Bollywood Actors Aishwarya Rai & Akshay Kumar (among 62 others) received Padmashree Awards from the President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday, March 31. The two Padma Shri recipients Akki and Ash will be seen together in Vipul Shah’s film “Action Replay.”Veteran actress and former queen of dance, Helen, was also awarded the Padma Shri for her contribution to art and cinema. Amitabh Bachchan himself is a candidate of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. His wife, Jaya Bachchan, is a candidate of Padma Shri, and father, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bacchan, was conferred with Padma Bhushan now I guess we’re just waiting on Abhishek Bachchan for a Bachchan clean sweep!
Amitabh Bachchan takes around 4 hours for make up these days. Now before you start commenting on vanity at his age it’s all for his home production “Paa.” Bachchan writes on his blog, “My rituals today were guided by the extensive hours at the studio, a major portion of which were in front of the make up mirror, getting the face plastered with silicon. It took 4 hours for it all to come on and another hour to take it off. But may I say the results were simply phenomenal.”
Big B adds, “The team of make up artists flown in from Los Angeles and carrying huge and important credentials were exemplary in their job. Professional to the core and committed to the last brush of paint on the face.”
Apart from the Big B Paa starrs Abhishek Bachchan, Hurman Baweja and Fidya Balan and is directed by Cheeni Kum director R. Balki.
The other hot buzz is that after almost a decade sporting his famous French beard, Amitabh Bachchan will appear on screen almost clean-shaven in this film. Bachchan will look clean-shaven, but the beard will not come off entirely, because the star is said to be superstitious about it. He is to going keep some of it, but mask it with make-up. The beard marks Bachchan’s comeback from a dark phase through the 2000 film Mohabbatein. Then came KBC and there was no turning back.
Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan
And since the whole “picture-perfect” Big B. and bahu scene was making us all a little sick, chew on this…
Rumor has it that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is miffed with dear ‘Pa’ Amitabh over her yet to be released flick ‘Robot’. Apparently Big B. is the one who insisted she sign on Shankar’s ‘Robot’ opposite Rajinikanth since he “owed him one”but now the movie seems to have gone into a bit of a loop. Industry insiders suggest that the movie has been delayed indefinately preventing Ash from signing on any new projects.
(I have to say this sounds highly impluasable since the Big B. doesn’t seem like the domineering type but hey what do I know.)
July 18 2008:Amitabh Bachchan spent two months of his 67th year on a world tour with his family and entourage which turned out to be a multimillion-dollar show for everyone concerned.
Amitabh Bachchan
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his entourage hopped across Toronto, Trinidad, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Atlantic City, Chicago, New York & London and were paid about $700,000 per performance, while tickets worth over $1 million were sold in Chicago alone.
In fact the Big B. got a thunderous ovation when he made his entry and the entire audience rose to its feet every time he performed, staying on its feet on one occasion for more than 30 minutes as Bachchan danced to his songs and delivered dialogues from films like ‘Deewar’, ‘Agneepath’ and ‘Silsila’.
The show also featured Abhishek & Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh, Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Shiamak Davar and his dancers and music directors Vishal and Shekha and Jaya Bachchan even appeared on the stage to make a plea for a campaign against A combination of the Big B’s star power and the audience’s nostalgia appeared to have brought in the crowds.
Amitabh Bachchan (who went blogging-all-the-way) cited two unforgettable moments himself, “One, the audience at all our performances was incredible and second the press (in the US) has been very kind and generous.” This, he said, was in contrast to the ‘habitually negative press’ he received in India. Several newspapers in the US, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, featured prominent articles on him.
11 October 2008: On a more serious note the Big B. was rushed to the hospital on his birthday this year. News of his hospitalisation on his birthday brought a huge crowd of fans and well-wishers to his Juhu residence and Bandra’s Lilavati Hospital. Bachchan has been busy with the shooting of Teen Patti, Alladdin and Johnny Mastana.
Two of Bollywood’s hot properties celebrated their birthday’s this weekend. Aishwarya Rai turned 35 on Saturday November 1st, and Shah Rukh Khan turned 43 on November 2nd. While Aish spent her milestone birthday in the wilderness with hubby Abhishek Bachchan (where she’s shooting for Mani Ratnam’s film) gushing about how beautiful her life is (which, in fact, you can’t argue with, it is quite the life!)
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh meanwhile clambered up his fortress Mannat’s walls to give his fans a glimpse on his big day. He also attended Farhan’s Rock On for Humanity (in aid of children who were victims of the Bihar floods) on Friday and told an ecstatic crowd, “On my birthday, I will be turning 21 years old. So, I am very much a youngster like all of you lovely people here who have pledged to support this great cause.”
Now everyone who’s ever wanted to be anyone would beg, borrow or steal for an invitation to this star studded extravaganza of the year organised by Gauri Khan. Clearly the guest list was restricted to the creme de la creme of Bollywood A-listers. Although invited Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan were out of town, as were Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone there was more than enough filmy glitz to go around with the likes of Farhan Akhtar, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen, Bipasha Basu, Arjun & Meher Rampal, Sajid Khan, Karan Johar, Neelam, and Chunky Pandey. The only guest everyone was surprised to see was Vivek Oberoi (I guess he’s finally made the cut) besides everyone knows he’s Salman Khan’s public enemy # 1! The party was held on the terrace of the new building behind Mannat, needless to say there was a feast laid out – fairy lights and all!
Josh Movie Poster
Trivia: Aish & Shah Rukh played siblings in a movie called Josh where Shah Rukh is the leader of the “eagles” a rival gang to the “Bichoos.” “Bichoo” means Scorpion, which is what your zodiac sign would be if you were born between Oct 23rd – Nov 22nd!
Other November borns include: Nov 1: Padmini Kolhapure, Nov 2: Esha Deol, Anu Malik, Nov 4: Tabu, Nov 9: Payal Rohatgi Nov 13: Juhi Chawla 19 Nov: Zeenat Aman, 21 Nov Helen, Nov 22 Saroj Khan
Dostana Preview: Welcome to Miami! This is where Dharma Productions latest offering ‘Dostana’ is set.
When Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan) and Kunal (John Abraham) are turned down for an apartment because the landlady doesn’t want two strapping young men to corrupt her sexy young niece Neha (Priyanka Chopra) they obviously pretend to be to be gay. That’s just peachy untill they actually meet the very sexy Neha and therein lies the dilemma. When Neha’s boss Abhimanyu (Bobby Deol) enters the fray as the third contender for her affections, things heat up a notch and the boys get down and dirty in sunny Miami!
