Shilpa Shetty joins twitter

Actress Shilpa Shetty is the latest celebrity to join the micro-bloggin website twitter, which is fast becoming a favourting haunt for for Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

The 34-year-old, who has her own blog, joined the networking site yesterday.

Shetty, who is also the co-owner of IPL team Rajasthan Royals, used the opportunity to promote her team.

"Hello Hello i am the newest inclusion to twitterdom! In London now..IPL Jitters kicking in.Launched the new mascot ’Moochu Singh’ too cute!! (sic)," the actress wrote.

Shetty was welcomed by filmmaker Karan Johar, an avid tweeter, who had earlier encouraged Arjun Rampal, Ranbeer Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan to join the website.

"Ok…@theshilpashetty in the house and joins the family…give her love!!!," Johar tweeted.

Other Bollywood celebrities on twitter are Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Mallika Sherawat, Riteish Deshmukh, Preity Zinta, Lara Dutta, Shahid Kapoor and Anupam Kher

Hollywood Calling Hrithik Roshan!

Since 2001, we have been hearing that Hrithik Roshan will act in a Hollywood film. Reportedly, Hrithik was to act in a film titled Aditya, to be produced by Los Angeles-based James Killough and to be directed by Tarsem Singh, who made to Hollywood’s A-list with The Cell.

But the film never went on the floors. But now, Hrithik’s splash in Hollywood doesn’t look like a very distant dream.

Seeing the trailers and promos of Kites, Rakesh Roshan has been getting calls from Hollywood filmmakers. These makers are impressed by Hrithik’s performance in Kites and his sizzling chemistry with his co-actor, Barbara Mori.

“Hrithik and Barbara have ignited a never-seen-before passion on screen. This has particularly caught the eye of many Hollywood directors,” said a source.

Interestingly, quite a few of these offers are for romantic films, some are even romantic comedies. “These offers have come in just early this week. Hrithik is dwelling on them,” added the source.

Rakesh Roshan did not deny the story. Unwilling to reveal the names of the Hollywood filmmakers who want to make a film with Hrithik, Roshan senior simply said, “It is too early to comment on this.”

However, Hrithik’s official spokesperson confirmed the news and said, “Yes, Hrithik has been getting a lot of feelers from Hollywood recently.”

Tabu loves to stay at home

Tabu is a breath of fresh air in Bollywood. She has been in town recently to promote her new film Toh Baat Pakki. Keeping with the movie’s theme of marriage, love and relationships, she was in a chatty mood and spoke about the choices she has made in her life. “I am very happy living life on my terms. There is no bigger joy than knowing you worked towards what you wanted and even got it. I like doing selective work and staying in my Hyderabad bungalow, which took three years to complete.

But it is totally my vision. It is an achievement for me.” So we asked her if she would go for an arranged marriage and pat came the reply, “after a lot of thought and some influence of this film, I feel an arranged marriage would be great. I have had enough of love.” She is looking forward to the Amitabh Bachchan- starrer, The Legend Of Kunal, which she hopes to start working on soon.

Brad Pitt spends $10,000 on adopted daughter`s shopping

Brad Pitt, who raises six children with partner Angelina Jolie, took his eldest girls, Zahara, five, and Shiloh, three, to the Bonpoint collection of children`s boutiques in Paris for a shopping trip and spent $10,000 on the younger girl`s choice.

"Zahara chose very girlie outfits, but Shiloh only wanted items from the boys` collection, which is in another boutique across the street," femalefirst.co.uk reported.

The kids were allowed to pick their own items, and Shiloh opted for boys` outfits rather than girlie clothes.

"Shiloh had absolutely no interest in the pretty dresses or skirts."

Brad splashed out $10,000 on the entire Spring/Summer 2010 Bonpoint boys` collection for Shiloh.

Ye Maya Chesaave movie review

Film: Ye Maya Chesaave
Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Indira Productions
Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Samantha, Krishnudu, Tanya, Surekha Vani, Sanjay Swarup, Devan, Lakshmi, Puri Jagannadh, Trisha Alex and others
Music: A R Rahman
Cinematography: Manoj Paramahamsa
Editing: Anthony
Story, screenplay, direction: Gautham Menon
Producers: Manjula, Sanjay Swarup
Release date: 26/02/2010

Oscar winning music director and India’s pride AR Rehman scored for a Telugu movie after a very long time. Goutam Vasudev Menon, a class director who makes movies with his heart has come up with an interesting title ‘Ye Maya Chesaave’. When looked at its Tamil title ‘Vinnathandi Varuvaya’, I understood it means ‘vennela daati vastaava’…sounded something interesting. At the same time I understood it’s a movie just for a set of audiences but not for everyone.

