More honours for Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle's acclaimed film "Slumdog Millionaire" has taken home two more major US film industry awards over the weekend, winning the top prizes from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America.

Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan, British Indian actor Dev Patel, and newcomer Freida Pinto received the overall cast prize for the Mumbai-set rags-to-riches saga at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday (January 25) night from Anthony Hopkins.

Anil Kapoor, accepting on behalf of the "Slumdog Millionaire" cast, dedicated the award to the slum children shown in the movie.

"They deserve this award. They set our performances," he said. "It's the children who've done it, not us."

The Oscar-nominated film tells the heart-warming story a young man from the slums of Mumbai who risks all for love and for a shot at instant wealth as a contestant on the Indian version of the TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire".

Patel, who plays the protagonist, and Pinto, his ladylove, introduced the film clip at the event.

"Slumdog Millionaire" also won the top prize from the Producers Guild of America on Saturday (January 24), giving it another boost in the race for the Oscars next month.

The top award from the Producers Guild of America or PGA goes to the movie's producer, in this case Christian Colson, whose previous feature credits consist of three relatively obscure thrillers.

Meanwhile, following its 10 Oscar nominations and expansion into more theatres, "Slumdog Millionaire" has jumped into the North American Top Five for the first time in its 11-week run with its weekend gross soaring by 80 percent to $10.55 million.

Now running in 1,411 theatres across America, up 829 from last weekend, the film has to date grossed a total of $55.92 million, according to the movie website boxofficeguru.com.

The Producers Guild award is considered an important bellwether for Oscar success as its members make up an important constituency of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes on the Oscars.

In its first 19 years, 12 of the PGA's top film picks went on to win the Academy Award for best picture, including last year's champion "No Country for Old Men" although the producers missed the mark for three straight years starting in 2005.

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Preity Zinta back in cricketing gear

Preity Zinta is a very known face in bollywood and now also on the cricket field. She is known to own the biggest and the best team in cricket today. Last year her team Kings XI Punjab performed very well in the T-20 tournament. Preity knows very well how to boost the confidence of her players and to encourage them. Her players were very motivated through the tournament by Preity's presence during all the games whether they were successful or they lost the match. Preity now wants to attempt to give chance to budding cricketers to showcase their skills. Her Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will hold a cricket seminar and tournament in Chandigarh and Mohali. The aim of the seminar and tournament will be to conduct a T-20 tournament between the teams of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. It will also a platform for the States to connect with different communities of the nation. The tournament is being conducted in conjunction with the state associations and in particular the PCA. KXIP Cup matches would be played in a league format among five teams i.e. two from Punjab and one each from the other three states. Each team will comprise of 14 players and two officials. A total of 11 matches will be played in the tournament. "My aim is to promote cricket at the grassroot level and to nurture new talent. I also want everyone involved to have fun, " says Priety.

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Slumdog is hardly best work of Rahman, Anil

