Desi Galaxy

Preprations for IIFA Bollywood Awards in Yorkshire.

Uncle Chest 101 …You’ve heard me use the term repeatedly: Uncle Chest. Several of you have asked me to explain, “what is this Uncle Chest you speak of?” Well, I’ll explain…

Rediff has a little quiz to explain how Bollywood is one big happy family.

Suchitra Krishnamurti accuses Priety Zinta of having an affair with her husband Shekhar Kapoor.

KBC participants seek business Advice from Shahrukh Khan, “A few of the participants are in touch with my secretary. They have been sending e-mails to my office as well” Khan said.

University of Washington President Mark Emmert and seven other university and government leaders are on a State Department-sponsored mission to Mumbai and New Delhi, India.

Talking of Music, check out a Treat for Bollywood Fans, Melvin Rivera shares an NPR interview with legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle on NPR’s Soundcheck. Asha talks about the 20000 Hindi songs she has sung so far, the Hindi film music, bollywood and her husband R.D. Burman.

Basab Pradhan writes an Open letter to the Bollywood Music Industry.

Most people want to buy music legally, if it is made simple and inexpensive for them to get it. Say this to yourself three times every morning after your morning prayers. And then think about your pricing strategy. There is a vast, relatively untapped appetite for Bollywood music amongst NRIs. If you just got rid of your pre-conceived notions.

Our Bollywood shares the email addresses of Bollywood stars.

Ramesh Jain had a chance to hear Vidhu Vinod Chopra answering questions at UCLA campus. Vidhu talked about his latest movie ‘Ek lavya’ and Bollywood in general. Vidhu revealed that he uses the basic model of entrepreneurship in his movies. He rewards people based on the success of the movie, rather than contracting them. He claimed that this results in allowing him to make movies at reasonable cost. And there are good actors who are willing to work under that model.

Beth loves Bollywood but Eros International’s subtitles didn’t allow her to understand most of the dialogues in the movie Trishul.

[...]quality-control team at EROS (or the whole company, whatever): suno, saala. What exactly do you think you’re doing putting out crap like this? I can deal with your idiot boasting about your role in promoting Bollywood. I can deal with the Tilda basmati folks (to be honest, I love the flying cauliflower). I can deal with all your ads for things I already know about.

But I cannot watch a movie with subtitles that cover, at best, 20% of what’s being said and generally whimper along without the joy of complete sentences.[...]

Young Sikhs are abandoning turban to adopt bollywood hairstyles The Telegraph reports. It is a very old news and it didn’t happen at once. It had to happen, and I don’t think that the Sikh guys are following Bollywood they are actually trying to bridge the cultural gap that a turban creates. I also feel that Sick-Sikh-Jokes also have a role in discouraging the traditional Sikh Turbans.

Tags: Bollywood, sikhism, Sikh, movies, India

[This post is part of Babe of the Month Series. Desi Galaxy's Babe of the month for March 2007 is Aishwarya Rai.]

We have seen Madhuri Dixit, Sri Devi and several other bollywood actresses disappearing from the screen after getting married. But Aishwarya Rai has no plans to quit industry after getting married to Abhishek Bachchan. She is already busy in shooting of movies that are going to release after the wedding. She is playing the role of Jodha in the upcoming movie ‘Jodha Akbar‘ which is already most talked about movie in the industry at this moment. She also has some projects that would start after her getting married to Abhishek Bachchan.

A close source to Aishwarya told IANS, “She goes into all these assignments as soon as she completes ‘Jodha-Akbar’. There’s absolutely no reason to think she’d quit working after marriage. Everyone in the two families is very supportive of Aishwarya’s career. And that includes Jaya Bachchan.”

In the past we have seen Bollywood film-makers trying to earn some cash by presenting the real life couples in the movies. Like the classic Yash Chopra movie ‘Silsila‘. At that time there were rumors in media about the affair between Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha. Amitabh Bachchan married Jaya Bhaduri before the filming of this movie but director earned some cold hard cash by making a movie on a real life love triangle.