I entered the theatre carrying the same opinion and also doubted a bit if I fall in that ‘set of audience those may like this flick’. I was looking the blank white screen in front of me and the censor certificate appeared. Yes, the movie started. The titles started rolling…but in a very different fashion where I haven’t seen so far. The taste of director is understood for showing creativity even in that minute detail. And I didn’t carry away with that. I have many experiences of watching many bad movies those started with interesting things…After 10-15 minutes, I understood that I’m getting disconnected from the narration. I didn’t understand what I was watching. Was that a documentary on interstate love? Or a video on Kerala Tourism? Or a Malayalam learning class? I also heard some murmurs from back seats. The Re-Recording didn’t appeal at all. It sounded like a 10 year old TV serial. Every aspect started appearing disappointing and erratic for me.

But don’t know what magic worked, I have forgotten myself after a while. It’s a saga into nostalgia. It’s a journey into feel. It’s an odyssey into a passionate pleasure of life. Verdant Kerala, vibrant songs, jubilant age, vigilant father, elegant heroine, radiant hero and latent mood started dancing in symphony holding my heart strings. That was a blissful moment from then.

Samanta…!! The gal is like a madrigal. She is gifted with poetic features and she has very bright future. Goutam Menon placed her on right platform. Her poetic eyes, expressive lips, impressive looks and every aspect of her histrionics proved that she is a beauty with talent.

Naga Chaitanya deserves very good commendations for his portrayal. He has shown maturity just in his second movie…Still he needs to grow, but for the role of a hero who is two year younger than heroine, he did right justice and none other would have grooved in the role so well. However, he must flex his face muscles to show the pain and emotion in romantic sequences in his future flicks. His dialogue delivery is good and he has a positive body language. This is a mature performance from him.

Krishnudu did his bit as required, Surekha Vani was standard, Sanjay Swarup was okay, Devan didn’t have much to do, Puri Jagannadh was natural, the others contributed effectively with their performances.

Dialogues by Anuradha are very natural and clear. There is no drama but truth in every word penned by her. She too has bright future as scrip writer.

Well, Naga Chitanya plays the role of Karthik and Samanta plays Jessie.

Karthik (Chaitu) is an engineering pass out whose aim is to become a movie maker. His life takes a turn with the arrival of Jesse (Samantha), the Christian girl of the landlord Joseph (Devan). It is love at first sight for Karthik and despite the age gap and other barriers, he is blindly after her. A game of touch me not happens and Jesse says yes to him. But what lies in store for Karthik is unexpected and how his life takes a turn after that forms the rest of the story.

AR Rehman clean bowled every one with his songs. Goutam Menon did real ‘maya’!!

This is the movie that should be watched not with eyes but with nostalgia. This is the movie that should be understood not with brains but with hearts. Purely, this movie appeals those who have crossed their Graduate studies, Engineering studies, MBBS, MCAs and MBAs. This master piece pulls the senses of audiences with its magic despite they sit with resistance to get lured. It’s the film for class audience those are in the age group 25 ++. The second half is better than first half and the magic worked till the last. The last 15 minutes is very predictable for Telugu audience but still captivating. The closing of the film is very convincing and creative. Appearance of Trisha and Simbu in last scene attracts attention and boosts up interest.

It’s a very genuine script and honest attempt. Goutam is so lucky to find producers for making a film of this sort without demanding for so-called commercial elements which have been the part of cine-religion…high voltage fights, exposing heroines and vulgar dialogues. This movie gives strength for new writers those pen scripts with honesty deep from their hearts.

‘Ye Maya Chesaave’ is an example for a standard of a movie when it goes on to screen directly from heart without any adulteration.

It’s a tender nostalgic ray
That hits hearts and paves way
What else should I say?
Than telling you to watch Ye Maya Chesaave…!!

Deepika loves madness

Deepika Padukone is one busy lady. She is not only promoting Karthik Calling Karthik, but is also occupied with the promotional campaigns of her next release, Sajid Khan’s Housefull.

“I am not even done with Karthik Calling Karthik, yet and I’ve already started promotion for Housefull. It’s madness, but I love the madness,” says the actor. That’s not all, Deepika has also been working on the untitled film by Pradeep Sarkar film for Yash Raj Films.

Tarun’s hot romance

Lover boy Tarun enjoying the hot romance with sexy heroine Vimalaraman. This picture is from the Tarun’s upcoming film "Chukkalanti Ammayi Chakkanaina Abbayi". As per the sources this type of steamy sequences were shot for this movie.

