RGV ropes in Big B, Riteish, Gul for Rann

Ram Gopal Varma has roped in a huge ensemble cast for his up coming next, Rann. Apart from signing his favourite actor, Amitabh Bachchan to play a pivotal role, the maverick filmmaker has also got in Riteish Deshmukh, Sudeep (hero of Phoonk) Gul Panag and Paresh Rawal to play important parts. Manisha Koirala too gets a new lease of life in Bollywood as Ramu has cast her too in his film. She is back to Ramu camp after almost six years gap since Company (2006). "When News Channels, Political parties and Industrial czars are the principal movers and shakers in a film, there is obviously a tremendous scope for high drama. This is not so much my conscious intention as the director of the film, but the very demand of the subject matter. Having said that, even the so-called high profile people at the end of the day are, 'people'. And no matter how powerful they are, they are not without their share of insecurities, egos, jealousies, and dilemmas." states Ramu in his blog about Rann. Explaining in details each and every cast member of his film, Ramu states - I really enjoyed the process of casting for the incredibly exciting and thrilling characters of Rann. The cast of Rann - Amitabh Bachchan as Harshvardhan Malik - The founder of the first ever private news channel in the country INDIA 24/7, the Harvard-educated Harshvardhan Malik is India's most respected media personality. He is a hardcore upholder of journalistic ethics. No wonder his Channel is battling for survival! Riteish Deshmukh as Purab Shastri - Armed with a degree in journalism, Purab Shastri truly believes that the media should be the check point for the people of a country, and therefore, it should report news, instead of manufacturing news. Purab's thinking sets him apart from most youngsters of this country. While everyone is chasing their individual dreams, Purab aggressively wants to work towards a better India. Needless to say, a clash between Purab and the powers-that-be looks inevitable. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong! Sudeep as Jay Malik - A go-getter and highly aggressive and ambitious son of Harshvardhan Malik, Jay looks at his Dad's news channel purely as a business enterprise that must make profits to justify its existence. He hates that his competition is doing better than him. Manisha Koirala Nalini Kashyap - She is the programming head of Harshvardhan Malik's news channel, INDIA 24/7. Having been in the industry for long enough, she has developed a practical view of how things operate here. And this comes in direct conflict with what her boss Harshvardhan Malik, thinks. Juggling the cut-throat world outside with the idealistic universe of her boss, Nalini Kashyap has her job cut out. Paresh Rawal as Mohan Pandey - It is every politician's dream to become the Prime Minister of his country. To that extent, the leader of the opposition Mohan Pandey is no different from his contemporaries. The only difference being - if the need arises, Pandey can and will kill to get the coveted chair. Gul Panag as Nandita Sharma - The assistant of an ad filmmaker, Nandita Sharma someday hopes to bag an independent feature film. She is in a live-in relationship with her boyfriend Purab. Nandita is smart, educated, and intelligent. She is also highly indifferent to what's happening in the country, and first thinks about herself and her man, before anything or anybody else. On both counts, she represents the youth of India. Mohnish Behl as Amrish Kakkar - He was the first to have the VISION and the foresight to realize that even the business of delivering NEWS can be made ENTERTAINING. Amrish therefore can be safely held singularly responsible for taking the television news industry to the dogs, or to the heights, depending on how you see it. His channel is no less than a shady brothel, the content that is NEWS is no less than a cheap hooker, and Amrish Kakkar - the most powerful pimp around. Rajat Kapoor as Naveen Shankalya - Apart from being the son-in-law of Harshvardhan Malik, is also one of the topmost industrialists of the country. Despite this, he is the most insecure man on earth, and won't rest till he becomes the number one industrialist in the country. His best buddy Mohan Pandey becoming the Prime Minister of India will surely help his cause. Raima Sen as Yasmin Hussain - An ex-model, and fiancée of Jay Malik, Yasmin watches TV, reads gossip columns, and for most part, takes everything that is dished out to her, AT FACE VALUE. She does not understand the intricacies of power games, and hidden motivations behind actions of people. The resources at her disposal to know what is true and what is not, are limited. She is not innocent, and she is not clever either. Yasmin therefore epitomizes the 'common man'. Rajpal Yadav as Anand Prakash Trivedi - A creative editor, Anand Prakash Trivedi has a knack for sensationalizing even the driest story and making it sound like the story of the decade with super catchy headlines. More than any filmmaker, he makes far better movies. Only, he calls them NEWS. Well, looking at the starcast of RGV's Rann, one can say that this in itself is a 'breaking news'.