'Slumdog Millionaire', which is presently the talk of the nation for being nominated for 10 Oscar Awards this year, is given an insight by Indian Film industry’s most experienced Director-Producer and pioneer in filmmaking, Mr. Mahesh Bhatt, who is also often referred to as The Encyclopedia. 'Slumdog Millionaire' is going to do no use to India and it is not at all an Indian Film is what he says. “It is Danny Boyle’s film and he is just using India’s finest talent to hit hard at the Oscars this year. I think the film would be very good as is being praised by many and I don’t criticize its content. But my question is, why is it that the same Indian talent is never recognized by the Oscar Jury when it independently enters the race of awards? When it is a foreign film with Indians, you honor it and when it is an Indian Film of same caliber, why not even have a look at it", asks Mahesh Bhatt. 'Slumdog Millionaire' might be starring Anil Kapoor and Irfaan Khan in the film, but Mahesh Bhatt doesn’t think it to be as best of their works. In fact he believes that there are much better Indian Films that they have worked in. He says, "Anil Kapoor is just playing a cameo in the film and is not in the main lead. The main leads in fact are not Indian actors even. So it is just like making hay while the sun shines for Danny Boyle, who is using the Indian effect for grabbing an Oscar." In Delhi to promote his film 'Raaz-The Mystery Continues', India’s most expensive horror film till date which released yesterday worldwide, Bhatt saab very confidently said that 'Slumdog Millionaire' is not the best work of even A.R Rehman. “If you see his work in the past, he has produced such a quality product that it shouldn’t even take a minute to award this legend. His music in 'Taal', 'Rang De Basanti' or even 'Lagaan', which was nominated for the Oscars, stood nowhere in eyes of the Oscars’ Jury. However, when his music has a white connection, it comes to the priority list of the awards. Why? So is it that we Indians are incapable of making it to Oscars? Or it is just that we would be used for other’s benefit and just left unrecognized, ” questions Mahesh Bhatt. He firmly said that India is on path of yet another slavery and if others can’t respect our talent, they have no right to use us. He also said, “In my opinion, if any Indian related to this film gets the Oscar, it should not be kept in India, because we want to actually win the Oscar and not be given as an offering.” Mahesh Bhatt who is busy promoting his film 'Raaz The Mystery Continues' is very confident about his film and says that “I don’t want to make any comparisons of my film with 'Slumdog'. It may be a very nice film; however I can’t comment on it as I haven’t seen it. But yes, RTMC is what I can guarantee you is the perfect 21st century horror film. Never can a film like this in this genre be made again.” Emraan Hashmi and Kangna Ranaut saw the first day first show of RTMC film at G3S Cinemas at Rohini in Delhi on Friday amongst the Full House audience and were mobbed for appraisals. “I am highly touched with audiences’ reaction. The other day, my daughter found a beggar on the streets of Mumbai singing 'Maahi', and there and then I knew that there is nothing stopping Raaz now. It is going to be a genuine hit, ” signs off Bhatt.

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Why Sonam Kapoor likes Abhishek so much?

Rakeysh Mehra’s Delhi6 is all set to release in February. Director Mehra released it’s music on the sets of a reality show. But while everyone including Sonam to director Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, lyricist Prasoon Joshi and others participated enthusiastically, lead actor Abhishek was nowhere in the promotion. When asked about the Abhishek Bachchan, Rakeysh informed us that Abhi was busy shooting for Mani Ratnam’s Ravana somewhere far off, with wifey Aishwarya Rai. Interestingly both Ash and Abhishek were very much in town to grace another event that happened in the same evening. It is believed that and promotion that has given more importance to Sonam. It seems that Abhishek is not so pleased by the promos as Sonam is getting lot of attention from the promoters thus AB baby has taken the backseat. When we asked Sonam about Abhishek she said, “I liked working with Abhishek. He is really a cool guy. He is fun to work with. We all had fun on the set. We both are foodie.” Hope Abhi feels the same for his co-actress.

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Kangana opens her mouth

The unconventional looking Kangana Ranaut has made it in Bollywood her own way, but she still remains controversy's favorite child. Be it for the acid attack on her sister Rangoli, her affair with the much older Aditya Pancholi, his outburst against her later and the her liason with Adhyayan Suman, she has always created news. Well, that has helped a lot too, but that's another story. There have been spats with her current man's parents too. Recently Shekhar Suman had reportedly yelled at Kangana during a debate on money-making films. He reportedly went on to make a grave remark and blatantly told her that he knew what her knowledge was and how she kept the fire burning in the kitchen. He then went on to give an interview hinting that he really doesn't approve of Kangana much. But Kangana has a totally different story to tell. The actress whose 'Raaz — The Mystery Continues', opens today says, "I had a hearty laugh over that bit of news. They seem to be very fond of me. If ever our parents object to our relationship, we will end it. It's family that matters the most." More over some people have been saying that the dame has had plastic surgery as many felt her looks changed dramatically ever since the publicity promos and release of 'Fashion'. She says, "I have not had plastic surgery. My face looks different as I have put on weight. I was sick of my thin body. The world is dying to get skinny, and I like to be different. In 'Kites', I will look still more different." She has learnt the diplomacy game well along with other tactics to survive in the industry. That very well explains her coping up well in the big bad world of Bollywood.