Ye Maya Chesave review

Young hero Nag Chaitanya’s upcoming film is ‘Ye Maaya Chesave’, directed by Gautam Menon is all set to release on tomorrow February 26. This is a bilingual flick, simultaneously shot in Telugu and Tamil.

As per the sources the basic story of the film is, Hero Nag Chaitanya was to foray into films and become a good director. But his father rejects his plea. After completing engineering, Krishnudu introduces him to Puri Jagannath where he joins as an Assistant Director. And there you go, he finally falls in love. The main plot of the movie is known to be that, hero and heroine are in love that is routine but the element of innovativeness is that heroine is elder to hero and that is the reason their love has to face some problems in the society. Hero is 22 years and Heroine is 24 years old in that movie.

Tomorrow, February 26 we will update the full movie review ASAP.

Magadheera On Blu-Ray: First Time in India

Geetha Arts, one of the leading production houses since 1972, has not only produced mega blockbusters in Indian languages but also pioneered many innovations. This time, Geetha Arts has joined hands with Balaji Video, the largest home video company, to woo the audiences with a new offering – The all-time blockbuster Magadheera on Blu-Ray. It includes a bonus disc with additional material. While the DVDs will hit the stands on the 3rd week of March, the Blu-Ray will be available 2 weeks after that. The Blu-Ray discs will be made available outside India for overseas viewers. Incidentally, this is the first time a Telugu movie’s Blu-Ray disc is being released in the Indian market. Blu-Ray disc is the latest storage format which redefines home-viewing besides giving an experience on par with cinemas in picture quality and sound. A generation ahead of DVDs.

Master (1997) was the first Telugu film to be released on an audio CD, beside the first Telugu film to be released in DTS.

Johnny (2003) was the first Telugu film to have movie merchandising. Also, the first film in Telugu to have in-film placement and co-branded advertising. It was also the first Telugu film to use sync-sound while filming.

Nagarjuna calls heroine with name ‘Beauty & Sexy’?

Mamatha Mohandass was the heroine of nagarjuna in Kedi and she played a vital role in Nag’s King.

Mamatha was speaking to media and said ’ Nag liked my performance in King and given me the chance to work opposite him in Kedi. He always appreciates my acting and singing skilss. And he calls me as "Beauty & Sexy’. He advises to work hard to reach the top place in the industry.

Chiru gets RS seat offer from Congress

The Praja Rajyam chief, Mr K. Chiranjeevi, on Tuesday, confirmed that there were moves within the party to accept an offer from the Congress to field a candidate for the Rajya Sabha.

While talking to mediapersons, Mr Chiranjeevi said: “It is only a proposal till now and nothing has been decided. We don’t know what the Congress expects from us. We thought the Congress is offering us a seat.’’

He said he is neither aware of the Congress’ plans nor any pre-condition for the seat offer. When scribes told him that the Congress stipulated a merger of the PR with the Congress as a precondition for considering a RS seat, Mr Chirajeevi said he was not aware of it.

“Is it wrong to accept the offer? In the past, the Telugu Desam and the Congress offered Rajya Sabha seats to the CPI and CPI(M) as a friendly gesture,’’ Mr Chiranjeevi said.

He was reminded that those parties were allies of the Congress and the TD at that time. He was silent when asked about a possible alliance between the PR and the Congress.

Meanwhile, the PCC president, Mr D. Srinivas, while talking to this newspaper said he was not aware of any such moves from the party offering an RS seat to the PR.

“I don’t know who is making such moves. There is a lot of time to decide on the candidates. The Congress will file nominations for four seats and win comfortably whenever the RS elections are held,’’ Mr Srinivas said.(DC)

Reemasen’s biriyani bash

Last week, when Reemma was in town, she was invited by Erum Ali (who designed her costumes for Aayirathil Oruvan) to try out Lucknowi gosht biryani, prepared by her naani (grandmother).

Abbas and Erum had also invited other K’wood friends like Sangeetha, Krish, Shaam, Sonia Aggarwal and her mother to their posh sea-facing duplex in Thiruvanmiyur. Says Reemma, “I have heard so much about Erum’s naani’s biriyani from Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, who had relished it during their visit to Chennai. I forgot my strict diet regime and hogged on the delicious mutton biriyani and yummy mutiya ka kebab and washed it down with double ka meeta (shahi tukra). It was a gastronomic delight.”

Later, Abbas and Erum took their guests for a midnight stroll along the beach and Krish entertained his friends with some of his favourite numbers! “When Gulam Ali, the famous Pakistani ghazal singer was in Chennai, I sent him biriyani. He dedicated a song to the lady who made it. That’s the best compliment I could have ever received,” Erum says.

