Busy Aishwarya turns down reality show offer

Actress Aishwarya Rai, who was supposed to feature on Sony TV’s reality show Dance Premier League, couldn’t accept the offer due to her packed schedule and not on account of money issues, her publicist said.

“A recent news story issued by a channel suggested Aishwarya Rai was ousted by Madhuri Dixit for one of their reality shows, citing money as an issue. We would wish to clarify that this is an act of fiction, fact being that Aishwarya, who is known to be a thorough professional, had to refuse the show on account of her commitment to films,” her publicist said in a press statement.

The show is now being judged by Rani Mukerji along with dance guru Shiamak Davar.

Aishwarya is currently busy shooting Sanjay Leela’s Guzaarish.

“Her movies like Endhiran, Action Replay and Ravana are all nearing completion, so the subject of money and costing never did arise as discussions did not go beyond schedules and dates.

“The proposal had come to Aishwarya through the Moranis (the show producers) and even Shiamak pushed Aishwarya to do the show, but the dates could just not be worked out,” said the publicist.

Aishwarya Rai makes it to Harpers and Queen Mag’s 100 Most Beautiful Women list

Aishwarya Rai is one of the 100 most beautiful women according to a list published by Harpers and Queen Magazine.

The Bollywood beauty is ranked ninth, while Hollywood hottie Angelina Jolie has topped the chart, The News reports.

Supermodel Christy Turlington followed Jolie.

Another gorgeous woman in the list was Queen Rania of Jordan, apart from other luminaries.

Aishwarya Rai and Neeta Lulla go from friends to foe!

Aishwarya Rai and Neeta Lulla go from friends to foe! In the glamour world, friendships can sour anytime. Such is the case with Aishwarya Rai and Neeta Lulla. The duo had been friends for 11 years until their friendship went bad. The disagreements between them started on the sets of Jodhaa Akbar where Ash and Neeta had a difference of opinion over her outfits in the film. Ash didn’t even go to Neeta’s show afterwards, where she launched her daughter. The final blow was when Neeta asked Sushmita Sen to model for her and not Ash.

And while Ash is appearing in a number of films, she has chosen designers Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi instead of Neeta. Neeta has worked with Ash on a number of films like Umrao Jaan, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Taal, etc. She has even designed Ash’s clothes in the Cannes film festival. When Neeta was asked about the problem with Ash, she retorted back and refused to answer.

Are the Bachchans taking sweet revenge on Shilpa?

For years together, Amitabh Bachchan has been the biggest force in Bollywood and Aishwarya Rai (now his bahu), the face of Bollywood, to the Westerners. But when Shilpa Shetty went on to win the reality show Big Brother in UK all that quickly changed.
When Shilpa’s publicist Dale Bhagwagar publicly admitted for the first time that what his client was facing behind the four walls of the Big Brother house was indeed racism, he fired up a gigantic hype for her in UK media. Taking advantage of the sympathy-factor in the controversy, he hammered every move of hers in the media. This further generated a storm of public emotions, which was felt in India only after the whole hoopla was created abroad.
Resultantly, by the time Shilpa emerged a winner on the show, she was an icon, “the diva from India’ who had suddenly “replaced’ the Bachchans as the “face of Bollywood’.
Next year, the actress popularly went on to anchor Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. Apparently, the bitterness of the Bachchans was clearly visible at the next IIFA Awards (with the Big B also being its ambassador) which co-incidentally took place in UK that year. It is said that the deafening chants for Shilpa Shetty, made the Bachchans insecure and embarrassed them, as they felt terribly ignored. To add to the awkwardness, a fan of Shilpa flew a mini airplane above the IIFA awards venue, tagged with a huge flying banner greeting her. No wonder, in spite of the Bachchan’s past affinity towards Shilpa, they kept distance from her during most of the event.
Two years have passed since then, but the Bachchans don’t seem to have forgotten the embarrassment. And now, in the strangest development of sorts, Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest star India has ever produced, is gearing up to step into Shilpa’s shoes. After successfully anchoring the king of all shows; Kaun Banega Crorepati, Bachchan is said to be preparing to anchor Bigg Boss, clearly considered to be Shilpa Shetty’s domain till now.
Now why would a megastar like Amitabh Bachchan want to take over anchoring a show, which Shilpa was so popular with? One can’t help but wonder if this is sweet revenge!

