Bips gets more support in Amar tapes controversy

After Celina Jaitley, Bollywood personalities Pritish Nandy and Sonam Kapoor have expressed support for actress Bipasha Basu whose voice is alleged to have figured in taped conversations with former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh.

"I believe @bipsluvurself (Bipasha) when she says she is
not in the Amar Singh tapes. Doesn't sound like her at all," Nandy posted on his Twitter page.

Sonam added: "I agree. A bunch of vicious losers are doing this! It doesn't sound like her at all. It's so improbable, it's almost funny."

Bipasha herself has denied that it's her voice in the controversial tapes, which were barred from publication in the media since 2006 until Wednesday when the gag order was lifted by the Supreme Court.

Former beauty queen-turned-actress Celina had also extended support to Bipasha. She said she had heard the tapes herself, and was confident that the girl in the tape was not Bipasha at all.

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Poonam Pandey launches bikini calender

Poonam Pandey, the girl who managed to get all the attention she needed during the cricket world cup is back!
The model who promised to strip if India were to win the World Cup didn't exactly keep up her word but has just released a bikini calendar!

Poonam Pandey is also one of the contestants for the next season of Khatron Ke Khiladi alongside VJ Bani, Kashmera Shah and Mauli Dave among others.

Pandey's calendar is brought out by a little-known company called Sungold Entertainment that claims to have produced a little known Hindi movied called Kya Hum Zinda Hain: A Heartless Life and a Gujarati movie called Hun Premi No 1.

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'Shagird' is an adventurous film'

The walls of director Tigmanshu Dhulia's office in Versova are adorned with posters of classic films like Bullitt, Bandit Queen, Touch Of Evil, Apocalypse Now, Casablanca, Raging Bull etc.

It almost seems like that the purpose of these posters is to engage those who sit there waiting for him as was the case with this writer.

Dhulia is on a roll as he has three major releases coming up this year: Shagird, Sahib, Bibi Aur Gangster and Paan Singh Tomar. The first of them is Shagird which releases on Friday.

Eventually, after finishing what looked like an important meeting, the director arrived, apologising profusely for the delay, and we started chatting. Excerpts from the interview:

You specialised in acting from National School of Drama. How did direction happen?

When I was in NSD, I acted in a play which was a disaster. I realised I am a bad actor but always had an interest in films. I was an assistant for Ketan Mehta's Sardar and Arundhati Roy's Electric Moon. While I was casting for Bandit Queen, Shekhar Kapur liked my work and made me an assistant for the film.

As a casting director, what is one thing that you seek in an actor?

The person should physically look like the character. The actor should have a good on-screen presence with at least a little acting ability.

After assisting on films, why did you go onto the medium of television? (Shows like Krishna's Dream, Hum Bambai Nahin Jayenge and Just Mohabbat?)

While I was assisting Shekhar Kapoor, he got busy with two of his films Dushmani and Time Machine and left the country. I was handicapped without him. During that time, the only way to become a director was to assist somebody and try and get close to the actors or producers and later pitch them your own idea. But I was not fortunate enough for that. I was a married man, so I did TV to earn a living but I simultaneously wrote for a lot of films. Also, TV was much better then. Hum serials bade pyaar se banate thhe uss waqt. (Back then we made serials with much love).

You went through a very rough patch after you made Charas.

Post Charas, I began filming for Killing of a Porn Filmmaker. We shot the film for merely 7 days and the producer ditched me. Then I started a period film called Ghulami with Sunny Deol. The producer of that met with an accident and did not recover for a year and the movie got stalled. I lost 3-4 years of my life and went into depression.

How did you get out of that bad phase?

'Shagird' is an adventurous film'
Varun Vazir, May 13, 2011, 11.25am IST
Tags:

* Shekhar Kapur|
* Nana Patekar

I got myself a Labrador and named it Action. Just so that I could say Lights...Camera...'Action'. (Chuckles)

Tell us something about Shagird.

The film is about a treasure hunt in the city. The treasure is none other than Anurag Kashyap and everybody is chasing for him. It's an adventurous film. In short, a political drama set in Delhi with a lot of twists and turns.

Why did you cast such unconventional actors in Shagird?

Nana Patekar was an obvious choice. I wanted somebody who doesn't hold a baggage so I picked Mohit Ahlawat and lastly, Anurag Kashyap as I wanted to have a surprise element in my film.

Is it true that this film was completed last year?

Yes, the film was almost completed last year but Nana Patekar injured his leg and the climax was yet to be shot.

