapon is a three-month-old letter lying at the Barabanki district magistrate's office, sent by the last Speaker's office. It seeks a report on the actor's purchase of land in the district, about 30 km from here, that allegedly belonged to the local panchayat and was meant solely for farmers' welfare.

The new government has already changed the DM and asked incumbent L. Johri to file the report soon. "We have to see how quickly I can send the report," Johri said.

"We won't push the matter under the carpet," state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar said. "The case will reach its logical conclusion."

Hours after the poll results were out, Mayavati had promised to probe every controversial decision by her predecessor. So, projects awarded to some of Mulayam's other friends, too, are likely to soon come under the scanner.

These include two of Anil Ambani's power projects — Dadri (7,800 MW) and Roza (600 MW) — and Subroto Roy's proposed Sahara City on Lucknow's fringes.

Amitabh had bought two plots at Barabanki, one of 15-odd acres and the other smaller. His wife Jaya had failed to mention the larger plot when she filed her Rajya Sabha nomination last year.

A complaint to the Election Commission from a lawyer and small-time Congress activist led to the February 6 letter by R.P. Pandey, returning officer for the state Rajya Sabha polls, to the then Barabanki DM, Nitishwar Rai. He never replied.

Asked about Anil Ambani's and Roy's projects, the cabinet secretary said: "If any industrial policy is not running smoothly, we may have to do something."

The Rs 10,000-crore Dadri project is stalled by protests from farmers who say they were not properly compensated for the land — about 2,500 acres across seven villages. Ambani also took over the Roza thermal project in Shahjahanpur. State power employees want both deals scrapped.

Roy is yet to get land for his private city. The Lucknow Industrial Development Authority's clearance awaits the nod from the Union commerce ministry's board of approvals.

Amitabh Bachchan at the Top in Mayawati's 'Hit-list'?
The new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati is known as a person who does not forget and forgive her political enemies. After taking oath as CM, she put bureaucracy and police administration according to her wish and sent transfer letters to several IAS and IPS officers in UP.

Now, after putting bureaucracy and police administration according to changed center of power, the Mayawati Government may turn its sword to its political enemies. The list is long as one may find the names of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh easily in the list. However, another name is right at the top in the list, if we believe the reports coming in media.

And, he is none other than Big B Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh's ad campaign that was indirectly in favor of Mulayam Singh had irked many political leaders in the state. His advertisement, UP mein dum hai, kyunki jurm yahaan kam hai (UP has what it takes because crime is much less here) was criticized by leaders from every political party.

Mayawati was also among those leaders and now she has reportedly looked into the old land deal in Barabanki district involving Amitabh Bachchan.

The DNA Mumbai has reported that Mayawati had discussed the matter in her very first Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Now, the land deal is being scrutinized in the cabinet Secretariat. According to an official at the Secretariat, CM's office is currently inspecting all documents linked with decisions Mulayam Singh had taken during his regime including Barabanki land deal.

The report says that on the basis of the land in Barabanki the district magistrate had given him the certificate that he is a farmer in 1983. Later, on the basis of the certificate, Amitabh had purchased 20 acres of agricultural land in Lonavala in 2000.

Amitabh has showed these records to Pune district authorities to show his status as a farmer. According to the Maharashtra's Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1963, only farmers are allowed to buy such land in Maharashtra. Amitabh had showed the certificate in 2005 to officials in Pune.

The next name in the line is of Anil Ambani. Mayawati has already asked to see the files linked with the Rs 15,000 crore Dadri project of Reliance Energy Limited. The SP government had acquired some 2,500 acres of land from farmers in Dadri and given to REL.

Abi-Aish @ Cannes:

Arrival in Cannes

 

Aishwarya And Abhishek Bachchan's candid pics



These pictures are clicked by one of the fan, and she was lucky enough to have their photo taken with Aishwarya rai, surprisingly Abhishek was too camera shy and disappointed them

Mrs & Mr. Bachchan walk the red carpet at Cannes

Cannes, May 17: Aishwarya Bachchan walked down the red carpet with her husband Abhishek as the 60th annual Cannes Film Festival opened here. This was one of the couple's first public appearances after their much talked about wedding.

The newly-weds took a one and a half day break from their honeymoon and graced the red carpet at the film festival. The lady has been a regular at the festival but this time Aishwarya had a different glow as she walked hand in hand with her man.

The two pulled large crowds with photographers going crazy to get the first shots of the beautiful pair.

Aishwarya will showcase promotional footage of "Jodha-Akbar" to attract potential international distributors to affect a good international release on Oct 12.
Top Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai also walked down the red carpet. He is at Cannes for premiering his latest movie.

Well-known faces like Luc Besson, Juliette Binoche, David Lynch, Andie MacDowell and China's Gong Li stepped up the red carpet to attend the opening ceremony.

Stars like Elizabeth Hurley and Australian Toni Collette swirled up the red carpet.

Germany's Diane Kruger, of Hollywood blockbuster "Troy," presided over the opening ceremony.

Actress Shu Qi from China's Taiwan and 98-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira declared the May 16-27 festival open.

Wong Kar-Wai's first English film 'My Blueberry Nights', starring pop jazz singer Norah Jones in her film debut and actor Jude Law, was screened at the opening ceremony as the first of the 22 films in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or.

Law and his Grammy Award-winning leading lady walked the red carpet with their Hong Kong director at the festival's opening yesterday.

Cannes Film Festival was founded in 1939 but almost as soon as it opened, the festival was canceled because World War II broke out.