Shahid Kapur is VIP

Look who is being acknowledged as a VIP? It is none other than Shahid Kapoor. And no, it is not because his celebrity status is responsible for such special treatment. Neither is this because he is acting in a movie with VIP as its title. Instead, Shahid could well be conferred this title since he has been roped in as a brand ambassador of VIP luggage which is looking at reinventing itself in the face of competition from other new entrants in the market.

Confirms a source close to Shahid, "Yes, Shahid has indeed been signed as a brand ambassador for VIP and has even shot for a couple of commercials. He had stopped doing commercials for a few years but has been back with VIP since he liked the entire concept and their execution plan."

He adds, "VIP has been a premier name amongst all Indian households for decades now. However, reinvention was the key to the company's brand image. New entrants had come in and it seemed that only elderly related to the brand today. The youngsters were being lured by other companies which were coming with new designs for their luggage career range."

This is when Shahid came into picture since he reflects vibrancy, youth and style.

"That's right", he reaffirms, "Shahid's energy and charm is expected to rub into the luggage brand as well. He wanted to be a part of it as well due to the new and trendy range that VIP came with. The money offered was good too. Ultimately it was a win–win situation for all."

The promotional campaign would begin soon and one looks forward to see how it adds curiosity en route to Shahid's next release KAMINEY which releases in March/April 2009 timeframe.

Ashutosh Kaushik denies going for Big Brother

Dismissing rumours that he is going to participate in the Britain-based reality show Big Brother, Bigg Boss winner Ashutosh Kaushik has said he is very irritated by constant calls and messages regarding the same.

“I don't understand where the news has surfaced from? I am constantly getting calls and messages regarding the same and I am very irritated. Even my relatives have been scolding me for not telling them about it. How do I tell anyone about it when I am not going for Big Brother,” an exasperated Ashutosh lashed out.

The news spread that Ashutosh would be flying to London on December 25 to join the ninth season of Big Brother from its second week. Rumours were abuzz that he would be the second Indian after Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty to participate in the show. She won the show amid much controversy.

Ashutosh, who recently won the second season of Bigg Boss which is the Indian version of the reality show, said he was scouting for work in Mumbai.

“I am in fact on the lookout for work right now here (Mumbai) and I don't understand why I have not been getting any calls from any production house or filmmaker. It seems like they are all dead,” quipped the young dhaba owner from Uttar Pradesh.

Apart from Bigg Brother, Ashutosh had also been the winner of reality show MTV Roadies 5.0.

Young people have embraced me: Mallika

Mallika Sherwat has just returned to Mumbai after a globe trotting spree.

The actress arrived in Mumbai a couple of days ago from Malaysia where she was invited as a guest speaker at the Global Brand Forum 2008, which was held in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Mallika was a part of an expert panel where she shared her thoughts & comments with personalities like renowned Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone & Dato' Farah Khan, President of The Melium Group, which is into the retailing and brand managing of international lifestyle and fashion labels.

The actress impressed everyone present at the discussion with her insightful & original views about the exciting challenges and opportunities facing the movie business and the impact of Indian films in brands and business.

The discussion was moderated by none other than celebrated international TV interviewer Riz Khan.

Says a delighted Mallika; "It was a huge surprise for me to be invited to the global forum along with Oliver Stone - What do we have have in common, I asked myself.

I guess for better or for worse we both have our own brands - and as Oliver Stone says - people either love or hate his films, but certainly have a strong opinion about him, his politics and his films."

I guess its the same for me - there are young people around the country who have embraced me, and on the other hand there are lots of people in the country and in the film industry and in advertising who think I'm too controversial, radical etc., for their liking", she adds.

"Besides that he has a genius who has achieved so much and I've just begun my tough climb. But to share the same stage with someone who's made JFK, Platoon, Natural Born Killers and U Turn - All I can say is Wow", she says visibly excited.

The Global Brand Forum is Asia's leading organization dedicated to thought leadership, bringing the world's most inspiring and influential leaders to Asia.

In the past, the forum brought together global icons such as Rudi Giuliani, Francis Ford Coppola, Dr. Warren Bennis, Dame Anita Roddick, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Tom Peters, Prof David Acker, Faith Popcorn, Jack Trout, Martin Lindstrom, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and several others for the first time on the same platform to speak on brands, business and leadership.

Mallika also recently won the 2008 Renaissance Artist Award at the 16th Annual Diversity Awards held at the Universal City in California.

The actress is currently working on 'Hissss', a Hollywood-Bollywood film directed by famous Hollywood director Jennifer Lynch. The actress will be seen essaying a never-before seen role of a snake woman.

Houston sued by stepmother

London: Whitney Houston's stepmother is suing the star over the insurance policy of the singer's late father.

According to court papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, Barbara Houston claims the 45-year-old singer improperly kept the proceeds from John Houston's $1 million insurance policy after he died in 2003, contactmusic.com reports.

The lawsuit states the singer was supposed to use $723,000 to pay off the mortgage that she holds on her father's Fort Lee condominium.