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The Salman-Katrina marriage sham

'Saamna', the famous Marathi daily which also happens to be the Shiv Sena mouth piece had claimed that Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were married which of course came as a piece of shocking news, no less. Now the news has been refuted by Salman's father Salim Khan who was reported to have said it. The interview was for the special supplement to commemorate Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's birthday on Friday. During his conversation, Salim Khan had talked about the secular values of his family and their cool attitude towards religion. He'd said, "I mentioned how Arbaaz was married to Malaika, a Christian, Sohail to Seema, a Hindu, and Salman's girlfriend Katrina is a Muslim." Salim said he was misquoted by the newspaper and clarified, "The reporter has translated my comment into Marathi saying that Salman was married to Katrina.The Marathi word "jar" (if) was missing in the operative sentence, which wrongly gave the impression that the two are married" A senior journalist with the newspaper called it a printing mistake on the condition of anonymity. Katrina's spokesperson termed the report as "baseless" and he said they will be sending a notice to the newspaper demanding a formal apology. She's said in an interview, "I definitely think that Saamna should issue a clarification if not an apology because it's not a small thing. It's not the news of a movie or some endorsement that one has signed. It's a big think to make a mistake about somebody's life like this. And I think a clarification is a must because I know for a fact that Salim sahab has definitely not said anything and one should be careful while reporting for such a major newspaper and while writing articles. My managers have spoken to the editors at 'Saamna' and they were assured of a corrigendum. People who read 'Saamna' are regulars so when they open the paper tomorrow, there should be a clarification in the paper. They should say that they were misinformed or the misprinted and that's it. I think the matter should be ended then and there." Katrina sure knows what she wants! It's definitely not marriage or talks of a marriage at this point!

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Lara and Dino keep mum

They might not be as comfortable as Saif-Kareena and Ranbir- Deepika to reveal details of their love life but it seems Dino Morea and Lara Dutta are deeply in love. There were rumours that the couple had moved in together which they later denied. The buzz is that though they do spend a lot of time together, they do not live together. Lara stays at her apartment and Dino lives in a bungalow nearby. Rumour has it that since their previous relationships didn't work out; they have decided to keep a low profile. By the way, Lara was living in for many years with her ex boyfriend Kelly Dorji. Dino Morea and Lara's ex were best friends. After Lara and Kelly's breakup, she chose friend Dino for emotional support. They reportedly fell in love; have been out on the social circuit and are even traveling the world together. In between there were talks too that they had fallen apart but nothing is clear. The word is that they would rather want people to pay attention to their respective careers and not their relationship. If only they had happening careers it would have been far easier for us to do that!

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I don't have any kissing scenes in Raaz 2

All excited about his next release, Raaz 2 The Myster Continues, Emraan talks to us about his role in the film, his fears and the fact that he won't have any lip locks in the movie. Role in the film - I play a painter whose name is Prithvi and he can foresee the future of a model Nandita played by Kangana Ranaut. And in my character the audiences will find different grey shades which surely can be spooky. I'm quite excited that finally I'm the part of a horror film. I had always wished that my debut film should be a horror film but didn't happen. What scares Emraan - Believe it not but I am scared of kisses in the films that I have to do. Also I am scared of the dark so whenever I sleep I always have one dim light on and I am also scared of empty corridors after watching The Shining. No kissing scenes in Raaz 2 - I don't have any kissing scenes and that's why I'm feeling very relaxed. All the kissing scenes are done by Adhyayan Suman! On his new lean look in Raaz 2 - Mohit told me to reduce my weight as it was the requirement of the character and so I gave up on all junk food, switched from aata to nachni rotis and gave up bread completely. Six packs - I am not much of a fitness freak and hate this six pack - eight pack business. I would like to admit that I am a very lazy person when it comes to body building. But I feel all this is just a fad. It is okay if one has to do for a particular role otherwise its silly to flaunt it every now and then in films.

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