Why isn't Shagird being promoted extensively?

I completely agree with you. The promotions are not up to the mark. But the Reliance people (BIG Pictures) have their own agenda. I am doing every bit from my side.

We've seen Nana Patekar play a cop in the past. How different is it this time?

This cop is very humorous and witty unlike what we saw him in Ab Tak Chhappan. We have crispy one-liners throughout the film. Nana's character is also a film buff and music lover.

How do you prepare your actors?

I write and cast myself, so half of my work is done. While shooting, I just execute it. I do not believe in conducting intense workshops; actors lose their spontaneity. An actor should have animal instincts.

You will be seen acting in Anurag Kashyap's next, Gangs Of Wasseypur. How did acting happen after so long?

Anurag's casting director approached me with a role and I accepted anticipating it would be a cameo. However, when I read the script, I realised I was playing the main villain. I play the role of a Bihari politician, inspired by Surajbhan Singh.

What's your take on the recent spate of hard hitting films that have emerged in Hindi cinema?

I feel rom-com and chick flicks are over and done. All this started because filmmakers found a new overseas market and made films which catered to the NRIs rather than the Indian audiences. People were forced to see films like I Hate Luv Storys but due to the growth of multiplex cinemas, things have changed and films like Ishqiya and Dabangg did well critically as well as commercially.

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Mayank Shekhar's review: Stanley Ka Dabba

Stanley Ka Dabba
Director: Amole Gupte
Actors: Partho, Amole Gupte
Rating: ***

Varmaji chews the paan and teaches Hindi for a living. At most schools, these two facts are often mutually inclusive. Varmaji face lights up most when he expresses in his chaste Hindi his love for a “Hrisht pusht tandarust, chaar chamchamate compartment ka dabba (a healthy, shiny four-compartment Tiffin carrier).”

You figure quite early on in this film that the director – who’s laid out screenfuls of swish pans and close-ups of all kinds of edibles, cooked and cooking – and who’s also the actor who plays the glutton Varmaji (Amole Gupte), is incessantly obsessed with food. It’s at the forefront of the film. If you were hungry, like I was during the movie, you'd do well to keep a dabba to dig into nearby. Otherwise? Tough luck.

Varmaji eyes every kid’s dabba in his classroom, staff room. He never ever brings his own lunch box. This is true for the little boy Stanley (Partho) as well. The teacher hates this student for the same reason. The difference between the two being that while the old Hindi shikshak pigs on other people’s lunches, the self-respecting kid would rather glug down gallons of water to try and quench his hunger instead. But then Varmaji's only one of a kind. Stanley has teachers of all sorts – encouraging, stern, morose, dumb.... This is true for every school.

We’re at a Christian missionary one, the educational chain that for generations has taught Indians virtues of discipline, and facility with the English language. They’ve served the nation well; remain still one of the most under-rated institutions around (this is something even LK Advani, who went to one, may agree with).

Boys in Stanley’s Class 4F don’t care much about his daily lack of a dabba. They’re only too happy to share their lunch with him -- and not with the wicked Varmaji. This is sweet. Though kids that age, especially the wealthy bratty ones, are usually known to be more unforgiving and cruel than that. The proposed 25% reservation for the poor at all Indian private schools, once operational, would seriously change the way the rich, insular, urban India grows up. But that hasn’t happened yet.

It never quite seems that these boys are patiently acting out their assumed parts. Children, I guess, are just born naturals. A hand-held camera follows them practically through what's supposed to be an academic year (a lot like Laurent Cantent’s French phenomenon The Class). The maker of this movie was also the original brain behind Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par, based on children again. The only thing immediately common between the two films is probably the guitar riff of the background score that suspiciously sounds like the song Kholo kholo darwaze.

You know where this story is headed, and sort of why Stanley can’t quite afford a dabba. You unfortunately learn very little (or nothing) about why the dictatorial, dabba-less Varmaji is a stuffy dabba himself. The narrative then remains tonally flat. But you don’t care.

This film, we’re informed, was the result of extensive workshops conducted over weekends at an actual school in Mumbai. It shows. The realism gently, warmly sucks you in. You sit back, sometimes reminisce, mostly observe. The take-home for the viewer is entirely experiential. As with all good experimental films.

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I like Anurag, the husband more: Kalki

It has been only a few days since Kalki Koechlin has tied the knot with filmmaker beau Anurag Kashyap, and she has already decided who she likes more - the husband Anurag or the filmmaker Anurag! "I like the husband more than the filmmaker", gushes Kalki who is all set to make her big screen appearance once again in Kashyap's Shaitan.

