Desi Galaxy

Well you guys have already read Aamir Khan’s official blog. Honestly I am a bit jealous of Aamir. While we guys work so hard on our blogs to make them popular, these movie stars can beat us by just calling names to their colleagues. A friend of mine says that if you want more comments and link backs to your blog all you need to do is to provoke a controversy, start some controversial debate, make your voice stronger and be passionate about your ideas. I never paid attention to my friend’s advise but now he is telling me that Aamir followed his advise and now look at Aamir Khan’s blog. Thousands of comments on a single post! Here is how Aamir did it.

Aamir Khan wrote a post titled “Settlers Of Panchgani” where he mentioned that he bought a house that came with a dog which is named after Shahrukh Khan. He writes:

Shahrukh is licking my feet and I am feeding him biscuits every now and then. What more can I ask for?

Now, before you jump to any conclusions let me add that Shahrukh is the name of our dog. And before you jump to any further conclusions let me add that I had nothing to do with naming him.

The post was mentioned on almost every news channel in India. Almost every newspaper wrote about this post. Even the king of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan talked about this blog post. I can’t even imagine the traffic this single post would have generated for Aamir Khan’s blog. There are 9697 comments on this post, and I am sure that the technical team at Aamir Khan’s office must have deleted thousands of comments.

Aamir Khan is a popular super star of Hindi film industry. The fame he got is not the fame of his blogging capabilities. He is still famous as a movie actor/ director/ producer not as a blogger. However, I think he has a good sense of humor. His writing skills are not bad either. But his blog lacks interactivity, I think he should understand that blogs are not about comments and posts. He needs to upload videos, photos, and he should link back to websites he found interesting. He is already immensely popular all over the world and he is famous for working hard to achieve the perfection in his work. So he must improve on his blogging skills and since he is the pioneer celebrity blogger, he should try to set an example for other celebrities that are thinking about following his steps.

Rediff.com recently held a survery where they asked the readers to name Bollywood’s most over rated actors. Guess what? Shahrukh Khan has won the title. There is no doubt that he is the King of Bollywood but also there is no doubt that he is not such a great actor. He had been lucky with all the Yash Raj/Karan Johar camp’s romantic comedies. Some voters mentioned that he displayed fairly good acting skills in movies like Swades and Chak De. I don’t agree with them, I think Swades didn’t work just because of his over acting. Same goes for Paheli where he and Rani Mukherjee over acted through out the movie.

In the same survey we have Kareena Kapoor as the third most over rated actress and Aishwarya Rai at number four. I totally agree with every one who voted. However I would like to remind myself once again that it is not about acting its about how entertaining they are. I particularly enjoyed Aishwarya’s pathetic attempt to portray Umrao Jaan and failing miserably and in Joodha Akbar where she looked more Umrao Jaan than Joodha.

Saroj Khan has won another Filmfare award for best choreography of the song Barso Re Megha Re in the movie Guru. I was looking around the web to find out a biography or something of this legendary Indian choreographer and was surprised to find out that there is no decent pages on the web about her. She has won 8 filmfare awards and has worked for decades as the leading dance director in bollywood and still no one bothered to tell her story?

Saroj Khan’s real name is Nirmala Sadhu Khan. Born in 1950 to Kishanchand Sadhu Singh and Noni. Saroj’s parents migrated from Pakistan to India during the partition in 1947. Saroj worked as a child actor in the movie Tarana at that time she was only three years old. You will not find her name in the cast but if you watch the movie she has played the little Shayama sitting on the moon and singing.

At the age of thirteen Saroj Khan married B. Sohanlal who was a well known dance master at that time. It is not clear why Saroj married him. Sohanlal was 41 yeard old and already married with 4 children. Saroj was too young and may be it was her parents who made her do that. At the age of fourteen she gave birth to her first child Raju (Raju Khan is now a famous choreographer). In 1965 she separated from Sohanlal, but kept working as his assistant. They reunited again when Sohanlal had an heart attack. Saroj Khan had another child from Sohan Lal, her daughter Kuku. Sohanlal then moved to Madras leaving behind Saroj and two children.

