Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - May 2009 - Index

Luck by chance
The buzz has it that Shah Rukh
Khan, who has had shoulder surgery, a
flop in Billu and problems with Kolkata
Knight Riders, is consulting numerology
expert Sanjay B. Jumaani. It is said that
SRK’s superstitions are behind the move
to take ‘Kolkata’ off KKR and to change
the colour of the jersey – black is said
to be the colour of Saturn.
Sona-graph
Before playing the alluring star Sona,
who Haji Mastan wins over in Once
Upon a Time in Mumbai, Kangana
Ranaut wants to meet the smuggler’s
love interest on whose life the film is
based. Apparently, Haji was in love
with Sona because she resembled his
favourite actress, Madhubala.
She’s a doll!
Speculation that Asihwarya Rai
Bachchan would be the first Indian
celebrity to lend her likeness to a
special edition Barbie doll was quashed
with Katrina Kaif taking her place as
the first Indian Barbie. “It’s very
flattering. Coming from a family of six
girls, we had a house full of them,”
says Kaif.
Meanwhile, a matrimony website is
offering Bollywood look-alike brides or
grooms. The portal, using a new
software, claims to do a facial search
of the person you are looking for and
offers the closest match. Cashing in on
the Indian obsession with Bollywood,
the website says if you want your bride
to look like Aishwarya Rai, the site will
search its data base for options.
Top dogs
The two Oscar statuettes sitting on
his shelf have added millions to his
value and brands are eager to pay big
money for A.R. Rahman. Before the
Oscars, his fee per endorsement was
Rs. 20-30 million ($500,000-750,000),
now he is taking his time before signing
on the dotted line for an offer of Rs
80 million. Unlike other ambassadors
who hold a bottle of cola or eat potato
chips for a
certain sum of
money, his association
has been
strictly via music.
Freida
Pinto is reportedly
now the
highest-paid actress in the Hindi film
industry. The Mumbai-born 24-year-old
Pinto’s earnings have now topped two
million British pounds, the Daily
Telegraph claimed in a report. With this,
the report claims, she has overtaken top
stars like Kareena Kapoor, Katrina
Kaif and Aishwarya Rai. Freida is
believed to be asking for as much as Rs.
50 million ($1.25 million) per Bollywood
film.
The plot thickens
With most of their recent films, with
the exception of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,
flopping, Yash Raj Films is pulling
every trick in the book for Hadippa,
including roping in Rakhi Sawant for
a dance number with Rani Mukherji.
Mukherji, apparently, was nervous about
dancing with Sawant to the foot-tapping
number from the seventies film
Caravan that starred Jeetendra and
Asha Parekh as she felt that she might
not be able to match her oomph quotient.
The film, starring Rani Mukherji and
Shahid Kapur, has also seen other controversies.
There have been rumours that
Mukherji has been directing her scenes.
Now we hear that Kapur refused to
shoot until the climax was done his
way. He locked himself in his van and
refused to come out. The shooting was
stalled for almost four hours and
Aditya Chopra had no option but to
accept the change that Shahid wanted.
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May 2009 Desi News 35