Her stepmother, who still lives in the property, claims the singer was also supposed to return the remaining insurance money to her.

Lawyers for both parties declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Anne Hathaway ditched ex over dead flowers

Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway has revealed what drove her and her criminal ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri apart - a bunch of dead flowers.

The Princess Diaries star realised Follieri wasn't the man for her when he insisted an arrangement of wilting cherry blossom branches be thrown out, reports thesun.co.uk.

“They lasted a month and were beautiful even as they died. Raffaello always liked things fancier and perfect and told our maid to throw them out. That was when I knew we saw things differently,” she said.

In October, Follieri was sentenced to four-and-half years in prison after pleading guilty to 14 counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy at Manhattan federal court.

2009 to be Abhishek Bachchan's year

Year 2008 may not go down as a memorable one for Bachchan junior, what with his DRONA being declared a box office disaster and his destined to succeed SARKAR RAJ proving to be an average show. The only silver lining was Karan Johar's Tarun Mansukhani directed DOSTANA, which has done very well at the turnstile. With DOSTANA inching towards an above average status from India (already a super–hit in the Overseas) good luck seems to be back in Abhishek Bachchan's life. And it appears from the superb promos of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's DILLI 6 that lady luck is here to stay with Ab�s Baby for a while.

Yes, the promos of DILLI 6 (or DELHI 6?) are out on all leading satellite channels and portals and going by the response that it has generated, it appears that Abhishek has another winner on hand. Music maestro A.R. Rahman's lilting background musical score on the harmonica and ghatam enthralls the senses and once again expectations surmount that Rahman will create magic, just like he did with RANG DE BASANTI. Sonam's pretty, innocent looks, Abhishek Bachchan's brooding, intense visuals and the historic old Delhi, all conjure up a beautiful picture and build up the audience's curiosity.

Looks like Rakeysh is continuing from where he left off in RDB. And in the process we feel that 2009 may well be Abhishek's year, especially now that Mani Ratnam's RAVANA is progressing at a brisk pace towards completion and Rohan Sippy's next with Abhishek is on the anvil from January!

Tom Cruise pretended to kill Hitler in childhood games

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise hated Adolf Hitler so much that he pretended to kill him during childhood war games.

According to contactmusic.com, the Top Gun star plays a World War II colonel leading a plot to assassinate the Nazi leader in new movie Valkyrie and he admits he was aware of Hitler from a young age and was obsessed with executing him.

"When I was a kid, I always wanted to kill Hitler. I didn't care about religion or whatever. I hated that guy and everything he stood for. We played war games," he said.

Barbara Mori to shoot in Mumbai as planned

The shocking terror attacks in Mumbai have not daunted the Mexican hottie Barbara Mori . She will still shoot with Hrithik Roshan in Mumbai as planned.

After completing a long schedule with the cast and crew of producer Rakesh Roshan’s movie Kites in the US, Barbara got attached to them and was very concerned about their well-being when she saw the horrible images of Mumbai terror attacks on television. At the same time she was worried about a shooting schedule in Mumbai for which she was to fly down to the city in January next year.

So producer Rakesh Roshan and director Anurag Basu had to speak with Barbara and assure her that she has nothing to worry about. She would be provided with adequate security upon her arrival.

After these assurances, Barbara has reportedly decided to come to Mumbai as planned. She would be shooting some crucial portions of the film with Hrithik and Kangana Ranaut .

Hrithik says Barbara is too professional to back out of the shooting.

Even Anurag Basu is all praise for the Mexican beauty. He says when he first narrated the script to her, she responded in a way that convinced him that she is the most suited for the role in the film.

I hate being in a bracket: Lara Dutta

I want to be in a film which has a slice of India or has me playing a character with a particular identity and not just a face from the East: Lara Dutta

Former Miss Universe Lara Dutta says that though she has been getting quite a few interesting offers from Hollywood, she has reasons for not taking them up.

“A lot of interesting stuff is developing from the Hollywood front, but it is difficult for an Asian or Indian actress to make a mark and grow in their industry as it is a Caucasian-dominated industry," Lara told DNA in an interview.

"Few others like Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, or Salma Hayek have been able to land meaty roles. There are several Asian stars there, but they too are mostly doing big budget films whose plot is set in Asia, thereby giving them opportunity to do such movies with Asian characters.”

The svelte actor adds: “Many Hollywood films want to sign up an Indian star for a ten-minute 'exotic face from the East' quotient in the film. I’m not interested in doing such films.

I want to be in a film which has a slice of India or has me playing a character with a particular identity and not just a face from the East. I would love to act in Hollywood but not just for the sake of it, just to show people that I have done a Hollywood movie.”

Lara is kicked about her forthcoming film Jumbo, an animated movie that has Akshay Kumar in it. It marks her debut in the animation world.

“I had never done the voice-over for an animation film before and I loved the experience thoroughly. We all do roles that are hot and sexy, roles that display our character acting skills, but not everyday do we get a film in which you can be a pink elephant with a flower in your hair.

