Sonakshi goes 'bindaas' for 'Joker'

"She is coming up with a 'jhatak-matak' act that is making her stand out from others in her ilk," informs a unit member of 'Joker', "She is going totally 'bindaas' with Akshay here and it shows on camera. She recently did a song for the film where the setting is totally 70s, what with a horde of 'hippie-cum-Sadhus' in the background."

Quiz Shirish Kunder (who has earlier worked with Preity Zinta in his debut directorial outing 'Jaan-E-Mann') about his leading lady and he says, "Sonakshi has that gift which I guess come from her genes. You have to tell Sonakshi just once about what you want and she does it just perfectly well. You don't have to explain things much to her. This reflects not just in her dance and body language but also the dialogue delivery as she brings in punctuations at just the right place in the right way."

Also starring Shreyas Talpade and Minissha Lamba with music by GV Prakash, 'Joker' arrives under the banner of Farah Khan & Shirish Kunder's 'Three's Company' and Akshay Kumar's 'Hari Om Entertainment Co.' and is a UTV co-production.

Katrina reinvented by Vogue

Dressed in black attire with ruffled hair style, Katrina looks appealing and oozing with attitude. The actress is styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania and photographed by Marc Hom. The magazine carries Katrina’s interview that highlights her journey into the industry and how she transformed into Bollywood’s hottest star. Some excerpts as follows…

Katrina stated that she believes that she was never the ‘next big thing’. “It was more a sort of ‘Okay, she was good in this film, she danced better in this film, and this was where she showed her range,” she added.

Born to an English mother and Kashmiri Indian father, she travelled around the world with her mother and seven siblings, before ending up in London. “I would look around a new city and crave a big house and financial security. Moving around and learning to deal with new people, it makes you internalise your thoughts.”

Her close friend Ayan Mukerji, director of ‘Wake Up Sid’, says there’s a contradiction to Kaif, “She has this energy. It makes her so lovable on celluloid, but I don’t think many people see the real Katrina.”

When Kaif first moved to India in the early 2000s, she got a few modelling jobs, made friends around the industry, and did the rounds. “I would go to the ad agencies and get called for auditions. Then she was offered a role by director Kaizad Gustad in the film ominously called Boom. She recounts with disarming honesty: “Meghna Reddy was meant to do it and she backed out. I remember I called Farrokh (Chothia) and I said, ‘Farrokh, I’m not really getting any work, and I don’t have much to speak of’. I still remember, he took the name of a famous actress and said, Even this person had to get around for a few months before really getting work, so you have to be a little patient. I mean, three months is not a lot’. That was his line, so I said okay.”

The first real hit in her filmography was ‘Namastey London’ in 2007, then ‘Race’ and ‘New York’, all leading up to the big bang - ‘Raajneeti’.

She found redemption finally with ‘Tees Maar Khan’, and that national craze, “Sheila Ki Jawani”. Kaif has never looked better. What worked for Kaif was her training with holistic fitness expert Yasmin Karachiwala, who stressed on functional training and Pilates. “It was about being focused. In the past, I’ve always set targets, but this time, I stayed on track. Now, I’ll eat a slice of pizza, but then I was on a diet for 12 days before I shot for the song. I was at the peak of my fitness, which is hard to maintain. It’s hard work and it’s tedious. In the future I could be heavier again, and I’m ok with that.”

On asking what she misses about her old life, Katrina replied, “Nothing. It was a different time. People have to remember that when they see changes in me. You have to grow up, you can’t be stunted. But am I going in the right direction? That I can only hope.”

Deepika – I never dreamt of acting with Superstar Rajini

Recently, when team ‘Rana’ met the press, our B-town’s tall beauty Deepika Padukone revealed that she had not even dreamt of acting with the Superstar of South Indian cinema when she was approached by KS Ravikumar to play Rajinikanth’s lady love in ‘Rana’.

She told that its not a dream come true, as she had never dreamt of it and that she is super excited to make her debutant movie in Tamil opposite the Superstar.

While addressing the press the actress also revealed that she has watched only ‘Robot’ by the Superstar and was impressed with his performance.