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Hollywood hunks love Bollywood hotties

What's with our Bollywood babes bragging so much about being admired greatly by Hollywood biggies? Will Smith has been a great fan of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's beauty and appeal for long. He's talked about his admiration for her openly and during his visit to India some two years back. He also said that he had offered her the leading lady's part in 'Hitch' but she couldn't do it! Appearing in big talk shows in the US and doing a few small time international flicks must have made it possible for Ash. We only wish this appreciation had actually helped her to bag a big mainstream Hollywood film as well! The others have made sure that they are not left behind either. Mallika Sherawat had screamed from rooftops about Jackie Chan being completely floored by her. Later it appeared that she was shooting her mouth off for her 'few seconds role' in her disastrous international debut 'The Myth' Pictures of Kareena Kapoor and Sylvester Stallone were splashed across the media recently. There were talks about him finding her pretty, wanting to work with her and so on. However there were claims that Stallone only did the Bollywood film- 'Kambhakt Ishq' because he was in a financial soup. Maybe that's what made him talk overenthusiastically about Kareena! Now there's news of Priyanka Chopra spending time with Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith at the opening ceremony of the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF). Reportedly Banderas even expressed a keen desire to work with the actress and also talked about his knowledge of Bollywood and the financial leaps it has made in recent years. The heroes haven't been far behind either. There have been Hollywood fans of SRK and mostly Akshay King Kumar after he shot for 'Kambhakt Ishq'! We only wish the so called admiration would produce a true blue international star from India too much like how the South Americans Benicio Del Toro, Gael García Bernal, Salma Hayek etc or the South East Asians Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh or Gong Li have made it! Or is it just big talk and no action for us?

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A Very Happy Birthday Aishwarya Rai Bachchan!

If you remove sunset from the ocean, then, Serenity becomes meaningless

Likewise, if you remove Aishwarya Rai from Divinity (and vice versa), then, not just divinity but also humanity becomes totally meaningless! That's the magic of this lady, who celebrates her birthday today. Aishwarya is someone, with whom, the terms like elegance, stunning, striking, dazzling, gracious, gorgeous, beautiful etc...find themselves so very obliged and honoured, only to be merely associated with her!

Today is the day when even the best of writers and poets find themselves in a tight spot, because they find it so very difficult (read 'impossible') to describe the beauty in mere words.

It's Bollywood Paradize ultimate honour to be wishing the dew-kissed beauty Aishwarya, a Very Happy Birthday. You too can honour yourself by posting your best wishes belowFor Gossips And Mirch Masala Log On To Bollywood Paradize

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A Very happy Birthday Shah Rukh!

Some of the world famous abbreviations are VIP: Very Important Person, CBI: Central Bureau of Investigation, UFO: Unidentified Flying Object, AIR: All India Radio, FIR: First Information Report, to name a few. But the abbreviation that not just precedes but also supercedes them all is 'SRK'...yes... our very own SRK- Shah Rukh Khan. Here is a man who celebrates his birthday in style on November 2, and has every reason to do so, for he came to Bollywood with no 'famous surname' but worked his way through and made his surname topping all the existing ones! That's Shah Rukh Khan for you, the man who allegedly has 30 hours in a day and who does not know the spelling or meaning of the word 'fatigue'.

Bollywood Paradize gives you a chance to wish Shah Rukh Khan - the star, the legend, a Very Happy Birthday, by simply posting your message below

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Akshay is now Khatron Ka 'Richest' Khiladi

Akshay Kumar is going to break all possible records of hosting TV shows by Bollywood stars by getting a whopping Rs. 2.5 crore per episode to host the adventure reality show, Khatron Ke Khiladi's second season. Sources close to the Khiladi Kumar revealed to us, "He has been approached by COLORS channel and Endemol (the show's makers) to once again host the reality show series. They have also agreed upon the price quoted by him which is a staggering Rs. 2.5 crore. His popularity is on the rise and with the year 2009 looking all set to make Akki invincible at the box office what with highly anticipated releases of his mega budget films like Chandni Chowk to China, Blue, Tasveer and Kambaqqt Ishq. Akshay was very popular as the host and it helped the new launched channel then COLORS grab a lot of eye balls resulting in high TRPs." Akshay by getting Rs. 2.5 crore per episode will be the highest ever given to any Bollywood star. Akshay has now proved who is the real "King" when it comes to money making! Khatron Ke Khiladi 2 aka Fear Factor 2 will not be shot in South Africa where the first season was shot with 13 Bollywood and modelling world beauties. This time a new city will be tapped. Also this time there will be a mix of male and female celebrities this time.

