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News:
Lata, Bismillah Khan awarded Bharat Ratna
Ustad Zakir Hussain: Drumming high
ISI circulating doctored tapes of Hrithik interview"
Silver jubilee flop
Hollywood calling for Raveena
Tale of a wedding
Akshay’s foreign ‘exchange’
Phone talk 'exposes' Shah-Shakeel link
Amisha left out
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Lata, Bismillah Khan awarded Bharat Ratna
New Delhi, Jan. 25. (PTI): Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar, who has
enthralled people for over five decades with her songs, and Shehnai
wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan were tonight awarded Bharat Ratna, the
nation's highest civilian honour.
Lata, who made her debut as a playback singer at the age of 17 and has
sung over 30,000 songs earlier, is a recipient of Padma Bhushan and
Dada Saheb Phalke Award for her contribution to film and music.
Her first song in `Aap Ki Seva Me' went almost unnoticed in 1947 but
within two years she was on everyone's lip with her soulful numbers
in "Andaaz', `Barsaat' and `Mahal'. Lata continues to sing at the age
of 70 with her voice still retaining its golden hue.
84-year-old Khan, who has already been awarded Padma
Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, learnt Shehnai under Ali Bux
and Ahmed Hussain of Benaras and gave his first public performance at
the age of 14 at an all-India music conference in Allahabad in 1930 and
has not looked back since then.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique announced the awards on the eve of the
Republic Day.
Top
Ustad Zakir Hussain: Drumming high
The maestro received the 'nightingale', Lata Mangeshkar's diamond ring
in a spontaneous gesture on her part for his fantastic performance at
the Dinanath Mangeshkar centenary celebrations.
Sure must have been quite a performance on the professional front and
the emotional front as well. And the spontaneity of the gesture has
sure added that extra tinge to that instant in Ustad's life making the
moment that extra memorable. Keep at it Ustad!
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ISI circulating doctored tapes of Hrithik interview"
New Delhi, Jan. 25. (PTI): In a bid to rake up a fresh controversy in
Nepal on the Hrithik Roshan episode, Pakistan's ISI is
circulating "doctored" video cassettes of the Bollywood star's alleged
interview to MTV.
Intelligence sources, quoting intercepts here said, certain ISI
frontmen were reportedly claiming that they were in possession of a
video-tape which showed that the Indian star actually made the anti-
Nepalese remarks attributed to him.
The first reports of Roshan's alleged remarks against Nepal appeared in
a Nepali newspaper, started recently by a person who is allegedly a
close associate of Dawood Ibrahim, they said.
Top
Silver jubilee flop
After holding a press conference stating that his film Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya isn't doing so bad as the media was making it out to be, producer Vashu Bhagnani has seen to it that the film has a sliver jubilee run in the city. The film was released at Minerva theatre on August 18 and after seven weeks was shifted to Shalimar, where it barely ran for a week. But not the one to give up Vashu Bhagnani shifted the film to matinee show at New Excelsior. And now in its 23rd week the film will soon celebrate silver jubilee week. But if one looks at the collections, the silver jubilee week becomes weak, what with only 16 people to watch the film in a theatre that has the capacity of 1029! Now one won't be surprised if Vashu throws a party to celebrate this one!
Top
Hollywood calling for Raveena
Raveena Tandon is going places! Besides having given fabulous performance in Kalpana Lajmi's Daman and Rakesh Mehra's Aks, she has just signed a Hollywood flick Dream Catcher. The film has her playing a middle class girl from Delhi, who feels absolutely lost in the fast world of Los Angeles. The film is to be directed by Trabez Noorani. It also stars Kashmira Shah and Tara Sharma, who, in bid to become models, land up becoming pornographic actresses and Gulshan Grover plays the director who makes such films. So should we say Raveena is one lucky girl! At the age when most actresses are written off, her career is going great guns!
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Tale of a wedding
The ‘sudden’ hush-hush wedding of Akshay Kumar with Twinkle has, as expected, sparked off wild bitchy rumours which surmised that maybe the bride was "already in the family way".
Papa Rajesh Khanna (right now in New Delhi), who performed the traditional kanyadaan ceremony, was peeved with the crazy whispers. "Yes, the marriage event was a closely guarded secret between Tina (Twinkle), Akshay and me. But the wedding date was not decided overnight as it was planned almost a month in advance. In fact, we knew that the wedding had to take place after the Makar Sankrant festival (January 14) and of the options we had, it was decided that January 17 was the most mutually convenient muhurat. And then, we also decided that there was no need for hype for the private occasion," he asserted.
