Indian actress Preity Zinta arriving at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) ceremony

After her long stint in Bollywood and Television, Rati Agnihotri has set her sights on international cinema now. She has signed an English film called “Love Has No Language” also starring Celina Jaitley, Kiran Kumar and a legion of New Zealand actors. The film is directed by Kahn Khan who is a New Zealand based Director. The film’s title itself explains what the story of the film is about.

Rati Agnihotri plays Celina’s mother who has been staying abroad since a long time. She seems to be excited to be working with people from diverse cultures and since she is good friends with the producer of the film she thinks she will feel at home working with the team.

According to Rati, she will not work for television until something meaty comes her way and also since it is difficult to manage television and films at the same time.

Currently, she is dubbing for “Kuch Love Kuch Drama” and she will be flying to New Zealand after that for Love Has No Language which is slated for a release in the end of July.

The yesteryear leading lady has also worked with Sushmita Sen in “Karma, Confessions and Holi”.

Mani Rathnam has decided not to work in any film produced by Bobby Bedi any more. The fall-out between the soft-spoken filmmaker and the producer was building up for a while right through the making of “Guru”.

“But things came to a flashpoint at the premiere of Guru in Toronto when Mani and his family were rather shabbily treated . Bobby Bedi apparently refused to pay the fare for Mani’s son Nanda to attend the premiere. Mani is too polite to retaliate. He took the humiliation quietly. But swore never to work with Bedi again.”

Adds the source, “Even Vishal Bhardawaj was far from happy about the way Bedi behaved during “Maqbool” and decided never to work with Bedi again.”

As for Mani he has already called off two projects—the earlier “Mahabharat” and more recently “Lajjo”—with Bobby Bedi, and is working towards forgetting the ugly experience.

Mani Rathnam has decided not to work in any film produced by Bobby Bedi any more. The fall-out between the soft-spoken filmmaker and the producer was building up for a while right through the making of “Guru”.

“But things came to a flashpoint at the premiere of Guru in Toronto when Mani and his family were rather shabbily treated . Bobby Bedi apparently refused to pay the fare for Mani’s son Nanda to attend the premiere. Mani is too polite to retaliate. He took the humiliation quietly. But swore never to work with Bedi again.”

Adds the source, “Even Vishal Bhardawaj was far from happy about the way Bedi behaved during “Maqbool” and decided never to work with Bedi again.”

As for Mani he has already called off two projects—the earlier “Mahabharat” and more recently “Lajjo”—with Bobby Bedi, and is working towards forgetting the ugly experience.

The Bengali belle is hell bent on changing her image and fashion style.Tanushree Dutta is gorgeous and sexy. But her fashion sense and her styling have been out of place. Instead of accentuating her beauty and sex appeal, her styling dampens it.

It is not that Tanushree has been unaware of the constant criticism she has received for her fashion sense, but it was Bipasha Basu’s comments on Koffee With Karan that became an eye opener for Tanushree.

On the show, Bipasha said that Tanushree was one actress in Bollywood who needed an image makeover. Although Bipasha’s comment hit her like a bolt, Tanushree does not deny the truth in Bips’ words.

Tanushree says she has never been given an option to choose her own designer or stylist in films.But now Tanushree has decided enough is enough. She has got a new haircut, gotten rid of her old stylist and signed new stylist Babita Malkani, who has previously done styling for Geeta Basra and Isha Koppikar .

Tanushree has also joined gym to lose extra weight and she is following a diet regimen to stay in shape.On the other hand, Babita is selecting new outfits that will further enhance Tanushree’s curves and appeal. Babita says Tanushree has a very sensuous skin color.

According to Babita, Tanushree should wear clothes in shades like nude cream, charcoal grey, blue and pink.Tanushree says it won’t be long when she would return with a new look and image.

Now there is hope for Bollywood in Lollywood as two Indian films are set for release in Pakistan later this month. Mahesh Bhatt’s “Awarapan” and the Sunny Deol-starrer “Kaafila”. The Federal Censor Board of Pakistan has lifted the ban on Indian actors (there was a time even Hollywood films with Indian names were refused certificate like Naseeruddin Shah’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) but has a precondition for Indian films released in Pakistan. Any Indian film with a Pakistani co-producer or having a Pakistani cast and shot outside India can be released in Pakistan. The notification that was issued in April states that films which are made abroad with foreign actors and technicians , are not liable to be put under strict censor policies. However, no stuff would be allowed which does not come in conformity with their moral values.