Battle of the Stars: Shahrukh VS Salman

The ongoing Shahrukh-Salman war may just end soon. The cold war started last year when Shahrukh made some unsavory comments about Salman’s ex-girlfriend, Aishwarya Rai.

Even though many people from the industry tried to make peace between the battling stars, it was all in vain. But this time, they have both been signed on for a reality show. The show, Dance Premiere League, which has signed on Katrina Kaif, Prabhudeva, Bipasha Basu and Kareena Kapoor, might also have Shahrukh and Salman.

The show will have participants from different places who will be pitted against each other. While nothing is confirmed, as of yet, the two stars may appear on the show when their teams clash against each other. Let’s see how this turns out…

Unexpected guest- Vivek drops in on Hrithik

Last Thursday, Vivek Oberoi dropped in to meet old friend Hrithik Roshan on the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish at Mehboob Studios. The two had a great time chatting and catching up. But what seemed too coincidental was Aishwarya Rai’s absence. Vivek was at Mehboob Studios for a photo shoot for Kurbaan with Kareena and Saif. While leaving, he learnt that even Hrithik was shooting at the same studio. He was a bit apprehensive to meet him at first because he didn’t want to bump into Hrithik’s co-star for Guzaarish, Aishwarya, whom he earlier dated. But on learning that she wasn’t there, he went to meet Hrithik. The two friends who haven’t been able to meet for a long time due to professional commitments chatted about their films, their personal lives for two hours. They were also joined by Bhansali.

According to sources, Vivek and Hrithik have grown up together, as they are both from Juhu. So, Vivek didn’t want to miss the chance of meeting Hrithik.

No Swine Flu for Bachchan bahu!

Aishwarya Rai has rubbished reports that she is suffering from swine flu. The actress, who carried on shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish in spite of being unwell, has been diagnosed with chest infection and not swine flu.

However, the strenuous shooting took a toll on her health and her condition worsened. She had to request director Bhansali to grant her leave for two days from shooting for Guzaarish, in which she stars opposite Hrithik Roshan. The director easily accepted even though she was supposed to shoot in Mehboob Studios on Monday and Tuesday. She is currently on medication and is resting at home.

Tragedy strikes on the sets of ‘Raavana’

Looks like Mani Ratnam has been perpetually prone to misfortunate, ever since he ventured into the filming of his bilingual flick “Raavan’. Right from Day 1, the ace filmmaker has been exposed to obstructions. Earlier, he was supposed to sign a deal of Rs.150 Crores with a top-notch production house but they later backed off. Also, Forest Department of Kerala imposed many restrictions that dissuaded Mani Ratnam, and he opted for other location.
Amidst these issues, his health was affected, and he suffered cardiac arrest, which in turn stalled the filming for nearly a month. However, as he withstood against all these odd factors, an appalling tragedy hit their shooting floors, last evening in the forests of Athirapally, Kerala. Kunju– A male elephant out of madness turned to be more ferocious killing its own trainer on the spots.
The entire film crew inclusive of Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and others were blown out of waters witnessing this incident. They were immediately commuted to furthermore deeper regions of forest, until other trainers calmed it down.
Witnessing the nightmarish scenario, Mani Rathnam has shifted the shooting to forest regions of Ooty and Coonoo

Vivek Oberoi connection in Aishwarya’s Ravana!