The gorgeous Dimple Kapadia seemed extra-thrilled with her new real-life ‘role’ as Akshay’s mother-in-law. "But when the bidaai took place at 2 am, like every mother, I did feel the emotional pangs of my laadli beti going away," said madame Kapadia with a tinge of sadness in her voice.
Incidentally, it was none other than Aamir Khan (the only star-guest) who provided the entertainment. Aamir, who is a close buddy of Twinkle, burst out into his favourite Aati Kya Khandala number and everyone joined him in the naach-gaana. Not just that, Aamir even brought his own video-camera to shoot the newly-married couple. Maybe he wanted to visually record the victory celebration of Twinkle Khanna, for having managed to make the most elusive bachelor-cum-Casanova tie the nuptial knot.
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Akshay’s foreign ‘exchange’
The first resolution Akki has made after his wedding, is to shed his macho, action-stuntman image and focus on intense emotional roles. Particularly after his latest action-thriller Khiladi 420 proved a disaster at the box office. These days, Akshay has been shooting for this movie Ajnabee produced by Vijay Galani which boasts of a bold script directed by Abbas-Mustan.
Hold-your-breath, the sizzling hot theme is of ‘wife-swapping’. In the movie which is nearing completion, sensuous Bipasha Basu (her screen debut) plays Akshay’s biwi, while Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor play the other married couple. The film was lavishly and entirely shot on foreign locales ranging from Switzerland to Singapore.
"Keeping the overseas audiences and Indian cine-goers in mind, we have given a very sensitive, sensible tongue-in-cheek treatment for this theme and it will prove be a lively entertainer," assures Galani who is all praise for Akshay’s total involvement in his colourful character. "In fact, after his wedding the very next morning, he reported for the shooting," enthuses the producer who had allowed Twinkle to travel with Akshay during their recent shooting of the climax scenes of Ajnabee aboard the luxury liner Ocean Majesty.
Top
Phone talk 'exposes' Shah-Shakeel link
MUMBAI, JAN. 23. Police have bared the alleged links of the film financier, Mr. Bharat Shah, with Karachi-based gangster Chhota Shakeel by producing before a special court, the text of their telephonic conversations which revealed that Mr. Shah had helped an organised crime syndicate in extorting money from Bollywood personalities.
Since Mr. Shah demanded that he be told of the grounds of his arrest, the designated judge, Mr. A.P. Bhangale, reproduced a substantial portion of the transcript of the conversations while delivering an order on Monday on the plea of the accused for copies of the FIR and remand papers.
The duo had allegedly discussed, over the phone, recovery of Rs. five crores sought as extortion money by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, from a victim.
The victim had pledged jewellery as well as the documents of his flat with Mr. Shah and requested him to intervene and settle the matter. Mr. Shah, claiming to know the victim for the last 15 years, informed Shakeel about the former's assurance that he would pay up the money within six months to one year, the judge noted in his order.
The victim's cousin had offered to pay Rs. 60 lakhs, thus indicating that a huge sum of Rs. five crores was demanded by the organised crime syndicate to the knowledge of Mr. Shah and the latter had given an assurance to the syndicate, the judge noted in his order.
The telephone conversation also referred to the ``pressure tactics'' adopted against a well-known producer regarding the intended film contract with his son.
The judge observed that on the basis of such incriminating material, it could not be said that the accusation levelled against Mr. Shah was groundless.
At this stage, the remand application justified the demand for police custody to unearth the deep-rooted criminal conspiracy not only between Mr. Shah and Shakeel, but also Mr. Shah and producer Nasim Rizvi who very often had lengthy telephonic talks with Shakeel, the judge remarked.
Top
Amisha left out
Are Amisha Patel and Hrithik Roshan good friends, one wonders. For if it were so then why was she not invited to the star's wedding held the palatial resort in Bangalore? Guess, by not calling Amisha, the Roshans are making no bones about the fact that they are upset with the way she is lashing out at them in print. In fact she even went on record to say how Hrithik had had new friends after the success of Kaho Na Pyar Hai and had sidelined the old ones like her. Amisha should certainly think twice before she speaks, if she wants to be on good terms with at least her colleagues!
Top
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