Bhatt’s film was shot in Hong Kong and has a Pakistani co-producer . Kaafila, based on illegal immigrants, has two Pakistani actresses playing lead roles in it and the film was shot in Bulgaria. Sohail Khan, the distributor and co-producer of Awarapan, is hopeful that his film will be the first Hindi film to have a simultaneous release in Pakistan and India. He said, “Releasing Indian movies in Pakistan means we collect the revenue for them and give them all the profits. Only coproductions with Bollywood can end the crisis. We need to do business on equality basis. It means we invest on equal basis and our actors and crew also work in these films.”

Several producers have tried in the past to release their films in Pakistan. But only Akbar Khan’s Taj Mahal, which had a Pakistani actress in it, Mughal-e-Azam and the Jimmy Shergill-starrer Rehguzar were successful. Rehguzar managed as it was produced by a Dubaibased company.

If films start releasing in Pakistan officially, for most Indian film distributors this will be a territory that is equivalent to that of Mumbai. Plus the returns will be huge. Nobody wants to lose a territory considering the kind of piracy of Indian films in Pakistan. Adds distributor Masood Ali, an NRI who has made a film with Pakistani director Omar Sharif, says, “If these two films are released in Pakistan, it will open doors for producers like us to release our films there.”

Source: Times Of India

Bollywood actress Jiah Khan almost bagged Boney Kapoor’s remake of South Indian hit “Pokiri” , along with a role opposite Salman Khan, until she blew it up with one wrong comment. Rubbing Salman up the wrong way comes with a price and Jiah knows that now.

The film will be directed by Prabhu Deva. Says a source close to the production team, “Jiah was almost signed for the role opposite Salman. But her recent statement in a newspaper really irritated Salman. Boney also was unhappy with the comment she made about Salman and his girlfriend, Katrina.”

So, what was the offending remark? Jiah Khan was questioned about being recommended for the film and she replied, “That’ll be really cool if it were to happen but his girlfriend would be really pissed off. I don’t know Salman at all.”This obviously did not go down well with the couple.Suresh Kurpad, CEO of Boney Kapoor’s production company, says, “Yes, we were in talks with Jiah for the project but now we are in talks with Ayesha Takia.”

In recent times, Shehanshah of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan has done quite a few ‘mature love stories’, right from Nishabd to Cheeni Kum.But looks like he may be treading cautiously where such films are concerned from now on, if rumours are to be believed.Grapevine has it that Amitabh Bachchan is no longer doing Percept Picture Company’s “Johnny Walker” , which was touted as yet another such film.

Johnny Walker was to be directed by Shoojit Sircar who had earlier directed Yahaan . The film’s story traced the life of a man, “Johnny Walker”, right from adolescence to old age, especially concentrating on his 25 years of married life, and delving into how the couple rediscovered their love in later years.

Vidya Balan was supposed to play the female lead. AB apparently liked the script so much that he wanted to co-produce the film, but, claimed the grapevine, when PPC failed to let go of the reins, AB decided to return the cheque instead of continuing with the film.”That is not true,” says Preet Bedi, CEO of PPC, “It was quite an amicable decision. We wanted to close our accounts in the last financial year, and we asked Mr Bachchan if he could do the film. However, he politely expressed his inability to spare the dates and returned the cheque. I’m afraid there is no controversy here.”

Asked whether PPC would still be making the film now that Bachchan was no longer doing it, Bedi replied, “Yes, we are definitely making the film. However, we will have another actor in the lead, and we will be making the announcement soon.”

Now we wonder who can step into Big B’s shoes! Any guesses?

She’s Bollywood’s uncrowned controversy queen, and she knows which way her bread is buttered, says the know-it-all lot. But Mallika Sherawat surprises everyone every time. Be it her Hollywood films or her item numbers, or even her short appearances at shows, this girl makes her own rules.

But we couldn’t help wondering if the actress didn’t have a split personality because of the drastically different news items floating around about her.

On the one hand, you have her quoting fantastic figures for a-few-minutes appearances in films or shows, besides of course, for her role in Himesh Reshammiya’s film. The actress is said to have raked in the moolah there.

And then you have the story that she has actually declined to take even a penny for an entire film! “Yes, like in the case of Pritish Nandy’s “Pyar Ke Side Effects” ,” .”Mallika liked the script so much that she refused to accept any payment for the role. She thoroughly enjoyed shooting the film and working with Rahul Bose.”

However, producer Pritish actually sent her a share of the profits since the film did well at the box-office. With Mallika, every situation is a win-win situation, right?