Aishwarya starrer ‘Endhiran’ gearing for monsoon release br/

Chennai, Superstar Rajnikant, who has teamed up with Bollywood diva Aishwarya Rai in Tamil film “Endhiran”, says it is expected to hit the screens in July or August.

Rajnikant was speaking on one of the costliest films to be made in India — with a budget of over Rs.125 crore — after he had visited Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi Thursday to thank him for attending the engagement ceremony of Rajnikant’s second daughter Soundarya with industrialist Ashwin Ramkumar.

“Endhiran” is directed by Shankar and according to the him more than 90 percent of the movie is complete. A.R. Rahman has composed the music for the film.

source: bollywoodworld.com

Akshay does a John Travolta in ‘Action Replayy’ br/

BollywoodWorld.com, Akshay Kumar doing moves similar to John Travolta’s from “Satruday Night Fever” in upcoming movie “Action Replayy” alongside Aishwarya Rai.

New Delhi, More than 30 years after he made women weak in the knees with his pelvic thrusts in the 1977 hit “Saturday Night Fever”, Hollywood star John Travolta has found an Indian avatar in Akshay Kumar, who has done some similar moves in the upcoming movie “Action Replayy”.

A self-confessed Travolta and retro music fan, Akshay boasts of having watched the trend setting film number of times. He shakes a leg on Travolta’s dance moves from “Saturday Night Fever” in a song in the romantic retro trip movie alongside Aishwarya Rai.

“The 1970s was full of energy, that is the reason why retro is hip. There is something about the fashion and music of that era which makes it so funky even today and perhaps it will always be that way,” Akshay said in a statement.

Directed by Vipul Shah, the time-travel caper is weaved around a story that progresses backwards in time.

Akshay and Aishwarya will be seen together after five years on the big screen. They were last paired opposite each other in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s “Khakee”.

source: bollywoodworld.com

Aishwarya visits Abhishek’s grandmother despite illness br/

New Delhi, For Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai, her relationships seem to score over everything – so much so that even though she was unwell, she travelled to Bhopal to celebrate the 80th birthday of her husband Abhishek Bachchan’s maternal grandmother.

According to a source close to Aishwarya, this was a commitment the couple had made to Abhishek’s ‘nani’ (maternal grandmother) a while ago. And despite the high fever and sore throat that she has been suffering from since a few days, Aishwarya made sure she was there to fulfil her promise.

“Aishwarya is much much better, but still not 100 percent (fine). But she’s my nani’s favourite so she made the trip too. Should be back to fighting fit… in a day or two,” Abhishek posted on social networking site Twitter.

The actor says his grandmother’s expression on seeing both of them was “priceless”.

“Made a surprise trip to Bhopal last night (Monday). Was my nani’s 80th birthday! Her expression was priceless. All her grandchildren flew in from all over. My sister, our cousins all meeting after so long. Now everyone partaking in an old Indian habit, all sitting together… Eating, drinking and catching up!

“My nani, of course, is back to being the matriarch! Making sure all her children are well fed and taken care of and doing what grandmoms do… feeding,” he added.

source: bollywoodworld.com

Aishwarya unwell, Abhishek steps in to receive award br/

New Delhi, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan accepted an award on behalf of his wife and actress Aishwarya Rai at the India Today Woman Summit.

Aishwarya could not make it to the event Friday, owing to high fever and severe throat infection.

The organisers of the event wanted someone to take the award on Aishwarya’s behalf. Hence after a lot of coaxing, Abhishek went to the function to fill Aishwarya’s place.

The 36-year-old actress’ father-in-law, actor Amitabh Bachchan, posted on his blog: “Aishwarya had a restful day and there seems to be a slight improvement in her condition.

“The swelling inside the mouth below the tonsil is not tonsillitis as was presumed. It is something else and that is worrying. When you cannot swallow water even, it is more worrying. But today the antibiotics seem to be working and there is some relief. The infection abates. The rash and swelling on the face reduces. She has been able to take in some liquids, but her speech is still

source: bollywoodworld.com

Why is Vipul Shah guarding look of ‘Action Replay’? br/

Mumbai, Director Vipul Shah has a secret. It is the look of his Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai starrer time-travel caper “Action Replay”.

“We, Akshay’s designer Shabina Khan, Aishwarya’s designer Manish Malhotra and all of us have worked really, really hard to give ‘Action Replay’ a unique look. If that look is leaked out, we’d lose our biggest USP,” Shah told IANS.

