|  | Gossip... Jodha-Akbar Aishwarya Rai’s next big movie release, “Jodha-Akbar”, has been delayed. To have opened on January 25, to take advantage of India’s Republic Day celebrations and holidays beginning the day after, the film will now be released on February 15. Rai plays Jodha Bhai, the Rajput Hindu wife that India’s Mughal ruler, Akbar, married. Hrithik Roshan essays Akbar, and therein lies the real tale. Will “Jodha-Akbar” open at all? On the face of it, the cause of the postponement is director Ashutosh Gowariker’s bad back that has confined him to bed, and Roshan’s knee injury. But Rai’s family, husband Abhishek Bachchan and his father Amitabh Bachchan, have been not at all keen on the former beauty queen pairing with Roshan. “Jodha-Akbar” is a passionate love story between a Muslim king and his Hindu wife that have over the decades encouraged lovers, and Bachchan junior is not too happy that his extremely lovely wife would be in the arms of Bollywood hunk, Roshan. Earlier, Rai caused a major scandal by stripping to the essentials and passionately kissing Roshan for “Dhoom 2”, and timing was all wrong. This movie opened just after her engagement to the young Bachchan. In Bombay’s showbiz, where marriages break at the drop of a ring and where lust eclipses love, particularly on remote outdoor locations, Mr Bachchan Jr must be a very tense man, worrying what his sexy wife is up to behind all those heavy curtains – part of “Jodha-Akbar’s” set – with her dashing screen hero...December 28 2007 |
Salman Khan waxed Bollywood’s bad boy Salman Khan never seems to let go his former heartthrob, flaming beauty Aishwarya Rai. Not long after she was immortalised at the London Madame Tussaud’s, Khan is now there to open his own wax wonder. Worth 200,000 pounds, the figure will rub shoulders with other Bombay celebrity statues, such as those of Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, not forgetting the country’s political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.Khan in wax looks uncannily like Khan in flesh and blood, and his current girlfriend and Bollywood star, the oomph Katrina Kaif, who has gone along to London would probably wish that she gets a birth there as well. If Ash deserves it, “I deserve it more”, must be Kat’s thoughts. Well, the Salman look-alike took 12 weeks and five artistes to be shaped out of wax. Silicon-like materials and a special wax have been used to give the macho star’s six-pack abs and biceps a realistic look. But his diehard fans would be shattered to see a fully clothed figure, the actor’s bare-chested body has been his scoring point and has made many a maiden swoon in ecstasy. Khan beat nine other Indian stars, including Rai’s husband Abhishek Bachchan, and Madhuri Dixit, to be honoured at Tussaud’s after a public poll last August where 10,000 people voted. Despite his many movie flops and brushes with the law that included serious offences like running over and killing sleeping pavement dwellers in Bombay, shooting endangered black buck in Rajasthan and physically abusing Rai when they were together, he still manages to win fans and attract sexy women...January 15 2008 |
France’s love couple India’s moral brigade is salivating at the prospect of handling French President’s sweetheart. Used to receiving the wives of heads of State, New Delhi is in a dilemma what to do if Nicolas Sarkozy comes along with girlfriend Carla Bruni. The dashing French President who does not care a dam what the world thinks about his romp with the pretty damsel will be India’s chief guest at the country’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26 where the latest military hardware will be displayed. Never before in India’s history has a President or Prime Minister come visiting with a companion, and Sarkozy’s India tour comes soon after the red faces he caused in Egypt and Jordan as he strolled on the streets hand in hand with Bruni, the two giggling like teens in the first flush of love. Only the French can do this. But in the meanwhile, India’s Foreign Ministry has pressed the panic button. It has asked Paris how exactly New Delhi ought to address her – first lady, girlfriend or delegate. And there are a host of other issues to be sorted out. Should they be given separate bedrooms in hotels, should they be seated next to each other in official functions and other ceremonies, and should Bruni be included in addresses by India’s Prime Minister and President? In an India that is dangerously moralistic, Bruni is sure to create a storm, particularly if she decides to share the same bed with Sarkozy or hold hands or give him a peck when they are out in public places like, for instance, the Taj Mahal. And everybody goes to the Taj, that marble wonder of love and passion. Despite liberal pockets of influence, most of India is frighteningly conservative, where landlords do not rent out their flats to unmarried couples, where radical rightwing politicians and their goons pounce on dating couples, where even something as innocuous as Valentine’s Day celebrations are brutally stopped and where exposing skin is akin to sin. It is here in this arena that Sarkozy and Bruni are to troop in, French manners and mores all thrown in, the nation’s sex-and-so-what attitude exhibited under the glare of popping flashbulbs. Indian paparazzi, fed on titillation from the foreign Press and on the country’s own fast-turning aggressive television channels, has already gone to town with pictures of the French love couple, provoking the moral spoilsports into a state of frenzy. The attention-grabbing moral-brigade is always monitoring film content, celebrity behaviour and public decency to stop what it terms wrong. Nothing can be more ridiculous than the fact that world renowned artist M.F. Husain (92 years old) is still the favourite whipping boy owing to his 1990s paintings of Hindu gods in the nude. Tennis star Sania Mirza’s skirt length invariably arouses ire, and when Hollywood star Richard Gere pecks Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, Hell breaks loose. If Sarkozy hugs Bruni on the lawns of Taj Mahal, Heavens may fall…January 17 2008 |
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