It’s not every morning that you get to chat with a big Bollywood star even before you’ve had your morning cup of tea. So there I was, a bit bleary-eyed with the hot star Riteish Deshmukh on the phone, me in New York and he in Mumbai.
His big movie, the Ram Gopal Varma film ‘Rann’ is being released this month, and so Riteish was chatting up the international media. We talked about Rann, Amitabh Bachchan, and how Riteish developed his passion for cinema
The next time you shop at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, you’ll be able to pick up a Bollywood DVD with your milk, potato chips or your electronics. And for those of us having to wait to get to an Indian store to pick up our DVD masala, it will be fun to just order it from Amazon.
Although Disney already has a presence in India, this is the first time the company is distributing a Hindi film on DVD in the US. The movie is ‘Like Stars on Earth’ – better known to Bollywood fans as ‘Taare Zameen Par’ – Aamir Khan’s award winning film which has moved audiences everywhere and was India’s official selection for the Academy Awards 2008 in The Best Foreign Language Film category.
When the underworld don Chota Rajan threw a bash, Mumbai cops were actually seen dancing at the party along with the don’s henchmen, to a song from a popular Bollywood movie about the underworld, no less! Reel life? No this is real life in Mumbai
It’s not a lyric written for a Bollywood superstar to lip sync, nor is it a script for a million dollar movie, although noted poet Javed Akhtar has done plenty of both. His latest offering is straight from the heart – a love poem, a tribute to Mumbai’s children, the nameless, the homeless who live on the footpaths or survive in the slums, who have to work to get a day’s meal, to merely be able to exist.
“I am 29 years old and I live at home with my folks…Wooh hoo! I’m getting lucky every night…home cooked meals, my laundry gets washed and they’re arranging dates for me left right and centre. It doesn’t get any luckier than that!” So says Sanjay Gupta – no, not the CNN superstar – but the one who runs his parents’ corner store in New Zealand, home to about 4.4 million people – and 40 million sheep!
She may have thousands of fans but Bollywood star Preity Zinta is a diehard fan of – New York City!
She comes in to New York so often that it’s like a second home to her. She says, “It is my favorite city in the world because a) it’s one city that never sleeps. b) Its a city that can swallow you and you can disappear in it, which is fantastic. c) It’s so diverse and every time I come back so many things have changed about it.”
If all the world is a stage, then who better to tell the story of the ongoing drama of Indian immigration and Diaspora tales than playwrights? For years insightful writers from Africa to the UK to Canada have been documenting the stories of those who left the homeland for uncharted territories, and now some of them gathered in New York to share their experiences.
“These are amazing, inventive films and it makes MOMA a home for the most vibrant and intelligent cinema coming out of India, and this is a rare privilege.”
He’s the smarmy, conniving game show host in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, a regular bad guy. We’ve seen him in diverse roles but Anil Kapoor, with a glittering stud in one ear, rugged good looks and oozing Bollywood charisma, has a real life role as a good guy, as spokesperson for children who have received a raw deal in life.
The mini series was filmed in Mumbai and actually has five full-fledged Bollywood musical numbers, while the soundtrack features Javed Akhtar, Shiksta, Shreya Goshal, and the Bombay Dub Orchestra. Several crew members of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ were also part of this team, including Longinus Fernandes, who choreographed the Jai Ho number.
Fondly nicknamed Jaikishan Heights, this gritty Little India has been the salvation of new immigrants for decades, bringing them a sweet piece of their lost homeland. It is here that they find the remembered tastes and sounds that make them feel whole again.
Vijai Nathan, Nandini Mukherjee and Pooja Narang prove that there’s nothing more rewarding than following a passion and making it a profession!
Forget about the amateurish fight scenes and burning toy cars of the past – special effects, animation and action shots are now all the trend, and very serious business in Bollywood!
The crowds were as thrilled to see Abhishek and Ash together as if they had done the matchmaking themselves, and they erupted into cheers when Aishwarya said, “New York has special significance in my life – this is where Abhishek proposed to me! It will always remain very, very special to me.”
In the last decade, audiences have seen the emergence of slick comedies, horror films, murder mysteries, sci-fi, ensemble movies and a whole lot more from innovative young directors like Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Vishal Bharadwaj and Karan Johar.