Movie Dreams Beckon India's Beauty Queens - Reuters
First they won major global pageants. Now India's beauty queens are sweeping
into the world of movies for an even richer take of fame and fortune.
The latest beauty contest winners to step onto the Bollywood stage are the
reining Miss World, Priyanka Chopra, and her predecessor, Yukta Mookhey.
The trend is rewarding for India's international beauty queens, who find
instant stardom in Bollywood, the Bombay-based Hindi film industry that is
India's answer to Hollywood.
And the film industry, ever hungry for new faces, is happy to have access to
svelte, confident and aspiring actresses.
"I think it is a very healthy trend. Bollywood is no longer seen as a step
down," said Taran Adarsh, editor of the film publication Trade Guide.
"The life of a beauty queen is over the moment she hands over the crown. But
as a film star she retains her glamor and remains in the public eye."
Current Miss World Chopra has signed up for a part in "The Hero," while 1999
Miss World Mookhey is already into shooting schedules and dance rehearsals
for her first film "Pyaasa" (Thirsty).
India's first Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen, who won the title in 1994 and
Aishwarya Rai, who was crowned Miss World the same year, have already made
their mark in Bollywood.
"Aishwarya and Sushmita have been role models for me. They are two very
strong women who have made it on their own terms and carved a niche for
themselves," Mookhey told Reuters.
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India's first Imax theatre inaugurated
The country's first Imax dome theatre located at Wadala in
northeast Mumbai will be thrown open to public next week.
Dubbed the world's largest imax dome-screen, the theatre measuring
13,000 square feet was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister
Vilasrao Deshmukh here on Sunday.
The theatre, built at a cost of Rs 50 crore, has a seating capacity of
520 and is cosntructed and promoted by Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs.
The Imax picture system is popular all over the world for its
sharpness, clarity of image, six channel multi-speaker sound and
mammoth frame size.
Deshmukh said the theatre construction should be encouraged in the
state as an improtant form of family entertainment.
A 40-minute film 'Mysteries of Egypt' featuring Omar Sharif was shown
at the inaugural function besides a short film directed by Bharatbala,
'India on Imax' and a music video of an A R Rahman song.
Speaking on the occasion, Shetty said in the coming months the one
lakh sq ft premise will boast of a multiplex comprising four cinema
screens which will screen Bollywood and Hollywood films and will have
a combined seating capacity of 1375.
Deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, film stalwarts Kiran Shantaram,
Sunil Dutt, Ramesh Sippy and Vidhu Vinod Chopra also attended the
function.
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Sunil Dutt survives air crash
Film star and Congress leader Sunil
Dutt had a miraculous escape when a six-seater twin-
engine chartered Piper Pa-23 aircraft, in which he was
flying with five others, crashlanded in Nasik district in
north Maharashtra on Tuesday night.
Mr Dutt, a Member of Parliament from Mumbai North-West
constituency, who had been admitted to the Lifeline
Hospital at Nasik following the crash, was shifted by a
special helicopter to the Breach Candy Hospital here this
afternoon.
Breach Candy's Director, Marketing, Cyrus Engineer, said
that Mr Dutt was admitted to the hospital around 12.30
p.m. and necessary tests and medical examinations were
being carried out.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has
instituted an inquiry into the air crash, DGCA sources
said here.
Sources said a team comprising Director (Air Safety,
Western Region) Subhash Chander, Director (air
worthiness) M. Sahay and an engineer, a pilot and an
assistant of the Ahmedabad Aviation Academy had reached
Chandvada-Bhaduri village under the jurisdiction of
Vadinar-Bhairav police station, some 60 km from Nasik
city to inquire into the crash.
Local civil aviation officials had reached the site of
crash last night.
The six-seater Pa-23 aircraft, which was chartered,
belonged to the Ahmedabad Aviation Academy.
The aircraft, which was scheduled to land at Mumbai
Airport at 11 p.m., crashed shortly after take off from
Nasik last night at around 10.30 p.m.
Capt Sahil Handa (32), who was greviously injured in the
crash, radioed the Mumbai Air Traffic Control that both
engines of the aircraft had failed.
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Anil Kapoor, Raveena bag national film awards
Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon were awarded the 48th National Film awards in
the best actor and best actress categories while Malayalam film 'Shantham'
was declared the best feature film and Rituparna Ghosh best director.
While Anil Kapoor gets the award for film 'Pukar', Raveena gets for
'Daman'. Rituparna Ghosh was awarded for her Bengali film 'Utsab', it
was announced here.
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Twinkle shunned
After her marriage Twinkle's career in films seems to be sliding down.
The industry, who till date maintained a hard and fast rules of not
encouraging married heroines is applying its dictum again, this time
with Mrs Akshay Kumar. No one wants to cast her anymore. The long
queue of producers with suitcase waiting outside her doors apparently
disappearing in the air. Suddenly she becomes the untouchable. And the
rigid rule comes into full force now.
It happened to many a heroines in the past. But the lady has accepted
this forced fate on her with grace. She shifted her attention to stage
and is currently away in the US and London doing Feroz Khan's stage
shows. And one hears that her performance had fetched her not only
applause but also a standing ovation from the audiences out there.