South superstar Vikram is supposed to make his Bollywood debut with Mani Ratnam’s Ravana. He plays Aishwarya Rai’s hubby in the film. But now much before Ravana’s release, two of the famous Tamil star’s films have come in Hindi as dubbed versions of his Tamil super hits. While his Anniyan dubbed as Aparichit came in 2006, last Friday his Dhill released as Meri Aan-Man in Work. Interestingly, this Meri Aan-Man in Work is the original version of Vivek Oberoi starrer Dum!
Vikram is a National award winner for the Best Actor for his Tamil film Pithamagan (2003). He had also featured in Tere Naam’s Tamil original titled Sethu, where he had played the role that was later played by Salman Khan. Many Bollywood filmmakers had been trying to rope him in for big projects, but he only gave his nod to Mani Ratnam. But ironically two of his old Tamil films have now already released in Hindi dub versions. It is also known that two more of his Tamil films will be dubbed and released in Hindi, as Ravana release nears. Vikram must be terming it a necessary evil for sure!
One can recollect Firoz Nadiadwala’s film Aan– Men At Work released in 2004. Nadiadwala had to add Men At Work to his title Aan since he could not get his desired title, now it seems the dub rights owners of Dhill want to cash in on Aan– Men At Work by titling their film such, to give an impression of that film.

Hrithik goes into method acting mode

Hrithik Roshan is going the Aamir Khan way. Surprised? Well he is turning himself into a method actor just the way Aamir likes to approach and do his role with perfection. Our sources close to Hrithik reveal; he is doing it for his upcoming Sanjay Leela Bhansali film Guzaarish, also starring Aishwarya Rai. He further reveals, “Hrithik plays a paraplegic patient in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish. He is shown confined to a wheelchair mostly in the film with Aishwarya Rai
playing nurse to him. Now to bring more perfection to his act, he has begun visiting a suburban Mumbai hospital almost every day to observe paraplegic patients. He mostly goes in during the early morning times when the hospital is less crowded and before the visitors start coming in. He has even started interacting with the patients there.”
Incidentally, Hrithik plays a radio jockey named Ethan in the film before he turns paraplegic, so we won’t be surprised if he starts visiting radio stations for the same soon

Ouch! Bachchan Bahu turns Karate Kid

These days, Aishwarya is making more news in the Tamil film industry as her mania is crazing fans down south. The actress has been shooting simultaneously for Mani Ratnam’s bilingual flick “Raavan’ and Shankar’s “Endhiran’.

Earlier, she had mastered her enunciation of Tamil so fluently that Superstar Rajnikanth was floored by her Tamil.

Now, Aishwarya Rai has topped herself, with yet another achievement; by learning Karate for the film Endhiran. Endhiran features Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the lead and is produced by Sun Pictures. The film is directed by Shankar. In order to act in the stunt scenes, Aishwarya is learning karate.

Ramesh is running a karate school in Chennai. For the past 30 years he has been training karate to various actors. Since there is a scene where Aishwarya Rai has to fight, Shankar has decided to teach her karate. Now Ramesh is coaching her in karate. According to the sources they have stated early, since this scene is very important to film, so Ash is being trained in the martial art. Earlier Aishwarya learnt fencing for Jodha Akbar that won her appreciations.

Imran Khan keen to work with Kareena, not Aishwarya

He is the latest heartthrob in tinsel town and there are many actresses who would love to be paired opposite him. But the two-film-old Imran Khan would rather share screen space with Kareena Kapoor than Aishwarya Rai.
“No,” said Imran when asked whether he is keen to work with former beauty queen-turned-actress Aishwarya. “I’m most keen to work with Kareena. Both of us shot for a chat show last week and I had great fun,” Imran told reporters here Thursday.

Dressed in a casual blue T-shirt and a tattered and torn pair of blue jeans, Imran was at his wittiest and generous best at an event to celebrate the success of FM Radio Mirchi’s show “18 Hamesha” along with RJ Stutee.

Imran, who also came here to promote his upcoming film “Luck”, not only hugged young girls but also 50 plus women when they screamed out his name in excitement and cheered every time he flashed a smile for the shutterbugs.

He even sang few lines of the hit song “Kabhi kabhi Aditi…” from his debut film “Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na” and did a jig on the song “Pappu can’t dance…” from the same movie on a special request by his young female fans. He also sang the original song “Jaane tu ya jaane na”.

Though Imran looked little embarrassed due to all the attention he was getting, he loved every bit of his interaction with the fans.