Saroj then worked as dance master for many movies but still she was not a well known celebrity. At that time it was not unusual for dance masters to go completely un-noticed by popular media and audiences. Saroj got the real taste of the fame when she worked as dance director for Subhash Ghai’s movie Hero. And then there was no looking back. She worked with the top brass of actors and actoresses, directors and producers. The dances she choreographed became a part of Indian cultural subconciousness. She directed the dances of Madhuri for movies Beta, Khal Nayak, Ram Lakhan, Sailab and Tezab. She worked on Sri Devi in movies such as Chalbaz, Chandni, Nagina. She directed Aishawarya in Devdas and Guru.

She has created the most wonderful dances of all times. Whenever I watch these songs, I want to dance and her work fills my heart with joy. I love these songs particularly:

1. Choli Ke Peechay Kiya Hai (Khal Nayak)
2. Hum Ko Aaj Kal Hai Intezar (Sailab)
3. O Ram ji Bara Dukh Diya Teray Lakhan ney (Ram Lakhan)
4. Dhak Dhak Karnay Laga (Beta)
5. Katay Nahi Kat te yeh din yeh rat (Mr. India)
6. Najanay Kahan Say Aayi Hai (Chalbaz)

This small biography of Saroj Khan is composed from the bits she described herself here.

Well I am thinking about an early retirement from the blogging world. I usually blog about desi celebrities and I don’t mind admitting that Desi Galaxy is not very different from other so called bollywood blogs. Now that I have looked at Bombay Bitch, I feel that I am not even the bitch any more.

Bombay Bitch is another Bollywood Entertainment Website. It is not a blog, but it feels a lot like a blog which is good as it allows readers to interact and further add up to the bitching and barking their hearts away. Whats so cool about Bombay Bitch is that it is highly entertaining and maintained by people with a professional attitude towards entertainment. Other than cursing, loathing and admiring the glamour world, the Bombay Bitch tries to keep you entertained with her sardonic sense of humour. In her own words:

The biggest film industry in the world needed a few Bitches to keep it honest. And we ain’ t nothing, if we ain’ t Bitchy. You can call us a gossip rag, or call us snoopy or sneaky or just plain Bitchy, all we have to say to that, is that ‘it takes one to know one’. So read on.. Bitch.

Many British citizens of Indian origins are trying to make themselves a career in Hindi movies. Katrina Kaif, Jiyah Khan and so hot and sexy Upen Patel. Getting work in show business needs charisma and popularity but how once could achieve popularity with out getting a major role in a big bollywood movie? Well, the answer is quite simple, get yourself involved in scandal and use your connections in the media to get the scandal published. Breaking the scandal on Television is good but even gossip columns can do wonders.

Latest in an NRI’s Bollywood scandals is Hazel’s casting couch story. You may have noticed her in nokia, sunsilk and lays commercials. This English beauty arrived here with dreams to make it big in Bollywood. During her struggling days she was once invited by some filmmaker (She doesn’t want to reveal his name) for an audition. The film maker wanted to see her in Bikini but as she didn’t bring any bikini costume with her, the film maker asked her to strip because he wanted to see how she looks in her under garments. Hazel walked out of the audition.

I don’t see the reason behind her walking out of an audition for a big bollywood movie. May be she was not wearing any undergarments. But when going for an audition, I think that any professional actor would at least keep extra clothes and other accessories in some bag. Its not that getting undressed is the usual auditioning routine, but what if something bad happens like an accident or something getting your clothes ruined. Hazel’s story is a reminder for all the girls trying to get work in bollywood, “Always carry bikini with you on auditions”.

Film makers in Bollywood love to cast rivals together. In 1949, Director Mehboob presented Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor together in the movie Andaz. Both actors were the top heroes of the industry at that time and the movie created the ‘who is the best’ kind of hype. The film was recieved well by the audiences. But considering Mehboob’s casting options at that time I don’t think that this casting scenario was entirely designed to took advantage of the rivalry. In fact Mehboob didn’t have much choice. he needed a triangle and Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Nargis were the best actors to do the job.

In 1982 Amitabh was the acclaimed angry young man and he was then signed up to face Dilip Kumar in the movie Shakti. Even though Dilip Kumar was playing the role of his father but fans and media expected the movie like it is a contest between two giants. And it was, Shakti was a story of a broken relationship between a father and his son. There were intense dialogs, emotionally charged scenes, tears and lots of drama just to make sure that audience get what they wanted from the movie. Shakti wasn’t major blockbuster but Dilip Kumar won filmfare for his role in the movie. This was the last time Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan appeared together in a movie.