‘Rana’ is a period film set in the seventeenth century where Deepika plays a typical South-Indian beauty the lead role’s love. All her costumes for the flick have been designed by ace designer Neeta Lulla. Neeta Lulla had also designed costumes for period films like ‘Devdas’ and ‘Jodhaa Akbar,’ incidentally, even those movies featured Aishwarya Rai in the lead role!

Deepika’s first ever appearance as a South-Indian damsel has only increased more expectations for the movie!

Salman and Asin ready to re-shoot

The movie has already grabbed its fans; the songs are gradually becoming a rage. ‘Ready’ is making the right noise all around, which made the makers to transform the final draft more appealing and much better.

Buzz in the circles is that ‘Ready’ re-shot two of its popular tracks – “Character Dheela” and “Dhinka Chika”. They felt that the songs’ visuals didn’t give the right feel.

While “Character Dheela” was re-shot some time back, “Dhinka Chika” was recently shot at Film City. Salman Khan, in fact, had requested to modify even the lyrics of the song and initially had refused to shoot the song. Since the track was planned to be shot in Bangkok, the team went ahead and did the song nonetheless. Later the actor along with composer Devi Sri Prasad brought out new lyrics for the song.

Sources revealed that Salman wants “Dhinka Chika” to be the song of 2011. It already has the potential to be a huge chartbuster; hence he got new lyrics penned and re-recorded the whole song.

Now they also re-shot the song, which features Salman and Asin dancing along with group of dancers. Besides, they put up a set against a gala carnival-like atmosphere in Film City for the song. The music video has been directed by Sumit Dutt and the dance choreographed by Mudassar Khan.

According to producer Bhushan Kumar, Salman felt songs should be extraordinary as people get attached to them. “Without terrific visuals attached, there is no value to the film,” said Kumar and went on, “So Ready, which is made at Rs 55 crore, can re-shoot a song costing R 2-3 crore to enhance its quality. In Bangkok, we shot at live locations without any concept locations with just Salman, Asin and the dancers. This is the first song we shot but somehow the visual impact was missing. We constructed a set in Film City with a very bright, colourful, festive atmosphere.”

Hmmm, we hope the new version is much more exciting… And also hope that the ‘Dabangg’ star is happily satisfied with it…

Aishwarya, Sonam & Freida to represent India at Cannes

Bollywood’s hot beauties Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Freida Pinto is reported to light up the Red Carpet for L’Oreal Paris at the Cannes Film Festival to be held from the 11th-22nd of May 2011.

Interestingly, it is for the first time that L’Oreal Paris will have 3 spokeswomen representing India at Cannes, a testimony to India’s growing influence on the world stage.

Aishwarya, who celebrates a decade of representing L’Oreal Paris at Cannes, will like previous years walk the red carpet on May 11 for the opening ceremony and will attend the Opening Gala cocktail and dinner while attending various events at Cannes on May 12.

Said the diva in a statement, “Being at Cannes for L’Oreal Paris has been an absolute pleasure and to experience this for the tenth consecutive year has been quite overwhelming. I thank the L’Oreal Paris team and the Cannes Film Festival for inviting me every year to represent India at one of the most glamorous red carpets on the world platform, celebrating cinema, showbiz, beauty, diversity and excellence. Several countries have always had more than one L’Oreal Paris spokeswoman at Cannes and I’m glad India is finally getting the same recognition. I am happy that with Sonam and Freida, both beautiful women, being invited to the festival this year, India will have a stronger presence, which is a clear sign of the growing importance of the country.”

While Sonam will be walking the red carpet on May 15, Freida will represent L’Oreal Paris at the amFAR (The American Foundation for AIDS Research) dinner and after-party on May 19. The amFAR event co-sponsored by L’Oreal Paris aims at raising money against AIDS.

On the other hand Sonam stated, “It has always been my dream to walk the red carpet at Cannes and it is soon going to be a reality thanks to L’Oreal Paris. I look forward to meeting actors and film makers from the world over and attending screenings of some interesting films. But what excites me the most is meeting the L’Oreal Paris international dream team of make-up artistes and seeing how they transform me for one of the most glamorous red carpets in the world.”

L’Oreal Paris will also introduce its first dream team of three internationally renowned make-up artists – Karim Rahman, Billy B and Rie Omoto who will design exclusive make-up looks for all the spokeswomen, jury members and actresses present during the course of the festival.