Mahesh’s Fans Complaint to Superstar

Prince Mahesh’s fans complained against him to his father, Krishna. They expressed their dissatisfaction over Mahesh shying from the movies and also keeping away from silver screen from nearly two and half years. The latest news that Mahesh, Trivikram’s film may get still delayed has added a lot to their displeasure. They demanded for a new film from Mahesh as early as possible. They requested Krishna to persuade their demands and put a word to Mahesh Babu on this regard.

MNIK’s special print for the blind

My Name is Khan has made cinema history by becoming the first ever Bollywood film to be released in cinemas with audio description (AD). Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) worked with 20th Century Fox to achieve this milestone after its research among blind or partially sighted people of Asian origin found that over 55 per cent of respondents were more likely to watch Bollywood films if AD was provided.

AD is as important to blind and partially sighted people as subtitles are to those with hearing problems. It is an additional narration that fits between passages of dialogue to describe action sequences, body language, costume and scenery, allowing the viewer to understand exactly what is happening on screen. ’My Name is Khan’ is also the first film to feature AD in Hindi, the language of the film.

Martin Bromfield, Executive Director at Twentieth Century Fox says: "20th Century Fox is proud to offer, for the first time ever, a Hindi AD track on ’My Name is Khan’. English speaking AD has been available on all our films for some time now, so we felt it was natural to progress and offer Hindi AD on our first collaboration with Bollywood. With help from RNIB and Deluxe Digital Studios we worked hard to create an English audio descriptive track which was then translated before being recorded by a Hindi speaking audio describer, in time for the second week of release."

Fazilet Hadi, Director Inclusive Society, RNIB says: "Around 700 films are produced by Bollywood every year, and our research tells us thatblind and partially sighted fans want AD on these films. So we’re delighted that Fox have worked with us to allow blind and partially sighted people to enjoy this much-anticipated release along with their sighted family and friends. We hope other studios will follow Fox’s lead making ’My Name is Khan’ the first of many audio described Bollywood films."

Film fan, Bhanu Ben, from Coventry says: "I love watching Bollywood films on DVD at home- if my daughter’s here she tells me what’s happening on screen, but I stopped going to the cinema because it was too difficult to follow the action. I’m really excited because I can actually go and see My Name is Khan at the cinema with my family and we enjoy it together with AD in Hindi."

My Name is Khan from Fox STAR Studios and 20th Century Fox is directed by Karan Johar and stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. It opened in the UK on February 11 and will be available with English AD & Subs and Hindi AD in cinemas from 19 February 2010. Cineworld and Vue cinemas have confirmed they are using the Hindi AD and details of which cinemas around the country are showing the film are available on their respective websites.

RNIB’s campaign for AD has resulted in more than 300 cinemas in the UK equipped with systems to facilitate it, and the majority of Hollywood and UK films released in this country have an AD track on them. Many DVDs also include AD on mainstream UK releases. (IBNLive)

Sunil Shetty opened restaurant in the place of Mischief Bar

In place of Sunil Shetty’s Mischief Dining Bar, there is now a new restaurant — Little Italy. The previous one had an Indian and Chinese menu, unlike the new speciality eatery. Also, this one is strictly veg, to cater to the Gujarati community, as the eatery is near the diamond market. Sunil admits, "My father has given it to the Little Italy group to manage."

Sunil explains his emotional attachment to the place, "We’d closed down Mischief Dining Bar and would’ve gotten a hefty rent if we’d leased the place out to a company, but we decided to go ahead with a restaurant. It is dad’s dream to have a restaurant there. If I’d rented out the place, I couldn’t have rented out his dream."

An emotional Sunil continues, "When he came to Mumbai in 1947, dad used to work there as a cleaner-waiter. It was an Udipi restaurant at the time. He later went on to be become the manager. Nearly fifty years ago, he bought the place over. It’s his entire journey from the age of 9 to the time he became the owner."

Later, Sunil converted the Udipi restaurant into an Indian one. "Now we’ve given the Little Italy people the run of the place. It’s in an essentially vegetarian area comprising predominantly of Maharashtrians, Marwaris and Gujaratis so it makes sense to have a vegetarian family restaurant there."

The actor adds that his father likes to go there once in a while and dine, "In fact, when it opened, dad had the first meal there."

Although they have renovated and re-designed the restaurant in an Italian way they have done it keeping in mind that it’s a heritage structure. "The outside decor is stone balconies with red flowers — just like we find in Italy. It’s a fine dining family restaurant along with a lounge and bar. The inside is very Italian with clean, simple, elegant lines. Though the food in the main restaurant will remain strictly Italian, the lounge will have mixed starters and different cuisines for birthday parties, anniversaries and regular parties."