Honcho in Hollywood
In the city, India-born Hollywood producer Ashok Rao gets talking of success, Slumdog , and more…
The CEO of Excalibur Pictures, Ashok Rao, does not want to talk discuss nineteen to twenty who he is. He’d rather focus on what brings him to the city. And if you want to know more on him, let Google unfurl his repertoire in a chronological order. However, in a country like India, where people spend most of their time discussing either cricket or Bollywood rumours, the word ‘Hollywood producer’ will never go unnoticed. More so, if the producer is an Indian, born in Delhi, who moved to the USA in 1970, worked for several years in the telecommunications world and founded Midcom communications in 1990, making the company into the ninth-largest long-distance telephone American carrier, and making it public in 1995 eventually, you can’t help asking ‘What is an extremely successful businessman doing in Hollywood’?

Indian role call Indian-origin directors who have made a mark in Hollywood with films of different genres. Director Manoj Night Shyamalan is known for movies like Wide Awake, The Sixth Sense. Gurinder Chadha wooed the audiences with Bend It like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice. Shekhar Kapur reached the Oscars with Elizabeth. Ashok Amritraj is a known name in Hollywood. A still from Ashok Rao’s Before The Rain starring Nandita Das, Rahul Bose, Linus Roache and Jennifer Ehle.

Of Hisss and her
Mallika Sherawat has been grabbing eyeballs with footage of her body-hugging costumes as a snakewoman in Jennifer Lynch's Hisss, but her co-star Irrfan Khan is unperturbed and says she cannot overshadow him in the movie. "Mallika can't steal my limelight - never - let her do whatever she does. That's her game. That is not my game. I entertain people. I be myself, do my work in a way that I enjoy and connect with my audience so that they remember my work for at least two years," Irrfan told IANS. He was here Saturday for the launch of the seventh season of MTV's adventure reality show Roadies.

Yeh dil ashiqana
Action and comedy are boring, says Akshay, who wants some romance now
He has done loads of action films and made audiences laugh in rib-tickling comedies, but Bollywood star Akshay Kumar now says he's bored and wants some romance...on screen of course! "I want to do more romance. I've actually gotten bored of comedy and action. Yes, I just want to do some romantic films. And that's what my next thing is going to be," Akshay told Myleen Klass in an interview for CNN's The Screening Room Xtra programme. While his fans enjoyed actioners like Khiladi, Mohra and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, Akshay also drew audiences for laugh riots Hera Pheri, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Welcome and Sing Is Kinng among others.

Tere mere beech mein
Farah wants to mediate between SRK and Salman
Farah Khan, who is a common friend of Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, wants to play the peacemaker between the two actors. The choreographer-turned-director, believes that the fight between the actors is getting longer. "I wish I could bridge the gap. I love both of them. It's (the fight) getting longer now," Farah said.

Fit for the brides

The Exotic Bridal Show’09 fashion show in the city on Sunday night saw the models walking the ramp in stylish yet wearable bridal wear.

I'm lovin it
Bollywood bombshell Bipasha Basu may be playing the deglamourised role of a housewife in her first Bengali movie but the actress says she is happy with the 'sexy' tag as a girl-next-door look never interested her. "I love being sexy and I would be happy if people call me sexy even when I turn 100. I would love to be called a sexy grandmother. The tag has never bothered me," Bipasha, who has been named one of the sexiest celebrities of Asia, told PTI in an interview.

United colours of canvassing
It’s election time, and what we see is a mélange of yellow and orange stickers on the campus
Wear it on your sleeve, put it in the classrooms, how about teacher’s chair, the dais itself is a good idea, we even spotted on a plant inside the department, railing of the staircase, lecture registers, on the leg of the jeans, sleeve of the shirt`85United colours of elections! And it’s a war of the stickers. The yellow and orange hues to be precise; anyone’s who’s been to campus ever in September, would testify. Did we forget? Oh, the bulletins, walls, notice boards have always been there, what are they for! Trust us guys; we spotted all the party allegiance spilling onto places mentioned above. Heady heavy cocktail of politics and youth, can’t get more innovative.

On way to elections…
How the fourth step of staircase outside ‘Department of Molecular Mathematics’ is not wide enough and the trauma that students have to go through in having to pass through it. The strikes at the drop of a hat, two more strikes and there’s a hattrick! Which party sent the maximum hunger strike candidates to hopsital? What, they’ve increased the fee by one hundred and sixty seven rupees.

Jeeps, jeers and joys: Announcing the arrival with aplomb. Photo: Pradeep Tewari

i tone
What after war cry!
After the storm, the lull! Very soon the elections will be over and so will be the colours on the campus—the campaigning, the crazy madding crowd. Violence, rallies, hysteria, there’s a new development everyday and very soon, it’s all going to stop. We ask the students; are they going to miss the action or do they welcome the peace post-polls?

You think you can Dance
The auditions for a dance talent show in the city saw a crowd of enthusiastic dancers
It has something to do with the tag, ‘Premier League’. Whether it was the much talked about Indian Premier League, or Sony’s DPL (Dance Premier League), whose auditions in city at Makhan Shah Lobhana auditorium on Tuesday turned out to be a mixed affair. Word ‘Premier League’ is known to create ripples. Here too, at the DPL auditions an argument between the organisers and journos caused unrest for a brief time. However, oblivious to all this, the contestants jived with enthusiasm.

Impressions: A contestant gets a whacky tattoo made from his friends. Photo: Parvesh Chauhan

Gem of an idea
Laud of the rings
The India International Jewellery Show-2009 held in Mumbai recently is one of the finest jewellery events in the country. It provides a wonderful platform to the exhibitors to promote their products and brands. The aim of India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) is to gather the potential buyers and sellers from all over the world into a single arena. This year’s IIJS was one of best the shows in terms of design, craftsmanship and quality. It also had international standard booths. Various new trends and designs were witnessed and interesting couture pieces by leading companies were showcased.

Sweet success
Yet another accolade for city artiste Kamal Tewari, for he has been elevated to the national executive board of Rashtriya Sangeet Natak Akademi. Greeted with exuberance in the art circle here, the chairperson of the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, Kamal Tewari was unanimously elected to the council, which monitors the activities of the akademies in India. On his prestigious honour to be among 12 executives from artistes in India, Tewari says as an executive representative of four states, he would be in a better position to voice the concerns of artistes and institutions, NGOs for securing grants or organising seminars, workshops beneficial to the propagation of music and theatre in the region.

Tracking ‘different’ path
Tulip Joshi admits that her seven-year-long career graph in Bollywood has been strange, blaming it on her quest for different kinds of roles instead of repeating the same ones.