Cheers to Twinkle for showing the way.
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Salman Khan turns producer
Speculation is rife within the film industry that Salman Khan has turned producer. Though brother Sohail Khan together with friend Bunty Walia had launched G.S. Entertainments, which produced PYAAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA and HELLO BROTHER, it was a foregone conclusion that Salman would feature in every film produced by his brother.
But there has been a change! With Sohail turning actor with MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA, G.S. Entertainments is occupied with the production of this film. Which is exactly the reason why Salman felt the need to branch out.
News goes that Salman had initially signed Kailash Surendranath (LOVE YOU HAMESHA) to direct the film, but now Pankaj Parashar (CHALBAAZ, RAAJKUMAR) has stepped in his shoes.
"I have no idea about Salman's project. I cannot comment on this film. We are too occupied with MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA at the moment," Bunty Walia clarified on this development.
But we restless souls decided to probe further and spoke to Sohail Khan about Salman's project and who confirmed that Salman was indeed starting a film. "Since Sajid Nadiadwala wasn't starting his film right away and our unit was deep-neck into MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA, Salman asked me whether he could use Sajid's team to handle the production. I said, why not! In any case, it's the question of using manpower to execute a project," Sohail revealed.
Salman's project is all set to roll on May 1.
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Karisma to host a game show
Not too long ago, most of our stars developed cold feet when it came to making appearances on the idiot box. But with Amitabh Bachchan making a success of KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI?, the attitude towards television changed overnight. The first to hitch the bandwagon were Manisha Koirala and Anupam Kher, followed by Govinda, and now SAB TV has roped in Karisma Kapoor for a game show.
Hareena, the spokesperson of SAB TV, confirmed the news that the channel had signed Karisma for the game show. "It will be different from KBC and JEETO CHAPPAR PHAAD KE for sure," she disclosed. By the way, the channel has discontinued Shekhar Suman's JAB KHELO SAB KHELO due to certain reasons, which the channel doesn't want to divulge.
Now let's wait and watch whether Karisma's charisma works wonders on the small screen. What do you think, how effective will she be in boosting the T.R.P. ratings?
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One week to go and 'Rahul' still incomplete!
Just when cinegoers were all ready and set with their plans for this Friday evening and might have been booking their tickets in one of the cinema halls in the city, ensuring their seats for the Mukta Arts presentation 'Rahul', Producer Subhash Ghai has forced them to reschedule their evening plans for next week. This rather dramatic exposition, in simpler words, means that Ghai has delayed the release of the Prakash Jha directorial 'Rahul' by one week. The film stars Neha, Bunty Grewal and the chweetie pie Yash, and was originally scheduled to hit the cinema halls on 30th of this month.
But what could possibly be the reason behind this one-week delay? We at 3to6.com did our own Sherlock Holmes number and found that apparently Subhash Ghai wasn't too pleased with the way the hero's i.e. Bunty Grewal's role had shaped up. Ghai felt that Bunty's character looked a wee bit negative. But considering that director Prakash Jha had done exactly what Ghai wanted him to do, Ghai's last minute change of mind was something that took everyone by surprise. Apparently the changes that Mr Ghai asked for involved re-writing and re-shooting of a few scenes. Which in turn means re-editing and re-dubbing which in turn means a whole lot of work. No wonder the changes are happening at break-neck speed. After all, April 6 is just 7 days away.
It is quite understandable that the producer does not want to compromise on his product. But then consider this: The only competition that 'Rahul' is going to face when it is to be released is Dev Anand's 'Censor'. For all you know Ghai must be rubbing his hands in glee.
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Govinda and Priyanka paired together
Priyanka Chopra is signing films left, right and centre! The Miss World has now been signed opposite Govinda in producers Maan Singh Deep and Kalyani Singh's new venture, which will be directed by a big name. ''We don't want to reveal the name of the director yet,'' states Kalyani. The film, to roll shortly, is a D.S. Group - Paas Paas presentation.
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Sonali Bendre arrested, released on bail
Film actress Sonali Bendre was on Tuesday arrested along with two
others for posing on a cover page of a magazine in a dress, which allegedly
hurt the religious sentiments of the people.
Bendre was produced before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Usha
Iyer,
who released her and two others accused on bail on personal bond of Rs
12,000
with one surety each.
The other accused are dress designer Ashali Charles Rebello and photographer
Amit Shanta Kumar Ashar.
The trio were charged under Section 295 A IPC, which deals with deliberate
and
malacious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class.
Bendre's picture on the cover page of Showtime magazine (March 16-31 1998
issue) showed her attired in a short kurta with bare legs. The
ochre-coloured
top worn by her also bore religious motifs.
Public prosecutor, Prema Ranade, said that the accused were arrested after
the
police received last week sanction from the state government to prosecute
the
actress and others.
Defence lawyers Ashok Shahani and Dharmendra Rohira moved bail applications
on
behalf of the accused saying that the case was an old one and the trio would
make themselves available to the police as and when needed.
Ordering their release on bail, the magistrate noted that if the accused did
not furnish personal bond they would be remanded to judicial custody till
April
9.
All the three accused executed the personal bond of Rs 12,000 and were let
off
by the court.
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