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John, Abhishek shoot an additional song for Dostana

It's customary for two stars to be pitched against one another in real life whenever they are paired on screen. The last time we heard murmurs of discontent was when Bipasha and Deepika apparently couldn't stand one another while shooting Bachna Ae Haseeno.

But John and Abhishek get along like a house on fire. To their regret, they had to shoot a music video for Dostana separately.

Producer Karan Johar who just landed in Mumbai after two weeks of location hunting in Los Angeles says the song 'Maa Da Ladla' was shot during his absence. "I left it entirely to my director Tarun Mansukhani and to the choreographer Feroz (who's been Farah Khan's assistant for ten years). So you'll have to ask Tarun what happened."

Tarun Mansukhani has his own explanation for why Abhishek and John shot the song separately. "I deliberately didn't shoot the song with John and Abhishek together. I wanted at least this one song 'Maa Da Ladla' to look different from the rest of the film where they're constantly together, fooling around, chumming it up. They shot individually, so the masti of the rest of the movie was missing on the sets." Tarun trails off sadly, and then perks up. "The last shooting before this was for 'Desi Girl' where all of us were together. It was so much fun."

The 'Maa Da Ladla' song was shot on 15, 16 and 17 October at Filmistan studios and onlookers watched Abhishek and John arrive on separate days. "This is a music video which we'll use for promotion and probably for the end titles," explains Tarun.

Says Abhishek, "It was wonderful to shoot with John Abraham again after Dhoom. It was fun on the sets because we were all friends."

Adds John, "Abhishek is not co-star or colleague. He's a friend. I dote on him. I love him to death. We never compete. We complement each other in Dostana. We share a great chemistry. Abhishek and I are a couple in the film."For Gossips And Mirch Masala Log On To Bollywood Paradize

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Salman Khan's beefed up, bronzed look in Veer

Few years ago, Shah Rukh Khan played the role of Veer in Yash Chopra's love story Veer-Zaara. Now Salman Khan is all set to star in an action film titled Veer.

The story of this film (directed by Anil Sharma) has been written by Salman himself and while we did show you some pics of the actor in his new look for Veer earlier, this picture gives you a clearer idea of what to expect from this flick.

Salman, who is always known for experimenting with his looks, is seen in a beefed up, bronzed look with unusually long hair. The actor is seen wearing a fur jacket and an ethnic neckpiece and kada (bangle) Also from the looks of it, Salman seems to be playing a warrior of another era given the fact that he is seen holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

In the recent past, Abhishek Bachchan tried the 'superhero meets warrior' look in Drona but unfortunately the film sank without a trace. Will Sallu bhai be able to pull of this warrior act in Veer, one will have to wait and watch.

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Hrithik is planning to custom-make a vanity vehicle for Barbara

Hrithik Roshan is leaving no stone unturned to make sure Barbara Mori, his co-star in Anurag Basu's Kites, feels at home when she shoots in India. Sources reveal the actor is planning to provide her a lavish vanity van when she arrives for the Mumbai schedule.

Apparently, Hrithik is concerned that the Mexican model-turned-actress may not take well to the work environment in Bollywood, and so wants her to feel extremely comfortable.

Says a source, "As she is new to Bollywood and its style of functioning, Hrithik wants to ensure that she has a pleasant experience here."

The source adds, "Hrithik is in talks to make a special vanity van for Barbara. It will be lavishly done up with all the modern amenities. Since this is the first time she will be working in the city, Hrithik has planned to make it a memorable experience."

The source says that the cost of the van is estimated to be anywhere between Rs 1.5 to 2 crore.

"Apart from the basics, it will also be laden with foodstuff and other goodies according to the actress's needs. Hrithik is very protective of Barbara and has become very friendly with her. He also plans to introduce her to other Bollywood stars."

Buzz is that Barbara's love child Sergio, who Hrithik dotes on, will accompany her for the Kites shoot here.

"The van will also have games and other things Sergio might enjoy. Hrithik has met Sergio and shares a good rapport with him." It is learnt that Hrithik and Sergio got close during their schedule in New Mexico.

Produced by Rakesh Roshan, Kites also stars Kangana Ranaut. The film is a multilingual one, as it has characters of different nationalities.

Informs director Anurag Basu, "The Mumbai schedule of Kites will begin from December."

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