“We’re taking stringent steps to ensure the confidentiality of our look.”

Shah takes serious umbrage to the suggestion that the retro look in his film is similar to “Om Shanti Om”.

“We haven’t copied anything from the films of the 1970s (as ‘Om Shanti Om’ has). If we would have got into that 35 mm space, we’d have ended up copying only Mr. (Amitabh) Bachchan’s clothes and style.

“Akshay insisted we do more authentic research. We dug into archival material on the clothes, mannerisms and people of the 1970s,” he said.

“Since we haven’t copied our 1970s look from Hindi films, Akshay and Aishwarya sat down to look at real life footage from the decade to get the look right. They specially looked at television footage of live cricket matches in the 1970s.

“Akshay was busy peering at the pavilion of spectators, what they wore, how they spoke moved their body language. That’s how he conceived his character in the seventies. That’s where Paul Pattison’s wig came in.”

And what does he have to say to “Action Replay” being compared with “Back To The Future”?

“Well earlier my film was supposed to be ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’. Now that accusation has been wrongly passed on to another film (‘Paa’). Now I’m supposed to have copied ‘Back To The Future’. Again, untrue. If anything, all time-travel films including mine are inspired by H.G. Wells’ ‘Time Machine’.”

On the sets of “Action Replay”, Akshay’s retro-wig, which he wears for his 1970s look, is his most prized possession.

Apparently the wig designed by one of Hollywood’s biggest makeup artistes Paul Pattison, who worked for films like “Braveheart” and “Mission Impossible 2″, made Akshay paranoid. He was petrified of losing it.

There are 400 other wigs all done under Pattison’s supervision for junior artistes posing as people in the 1970s.

“We were very particular about the 1970s look recreated at the Nitin Chandrakant Desai’s studio in Karjat. We needed the cars from the 70s which we had to get from all over India from private owners at a very heavy price.

“The BEST buses in the 1970s were very different from their counterparts today. Getting authentic BEST buses from the seventies was the hardest part of the whole era-recreation. Getting Akshay and Aishwarya to go retro was the easiest thing. They had a ball getting into their wigs, clothes and body language,” said Shah.

source: bollywoodworld.com

Abhishek Bachchan to spend 34th birthday without Aishwarya? br/

New Delhi, Heir to the first family of Bollywood, married to one of the most beautiful women in the world and with a kitty full of projects, actor Abhishek Bachchan has no complaints spending his 34th birthday Friday quietly shooting for his next film.

“I’ll be shooting for my film ‘Crooked’ in Mumbai – something I do every year on my birthday,” Abhishek told IANS here.

Asked if wife Aishwarya Rai would be joining him on the sets, as she has famously done in the past, he said: “If she is free, she’ll come and join me. If not, I’ll meet her at night after I finish working.”

The son of actors Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek also completes a decade in Bollywood this year. Dyslexic as a child, he left his studies mid-way at Boston University to pursue acting when his family was going through a tough time.

In 2000, he made his big-screen debut with J.P. Dutta’s moderately successful “Refugee” that tipped him as a dark horse in the industry.

Success, however, shone on him only after four years with “Yuva”. He was critically acclaimed for his role in the Mani Ratnam movie and then he gave his first big hit “Dhoom” in the same year.

Junior B or Baby B, as he is fondly called, maintained the momentum next year with “Bunty Aur Babli”, “Sarkar”, “Dus” and “Bluffmaster”.

In 2006, he was not only voted the sexiest man in Asia but went leaps and bounds with “Dhoom 2″ followed by “Guru” (2007) and “Dostana” (2008) and his last outing “Paa”, with which he also turned producer.

Abhishek has constantly been compared to his megastar father Amitabh Bachchan since day one.

Asked if it ever bogged him down, he said: “I am being compared to the best. I have no complaints. If they (critics and audiences) are comparing me to the best that means somewhere they feel I am worthy of being in the same sentences. And I am happy about that.”

The actor also debuted on the small screen this year with game show “National Bingo Night” and he was here to promote it.

Apart from “Crooked” and the show, with future projects like “Raavan”, “Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey” and a Hindi adaptation of “The Italian Job” in hand, Abhishek believes in looking forward.

“I don’t look back into the past. I look into the future. I am a positive person,” he said.

source: bollywoodworld.com