Saree clad ladies doing rain songs is what we could have thought of bollywood actresses sensual scenes. Now they are going bolder and after Tanushree Dutta, Shveta Salve, Shriya Saran, Amrita Arora, Koena Mithra and Gul Panag, we have Bipasha Basu doing a similar bold cover for Maxim magazine in the January 2011 issue.

This is a New Year gift from Maxim Magazine for Indian readers. This is not the 1st time that this Bong beauty is featured on this magazine. She first appeared on it in February 2007. The actress who is popularly known for her good figure, stunning and sizzling body is looking even hotter in the January issue and that too at 32. Gone are the days when 30 was retirement age for Indian actresses.

There is something about the allure of Hollywood that all Bollywood beauties want a piece of the Hollywood pie. Unfortunately for most of them, they have realized it the hard way that Hollywood isn’t as welcoming to Indian actors as they would have.

Little Piggy Chops has already had a brush with Hollywood after her alleged ‘affair’ with Hollywood actor Gerard Butler didn’t work out as per her expectations. Butler, known for his stupendous performance in the blockbuster 300, apparently proposed to Priyanka, wanting to to marry her. Priyanka, however, ever the noble heroine, refused.

There are rumors now that there may have been a offer of a role in a Hollywood production named Dawn of War. This, she did because she wanted to work in Vishal Bhardwaj’s next film ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’. It seems every time Priyanka is up for a new release, things begin to automatically happen around her.

While Bollywood may be rejoicing the fact that Priyanka decided to remain tied up with Bollywood, thwarting whatever Hollywood dreams she may have, a bigger question is, why has no one ever heard of this movie for which Priyanka has been offered a role?

Whenever you may have heard of Hrithik Roshan lately, it is somehow related to his upcoming movie ‘Kites’. This is Hritik’s first movie in which he has been paired up with a non India actress. Needless to say, he is quite excited. Kites also incidentally seems tobe Hrithik’s comeback movie. After having disappeared from the cinemascope for more than a year, Hrithik’s upcoming project seems to be one of his life’s largest.

Meanwhile rumors of Hrithik’s alleged affair with his co-stars continue to do rounds of celebrity gossip columns. What is even more interesting is that Hrithik’s decided to also give his debut singing performance in this movie. A family man to the core, it seems that the many alleged link ups and now the song sung in his own voice, are nothing other than publicity stunts. No matter how big the movie or how great the story line, it seems that Bollywood just can’t get enough of the gimmicky attention seeking maneuvers.

Well, if that has been the case with Hrithik too, all we really wish is that he really nails this one right in the head. Of course, needless to say, his acting career may well depend on it!

After doing a few things wrong, Sonam Kapoor who was briefly touted as the ‘next big thing in Bollywood’, is off to do some things right. In fact, Sonam may have hit the bull’s eye this time.

Who ever saw Sonam in the movie Delhi 6 enjoyed her performance and the little play that she did with the pigeons. After having danced around quite a bit with the birds in the , Sonam Kapoor has now taken it upon herself to save the birds. In fact, she has written an appeal to the Home Minister, R R Patil to put a ban on the use of ‘manjha’, a special string which is coating with molten glass and is used to fly kites. The Manjha, which often gets tangled in tress and street lights and other tall structures, can be rather harmful to the birds as it can injure or even kill them.

This good gesture of Sonam’s was prompted after she learnt that a young boy had almost lost his life after getting several cuts on his body by a broken string of Manjha. It still remains to be seen whether a superstar’s efforts are able to move the government or whether they also receive the same reaction as that received by the common man – that of apathy.

It seems that Farhan Akhtar’s Karthik Calling Karthik, will give a strong competition to Amitabh’s Teen Patti. Both these movies, which have been much awaited, are ready to release together on 26th Feb. Now only time will tell how the audiences welcome them and how well they do on the box office.

Both the films have some of the most bankable stars and the backers of both the movies have already started predicting a big clash for audiences. In fact, since 3 Idiots and Avatar, there have hardly been any great turnouts on the Box Office but theater owners are gearing up, believing that the two movies are going to make record setting grosses for the theaters.

Amidst the upcoming budget, the two big movies seem to be a welcome break. The timing of course, is impeccable. The music of both the movies has already had half of the country dancing to its tunes. Now all we really have to see is whether the script has enough juice and the direction enough prudence to keep the audiences glued to their seats. If they don’t, this wont be the first time that a multi star studded cast has fallen short of the big promises they made before a release.

Though he acted in the lead part in the movie ‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ he was remembered better in his negative roles which he pulled off with much panache. He has since worked in many commercial and art films, along with several commercials. Nirmal has also acted in 125 plays and has featured in award winning theater performances like in Heer Ranjha and the English play Anitigone.

Lately he had been more popular on the small screen where he featured in many serials. What is little known about him though, is that he was also a versatile singer and had recently launched his debut album named Zazba. A talent from the National School drama, Pandey was fervently passionate about his acting and had also established an acting institute in Ghaziabad, named ‘Fresh Talent Academy’.