In 1991, Rajkumar Santoshi signed Aamir Khan and Salman Khan together for his movie Andaz Apna Apna. Santoshi made a right decission with a hillarious script and wonderful timing. At that time Aamir and Salman were the heartbeat of the youth and the movie created much pre-release press hype. Unfortunately, it took Santoshi three years to complete the movie. By that time the media and the fans lost interest in discussing who is best. Movie didn’t perform well at the box office. But it has its own cult following and is one of the best comedy movies ever (My own opinion).

Even the Shahrukh-Amitabh setting has been tried before. They have worked together in Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein (2000) and Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). Both movies did well at the box office. So it seems like Shahrukh Amitabh rivalry is profitable for film-makers.

Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan are once again going to appear together in the movie ‘Bhootnaath’. This came out when we have already consumed an over-dose of news about the growing tensions and rivalry between the two stars. The rivalry sparked by media is now going to help with the promotion of the new movie.

While looking at the Mohabbatein page on Wikipedia I found this interesting bit:

On January 9th 2007’s episode of The Colbert Report, during the “We the Mediator” segment. Stephen Colbert mentions the New Year’s feud between Khan and Bachchan. By botching the names of the other stars who arrived at Bachchan’s party, he decided to judge the winner by viewing clips from Mohabbatein (he pronounced as “Mohabah-tee-yahn”)and from Khan’s dancing to Bachachan’s angry look clips, the undisputed winner was Khan. Stephen Colbert described Khan as “Dilip Kumar” to Bachchan’s “Raj Kapoor.”

History repeats itself and Bollywood loves repetition.

The world is watching Indian Kissing scandals closely. The world can understand that the public display of affection by kissing hurts Indian feelings. But we have news of complaints filed in Indian courts against the kissing scenes in the movies. Just a few days ago Aishwarya Rai was summoned by the court to explain an “obscene” kissing scene in the movie Dhoom 2.

Christian Science Monitor takes a good look at the Indian sensibilities and the controversy over the Gere-Shetty kissing. In India, a public kiss is not just a kiss is the title of the story. They interviewed people like shopkeepers, college girls and sociologists.

“Courts spend 20 years on rape cases, and here they’ve issued a warrant in weeks,” says Hardeep Singh, sitting behind the counter of his father’s shoe store.

Since Bollywood has taken the lead to break the kissing taboo so it is easily understood why the actors and actresses are becoming victim of public anger. But Bollywood refrains to take part in the debate openly as they have always tried to keep a distance from politically charged controversies. It is not good for their business, I guess. I liked what Dipankar Gupta said while explaining the Indian fury over the kissing scenes in the movies and real life.

“Two very different societies are colliding with each other,” says Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University here. “Because of the Western influence, the changes here are not a natural evolution.”…
….After all, this is the land of the “item girl” – that would-be Bollywood star whose dancing includes everything short of a pole and a wardrobe malfunction. Yet for all her overt sexuality, the temptress is acceptably Indian. The public kiss is not.

It has been rumored that Bachchans did not invite a single Muslim colleague or friend to attend the wedding of Abhishek Bachchan. Well they also didn’t invite a whole lot of Hindu, Sikh, Christians but surprisingly there is not even a single Muslim celebrity or politician who attended the Big Bollywood wedding. May be it is just a coincidence but what I have read about the religious activities of the Bachchans and Aishwarya Rai to remove some superstitious astrological curse, makes me believe that they are a religious family. May be they feared that a Muslim attending their pious spiritual Hindu wedding would cause them some astrological harm or would make this marriage unlucky. Or some other stupid super mythological beliefs.

We have read that, Shahrukh Khan was not invited. This guy has worked in many movies with Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. Hrithik Roshan and Rakesh Roshan were not invited. Because Hrithik’s wife is Muslim. It is rumored that the Bachchans specifically asked Mumbai police not to send any Muslim police officer to provide them security. Private security guards hired by the Bachchans were all Hindus.

Well of course it is none of anyone’s business to discuss the religious beliefs of the Bachchans. I wish that these rumors are not true. But unfortunately it seems like no matter how secular and modern India has become, no matter how people of different religions work closely, there is an integration but when the time comes to show just how integrated different Indian cultures are people prefer to remain secluded in their own religious nutshells.