This time these film makers might try to cast Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan together in a movie. But since Aishwarya Rai has already denied working with Salman Khan, we can assume that they would sign up either Hrithik Roshan or John Abraham to play the role of Salman Khan in a movie which will be slightly based on Aishwarya’s real life love affair. Bachchan’s are one of the most powerful families in the industry and it seems like they are a little conservative as well. But I feel that they are basically professional actors and if such a film is offered to Aishwarya and Abhishek without Salman Khan being a part of the package they won’t hesitate to work in it. Audiences are surely going to love such a movie.

Aishwarya Rai brought five minutes of fame and memories for a lifetime to the life of an ordinary woman The story of an ordinary woman from a small village in Mahmudabad block, Sitapur district. The story of this woman is a story of courage, dignity and honesty.

A Nose for Perfection, Nose is the focal point of a person’s face. Our bollywood celebrities earn their bread not only from their professional skills but also from their face value. So a perfect nose is what the stars are seeking for. India Times talked to make up artists, photographers and cosmetic surgeons about who needs a nose job in bollywood.

The Bank of Bollywood, The Sun publishes an story about how ICICI Bank is hoping to lure many of the 1.3 million people of Indian origin living in UK to set up accounts. ICICI’s advertising campaign has Shahrukh Khan who is 100 times more popular among Desis than Big brother celebrity Shilpa Shetty.

Farhan Akhtar: A new dawn in Bollywood, There is a search for something or the other in almost every film that’s made; I think my film normally deals with men of my age who struggle… I guess I understand on some level having been through it. As of now they reflect what I feel about life, what I feel about certain things.

Rediff has a slideshow of Bollywood’s sexiest Heroines. Obviously it begins with the picture of Mallika Sherawat’s item number from Guru. It seems Mallika completes the day at the Rediff headquarters. Just look around and you will notice that there is Mallika even when there is nothing to talk about her kissing scenes or sexy dance numbers.

Late Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan’s nephew, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan performed at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi on Saturday. Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka, mother Paola Maino, and son-in-law Robert Vadra were among the VVIPs who attended the concert. Times of India reached him and asked him about music, Cricket and Aishwarya Rai.

Priyanka recently gifted a T-shirt to her kid brother, this tshirt is really precious. It has signatures of the entire Indian cricket team. The story doesn’t tell that Priyanka used star power to get the shirt signed. I was thinking why she didn’t get the signatures of the cricket team when she was working with them in the movie ‘Mujh se shadi karo gi’.

Sandeep Hattangadi on Cybernoon asks, “Will TV give us another Shahrukh Khan?“. My answer is yes, there are many talented actors working on television and some of them need an average, balanced in masala items, and two-hit-songs-packed-inside movie to start their Bollywood Journey. It just doesn’t end here they need such films for sometime before they become able to get the movies they want.

Subhash K. Jha, reports that Karan Johar is planning to record a show with the Bachchans and Aishwarya. Karan is a very optimistic person and I agree with Subhash that the guest list is getting ambitious every day. Koffee mayn dam nahi bomb hai!

Tags: Koffee with Karan, Delhi, Sonia Gandhi.

Farhan Akhter is planning to make a sequel to Don. He has the idea but he is not really sure about going for it. He said:

I do intend to make a sequel at some point in time. I do have a couple of ideas in my mind but as of now I have not given it a very serious thought. I wish to do it but when and what my cast will be like, I have not thought about it.

I think it is a wonderful idea. People would definitely like to see what happened to the Don. A genius like him can not live his life in some calm and deserted island. He must have had some further adventures and thinking around these lines Farhan can come up with something much more brilliant and original than the prequel. What you the Desi Galaxy readers think about it?

BBC News has a new topic on their popular public forum section ‘Have your say’. The topic is ‘Do you want to be a Bollywood star?‘

What does it take to make it into India’s entertainment industry? Are you an aspiring actor, dancer or musician in India?

As a person who has grown up watching Bollywood movies, I think that the luck plays a very important role to make big into India’s dream factory. Talent is of course important but as Shahrukh Khan said it once (I dont remember where), I am just an ordinary guy who was at the right place on the right time doing the right things.

Nagma claims that racism forced her to give up Bollywood projects. She told IANS:

I did what was best then! I was a girl with a Muslim name and the Shiv Sena was slowly raising its head. Moreover, a lot of inconsequential people had joined the industry. All this gave way to racism and a lot of controversies, leaving me scared and unsure about whatever work I was doing.

Tags: Nagma, BBC, Bollywood, Racism.