He death is indeed a great loss to the fraternity. Amongst condolences, those who were close to him described him as not only a great actor, but also an excellent human being.

SRK’s ‘My Name is Khan’ may have stirred more than just the box office, but he’s definitely making a cushy amount of profit from it. It seems that touring the entire world for promoting his movie has finally paid off.

Though it seemed for a while there that Shah Rukh my not get the right kind of response due to Shiv Sena’s increasing threat of violence against those who dared to screen his movie in Mumbai, the truth is that the movie has made quite a bit of money. The controversies that he got entangled in, the one where he made a hue and cry about being detained at Newark airport and then finally the recent row with the Shiv Sena, has definitely worked in Shah Rukh’s favor.

Even as audiences trickled in through the cinema doors, defying Shiv Sena’s threats against the movie on the weekend, the movie has been able to do good business. The opening in fact was farm from just being lukewarm. The story, which is set against the backdrop of the 9/11 tragedy, has been able to gross $18 million on its opening weekend.

No doubt the movie has scored great reviews, but when you compare the movie statistically to arch Rival Amir’s ‘3 Idiots’ there’s still much that MNIK has to achieve. 3 Idiots grossed $70 Million in the first 19 days of its release from worldwide distributions.

If someone envies Saif and Kareena, they have good reason too. Bollywood’s hottest couple surely sizzles bright. In fact, both of them have evolved in their relationship with each other, only to become the most enviable of all couples in tinsel town. Those close to both of them say that they are very sensitive to each others’ needs and are truly in love with each other.

However, what makes this relationship difficult to sustain is the family that Saif  started with ex wife Amrita. Now with Saif’s children Sara and Ibraim come to live with their loving father, Kareena has no other option than to move quietly between her own house and that of Saif’s. While this may show Kareena’s immense love and devotion towards Saif and his family, perhaps there is no other way for her to deal with his children.

Sources close to them say that when the two started dating, Kareena did try to bond with the family. In fact she even hung around the family when she was not working. However, something must have gone amiss because now she pretty much leaves the family be, being rather quiet in the presence of the children. Whether she does it to leave no room for friction and discomfort or to simply avoid making a confrontation, is something that only Saifeena can tell!

IPL, right from its start has been known to marry cricket with Bollywood. With Preity and Shahrukh, both having their own teams, more Bollywood stars were bound to keep a keen interest in Cricket. Everything was going hunky dory till last year. This year however, things are not looking all too well.

This year, a bitter row has broken out between Shiv Sena and Shah Rukh Khan, over the the non inclusion of 11 Pakistani players who were called for the bidding but faced the frustration and humiliation of being completely ignored. The controversy broke out when Shah Rukh claimed that he was disturbed by the fact that none of the teams bid for any of the Pakistani players. He said that he really regretted the gesture and favored the inclusion of Pakistani players in IPL teams.

This did not go well with the Shiv Sena at all. Shiv Sena leaders have got offended by Shah Rukh’s Sentiments and are demanding that Shah Rukh’s upcoming movie ‘My Name is Khan’ should not be screened in Mumbai.

Given Shiv Sena’s past behavior record, the Maharashtra government has all the reason to be anxious about Shiv Sena’s threat. They are worried that Shiv Sena activists may resort to violence, and rightly so. With the matter spewing flames right now, there is a rising rift between the Bollywood stars and the political parties of Maharashtra.

The distinction that Rahman holds is that he has won the Grammy award in an individual capacity. The earlier 6 Grammy awards given to Indian musicians were all done in collaboration with other musicians from the West.

Pandit Ravi Shankar had won the award in 1967 for his chamber concert “East meets West” It was organized with Yehudi Menuhin. The musicians had fused Hindustani classical music with that of classical notes of Menuhin. Ravi Shankar’s second Grammy for his album “Concert For Bangladesh” had several musicians contributing to it such as Harrison, Bob Dylan, Ringo Star, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman as well as Leon Russell. The Grammy of course had been shared by all the performers.

Rahman’s first Grammy was for the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category. His “Jai Ho” had won the best motion picture song. Commenting on his achievement, Rahman said “This is insane. God is great again.”
Prior to receiving the Oscar award, Rahman was a busy man. Now with the Grammy award in hand, he has much more to look forward to. His office is now flooded by calls from producers and directors who want to sign him up. Rahman is of course selective.

Tanvir Shah, Chennai based singer as well as Vijay Prakash also singers of “Jai Ho” flanked Rahman on the stage.

Comment: Rahman receiving the award is indeed an honor for India. It proves that our musicians can also excel on par with Western musicians. No doubt, earlier also our musicians have proved their worth by winning the Grammy award, but with the collaboration of Western musicians. Now of course Rahman has proved an Indian musician can stand on his own merit.