“I always love meeting my audiences and fans face-to-face and I love interacting with them at live events such as these. I feel I make fans for life,” Imran said.

“Luck”, which releases July 24, also stars Imran’s childhood friend Shruthi Haasan who is debuting with the film. Apart from them, the action thriller, directed by Soham Shah of “Kaal” fame, has Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty and Ravi Kissen.

Aishwarya Rai is today’s ‘dreamgirl’, says Hema Malini

For Bollywood’s original ‘dreamgirl’ Hema Malini, beauty queen-turned-actress Aishwarya Rai is the only one who deserves the ‘dreamgirl’ tag among all the new age actresses.
“Whoever is on top is the dreamgirl. I feel it is Aishwarya Rai,” Hema told reporters on being asked who, according to her, deserves to be called the ‘dreamgirl’ nowadays.

Taking about the hardships an actress has to face, she said: “An actress’ life is the same - nothing has changed. It is what it was even 20 years back. They have to work very hard, make themselves look beautiful and need a lot of dedication to remain at the top,” said Hema, who was in this suburb of the national capital Monday to felicitate winners of supermarket Big Bazaar’s ‘Meet The Dreamgirl’ contest.

Snubbing the whole idea of having a size zero figure, Hema said: “There’s no need (for a size zero figure). I was not a size zero. You must have a flat stomach - not a pot belly - and a nice and beautiful face - at least a tolerable face - and you can be an actress.”

Dressed in a pale yellow, elegant sari, the 60-year-old actress was at her forthright best when asked about her future projects.

“I’ve signed one or two (films) which are held up because of the financial problems in the whole world. Otherwise I would have finished those two and they would have released by now.”

“One is with Nana Patekar which Deepa Sahi is directing, and the other is with another producer. It is not right to expose everything about a film,” she said.

Another film that Hema is working on is “Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi” - in which she will play a role based on the life of prominent political figure Vijayaraje Scindia.

Hema, who has delivered hits like “Seeta Aur Geeta”, “Satte Pe Satta”, and “Sholay” in the past, is also toying with the idea of getting into production and returning to direction after almost 17 years.

“I’m planning to start production. I don’t want to say much about it because every time I talk about these things, they never happen. It’s my desire to make lovely films because I am an artist and a very creative person,” she said.

“But filmmaking is not a joke…so many things are involved,” she added.

The actress, who had her first stint with direction in 1992 with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Dil Aashna Hai”, says she would want to be a liberal producer and not want to impose her ideas on the youth.

Aishwarya’s Tamil Stumps Rajnikant

Aishwarya Rai has many hidden talents. One is her ability to grasp languages quickly.

This, the unit of Shankar’s Robot discovered while shooting with Aishwarya. She was required to hold her own against the glib-talking super-talking Rajni Sir.
“And since Tamil isn’t really familiar territory for Aishwarya everyone including Rajni Sir and director Shankar was ready for several re-takes as she got used to the dialogue.”

To everyone’s surprise Aishwarya got a grip of the language in no time at all.

“And she was soon rattling off the dialogues and getting hanged of the emotions with equal skill in both the Hindi and Tamil takes. So much so that Rajni Sir who has waited for decades to work with Aishwarya was taken aback.”

When asked about the above incident Aishwarya laughs, “Regional languages have never been a problem. I did a Bengali film Chokher Bali and I was able to get a hang of the complex intonations, though later they needed a particular sing-song tone and my voice had to be dubbed.”

But the buzz in Robot is that they are planning to retain her Tamil lines in the final print.

Says the actress from Ooty, “I’m not at familiar with Tamil. My mother tongue Tulu is very different from Tamil. But you must remember my first film River was in Tamil and I had to say lengthy lines in that film. From my beginnings with Mani Ratnam in Tamil to this my second Tamil film of my career….it’s been quite a journey.”

At the moment she’s shooting in the freezing cold in Oooty for Mani Ratnam with Abhishek. “We shifted from the jungles of Kerala to Ooty by car so I couldn’t accompany Abhishek. I’ve finished this schedule and go back to Shankar and Robot. Really gruelling.”