The idea is so cute. I took it up as I love doing different things as an actor. I don’t want to be labelled and hate being put in a bracket,” she says.

According to Lara, “India has a great market for animated films and, thankfully, people have realised that animation does not just have a niche audience. In fact, the junior audience in the industry is the fastest growing segment.

I play a gutsy elephant which sometimes has more courage than even the male characters. So, this role is quite up my alley.”

Adhyayan-Kangna

chemistry visible in 'Soniyo'

This is what love can do to you. If you act in a film together, especially if you are shown as a romantic couple, the frames start looking more believable, the sequences lively and performances natural.

Of course, there is an entire perception factor involved as well and since we have been made aware that Adhyayan Suman and Kangna Ranaut are a couple in real life as well, one tends to look at their mushy antics with a biased approach.

Of course, it has it's repercussions as well. Since one tends to get over critical about the entire affair (pun unintended), a minor slip here or there in the performance could lead to complete breakdown of a scene, something that happened when Vivek Oberoi and Aishwarya Rai could hardly heat up the proceedings in Kyun? Ho Gaya Naa.

However, Adhyayan and Kangna do not let an audience down when they come together in 'Soniyo', the first ever song in which the two are seen together. For the film Raaz - The Mystery Continues, the two are shown as a couple and their chemistry is pretty much visible in each of the frames.

What one observes in this one minute clipping is pure love and affection that they demonstrate for each other. Nothing over the top, no gesture screaming of 'Oh, how much we love each other', no body-play at work that may possibly take away the focus. Instead, what one sees is sheer love in the eyes of the two youngsters who seem to have accepted each other as soul mates.

Though there are glimpses of a pensive looking Emraan Hashmi getting into his painting act and in turn getting horrified about what next is in store in Kangna's life, for a change you want to go back to Adhyayan-Kangna love story instead of concentrating on Emraan's brooding expressions. We will wait for your next music video, Emraan!

As per Mukesh Bhatt, the song reminds him of the evergreen 'Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye' which was composed for his Jurm years back. Of course, one can't blame him since 'Soniyo' does come with lyrics that go as 'Tu Dede Mera Saath Thaam Le Haath Chahe Jo Bhi Ho Baat, Tu Bas De De Mera Saath'.

Well, though Adhyayan lip syncs to these words in 'Soniyo', this could well be the call of Kangna who is herself looking for gaining peace for herself in the current times.

And of course, any song or person that could make Kangna smile is worth recognition. After all, looking at the set of movies that she has done in the past, it is not everyday that the pretty young girl moves out of her intense persona and enjoys the goodies offered by life. 'Soniyo' and Adhyayan truly make her do so though!

Bollywood Disasters 2008

Unexpected disasters of 2008

Year 2008 was full of surprises for Bollywood. While on one hand we saw 'Singhs' turning the 'Kings' of Bollywood than on the other hand many couldn't live upto to the 'Tashan' they created before their release. It still stands shocking to digest that the biggies which were expected to be among the top grossers of the year unfortunately met the ill fate. The amount of positive reports they carried pre–release sank without a trace once they hit the screens. Some of these movies listed, though might earn prestigious awards in days to come, but at the box office they couldn't hold firmly.

So without further ado, let's pay our last homage to the unexpected disasters of 2008 with heavy hearts.

'Slumdog Millionaire' wins 20 more awards

Washington: British director Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" has picked up 20 more awards this week, including those for Indian music director A.R. Rahman, British Indian actor Dev Patel and child artiste Ayush Mahesh Khedekar.

The uplifting underdog tale, a Fox Searchlight release, won six awards - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Score (Rahman) - from the San Diego Film Critics Society.

Shot in Mumbai, the film tells the heart warming story of an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win a staggering Rs.20 million ($420,000) on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" game show.

It won six other awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Breakout on Camera (Dev), and Best Performance by a Youth - Male (Ayush) from the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

Dev plays the protagonist Jamal as a teenager, while Ayush plays Jamal in his childhood.

The film, which has been named in Time magazine's list of Top Ten Films of 2008, won Best Picture and Best Director awards from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay from the Houston Film Critics Society.

The St. Louis Film Critics Association gave it the Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film awards, while the Southeastern Film Critics Association chose it for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

It has also earned six nominations for the Chicago Film Critics Awards, including Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, and Most Promising Performer (Dev).

Kareena and Carmen to shake a leg together

Kareena In News

Bollywood hottie Kareena Kapoor and American icon Carmen Electra are all set to shake a leg together for Sajid Nadiadwala's magnum opus KAMBAKTTH ISHQ.

The movie also boasts of other Hollywood stars like Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh.

"Carmen Electra will join Kareena & Akshay Kumar for a special dance number in the movie," says a source from the production house. The source further added, "The dance number will be shot in February."

Reveals a source, "Kareena's very excited to shoot this music video with Carmen and Akshay. She's also done some daring acts in the film. It will be a real treat for her fans."