With a twinkle in her big, almond-eyes, she says, "I know the director quite well, but as a husband, I am still getting to know him." While the buzz is that Anurag and Kalki have bought a new house together recently, married life, she says, is not very different from before. The two stars had been living in together even before they got married. The actress, born to French parents, points out, "There is of course, an inner sense of happiness. And Anurag makes me tea every morning," and adds with a laugh, "And he kisses my legs..."

While Kalki confirms she has already started her shoot for Dibakar Banerjee's next film Shanghai, she settles down to talk to IBNLive about her experiences while filming for Shaitan. She plays the NRI Amy, a spoilt, rich girl in a film that reflects on the unruly atttude of the youth in urban India. "While developing my role in films, I don't generally copy any characters. For Shaitan, I watched a lot of films. I saw this American movie titled Kids, a film where the world is seen through the eyes of teenagers." The 1995 drama Kids centered on a day in the life of a group of sexually active teenagers in New York City and their attitude towards sex and substance abuse.

With her Hindi almost immaculate now, does she ever want to break this dark, intense aura around her that comes from acting in films that are not quite the run-of-the-mill kinds? Suggest her if she wants to act in a Yashraj movie, and pat comes the answer: "The question is not if I want to do a Yashraj film, it is whether they want to cast me in any of their films?" With a pause, she adds, "You will see, in my upcoming films like My Friend Pinto (opposite Prateik Babbar) and Zoya's (Akhtar) Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, I will have a different image. In Zindagi...I have a rather comical character."

The conversation again veers back to her post-marriage bliss and naturally she can't stop raving about Anurag. "Inside, he is such a teddy bear. I watched him act in Shagird (directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia) and I think he is becoming a pretty popular actor." She contorts her face and breaks into a smile before adding, "He is going to give me tough competition when it comes to acting."

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Delhi Belly For Adults, But There Is No Skin Show: Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan says his next production Delhi Belly is a bold film, but it doesn't have any skin show. The star was keen to do a role in the movie, which he believes will re-define the genre in the Hindi film industry.

"It's of course for adults, but there is no skin show. Neither have we made girls wear small clothes, nor are there any bold scenes. I think it would change the definition of bold films in Hindi cinema," Aamir told reporters at the launch of theatrical trailer of the movie releasing July 1.

This is his first production, which is not a family entertainment.

"My films had normally been family films or they had a social message. This is our first film which is certainly not for children because it has obscene language. We applied for adult certification for the film and we have got that.

"It's not even for those who have reservations about curse words. I myself don't use such words or language, but it fits the script. It's a very irreverent film, but it has humour in it," said Aamir.

Delhi Belly, which stars Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor, is directed by well-known ad filmmaker Abhinay Deo and Aamir says: "I had seen Abhinay's ads. So I was really impressed with his work. Abhinay liked the script and that's how Abhinay came on board."

Abhinay has done justice to the script written by Los Angeles-based Akshat Verma, who studied movies at the University of California.

"As a producer I am very happy the way Abhinay has made the film, showed humour and made it more exciting. I think he has fully justified the faith we had in him," said Aamir who was tempted to play the role that Kunal is doing in the film.

"I was dying to do a role in this film. I regret that I didn't work as an actor in this film. I wanted to do the role of Kunal Roy Kapoor. But the character is supposed to be fat and sloppy. I just didn't want to put on weight as I have worked very hard to lose it," said Aamir.

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Rajnikanth admitted to private hospital for 'various check-ups'

CHENNAI: Tamil superstar Rajnikanth , who suffered from viral fever and exhaustion recently, has been admitted to a private hospital here for 'various check-ups.'

The 61 year-old actor was admitted last night to the Sri Ramachandra Medical University (SRMU) at suburban Porur, days after he was discharged from another hospital where he had been treated for allergic bronchitis and viral fever.

"Rajnikant has been admitted for various check-ups and not for any treatment", SRMU sources said.

Rajnikant's family had on Friday dismissed as rumours reports that his health had deteriorated.

The actor had suffered from exhaustion on April 29, the first day of the shoot of his new period film 'Rana' co-starring Deepika Padukone which is being directed by K S Ravikumar.

He was admitted to the Isabel Hospital in the city and discharged the same day only to be readmitted there on May 4 for allergic bronchitis and viral fever.

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