Vidya Balan’s Dirty Picture becomes most hyped film in Bollywood
Even as Hurricane Bodyguard sweeps through the country smashing all existing opening day records, the only challenger to the unstoppable Salman Khan comes in the form of Vidya Balan. Make that Vidya Balan in a red sari heaving to something to the effect of Ooh la la, tu hai meri fantessy.
The theatrical trailer of Ekta Kapoor’s The Dirty Picture, which was unleashed amid the Bodyguard frenzy, is an instant eyeball-grabber. Balan who plays the central character in this biopic inspired by Southern starlet, Silk Smitha, packs in a oomphy wallop. Youtube and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have gone ga ga over her. Compliments are pouring in from colleagues and competitors alike. Sonam Kapoor tweeted her feelings: “Ohmigod just saw the promo of The Dirty Picture. Vidya Balan I bow down to you. You are bold, provocative and brilliant.”
Balan, who is literally in the hot seat, is feeling the love. “I wanted to reply to everyone but I’m unable to get a grip on my phone due to the artificial nails that I’m sporting for the song that I’m shooting,” she laughs. Balan’s especially touched by Kapoor’s tweet. “I’m more than flattered with what she said,” she says. Since there’s still a fair bit of wait till the release of the film, December 2, Balan would like to tone down the trailer praise, deafening as it may be. “We are still shooting the film and we cannot afford to lose our steam. We are still wired on telling a good story,” she says.
Currently on a career high after the hat trick of Paa, Ishqiya and No One Killed Jessica, Balan confesses that she dithered a bit before giving her nod to The Dirty Picture owing to its controversial nature. “I won’t deny that I was very apprehensive. I take a long time to say yes to a project, for this one I took twice that much time. It’s a tricky subject but director Milan (Luthria) has always inspired faith in me. I told him beforehand that I’d need a lot of hand-holding. Hopefully it’ll all pay off,” she says.
If the trailer is any indication of things to come, Balan needn’t worry. Whether it’s cavorting on a hillside with Naseeruddin Shah or doing the Dhak Dhak step as 1,200 oranges fly around them, Balan’s having a ball. “I’m living my fantasy in this film. I’ve always wanted to roll down the hills in a film and, let me tell you, it ain’t easy. I wanted to have an ‘under a waterfall moment’ in my career and now I have one,” she says.
She’s lost track of the costume changes she’s done for this film but there’s no getting away from the red sari — a tribute to Dimple Kapadia’s Sagar moment. “Red is my favourite colour and it was great to add the red lipper and red bindi to it. Thankfully they allowed me to at least wear one sari in the film. The costumes, the make up and the hair are quite elaborate for this film. It takes a lot of time to get ready but I’ve never enjoyed being a woman as much as I have while acting in this film,” she says.
With The Dirty Picture, Balan is back with Kapoor, who was her first producer (for the television show, Hum Paanch way back in 1995). The film, she says, has given them an opportunity to redefine the portrayal of an Indian woman on the big screen. “It’s a step forward. Today we have this unapologetic vibe about us, which is what Silk was all those years ago. We’re just waking up to it now,” she says.
Vidya Balan goes backless for Venus Coconut Soap Commercial
Vidya Balan who had gone backless for a saree shoot recently have gone backless again. This time its for a commercial featuring Venus coconut soap.
Kareena Kapoor to share profit in ‘Heroine’
Kareena Kapoor is following in the footsteps of Khans – Aamir, Salman, SRK and Imran by agreeing to a share in profit. In fact, she has rescued her favorite filmmaker/ director Madhur Bhandarkar by signing ‘Heroine’. Since Kareena had hiked her fee and demanded a whopping sum of Rs. 80 million from the producers, Bhandarkar, UTV and Kareena had no choice but to reach an understanding with her where the actress will reduce her fee and will be sharing profits with the producer, filmmaker and co-star Arjun Rampal.
It is reliably learnt that the producers have worked it out in a way that Kareena Kapoor ends up getting Rs. 80 million out of the project. Apparently, Kareena will be sharing the profit besides her reduced fee. Yes, she will be the first actress who will be sharing profits in the film while Bollywood’s big actors have already done so in the past. Thus, the trend in Bollywood is such that the bigger the actor becomes the higher his fee gets. Under these circumstances, the producers have found out the profit sharing formula that would suit all concerned. Indeed, Kareena has taken the lead among female actors.
Curvy can also be beautiful: Sonakshi Sinha
A few days ago, Sonakshi Sinha made news for an unusual reason. A report claimed that director Shirish Kunder had asked the actor to lose weight for an item song in the Akshay Kumar-starrer Joker.
Clearly, Sonakshi isn’t amused with the “ridiculous” news. “Such reports come out without checking with Shirish or me. It’s in bad taste because you (media) are being personal and ridiculous. If it were true, I wouldn’t have five films lined up,” says the young actor, adding, “Yes, Shirish has asked me to do a song. And I think it is time to prove that curvy can also be beautiful as well.” However, she was in for a pleasant surprise last week when choreographer Saroj Khan praised her performance in a classical number for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming film Rowdy Rathore. The dance master even gave the actor “Rs 101 as shagun (blessings).”
As per the unit members, the song, which Sonakshi shot for in Film City last week with Akshay, required lot of complex expressions. Sonakshi, draped in a heavy sari, is seen dancing at a wedding and teasing the boy (Akshay) as part of the song. But all that praise doesn’t keep Sonakshi from feeling the pressure when it comes to her weight. “I work hard to maintain myself and always try to look better. But I don’t believe in going to an extreme or being stick-thin.”
“Also if I have been accepted for the way I look, why would I do anything to change it? There is pressure from a lot of people, but that’s not what my audience wants. I’m happy with the way I look,” says the Dabangg (2010) girl, who weighed 90 kgs before she signed the Salman Khan-starrer blockbuster. The actor lost 30 kgs before she started shooting for the Abhinav Kashyap film.
Currently, the actor is busy with back-to-back films — Rowdy Rathore, Abbas-Mustan’s Race 2, Shrish’s Kick with Salman and Ajay Devgn’s SOS – Son Of Sardar. “I immediately agreed to do SOS; it is a great story with action and comedy. I was waiting for such a script to come across,” she says.
‘Aarakshan’ doesn’t quite cover the distance – Prakash Jha
After an average opening, ‘Aarakshan’ saw a rapid decline in it’s fortunes as it’s first week came to a close. With just over 30 crores coming in, the film has managed at least face saving collections for itself but that’s about it. With word of mouth not being terrific enough to take it past the second week in a big way, the film hasn’t been able to take advantage of a relatively open week that was spread wide open for it.
Despite the fact that the ban against the film was lifted in UP, there was no major hike in collections. Even the makers seemingly realised where the film was headed due to which there was no post-release euphoria either. The actors too went mum while the media hype died down as well, hence resulting in complete silence around the film as days progressed.
Though around the opening weekend it still seemed that the film would somehow manage to reach the 50 crores milestone, as things stand today ‘Aarakshan’ would have to contend with collections around the 40 crores mark. Now that’s certainly a disappointing result in the times when quite a few much smaller films have done much better business this season.
This would be particularly disappointing for Amitabh Bachchan since he came up with yet another bravura performance in ‘Aarakshan’. As for Saif Ali Khan this is a mini debacle of sorts as he was seen on the big screen close to two years after ‘Kurbaan’. He has ‘Agent Vinod’ to look forward to though. Ditto for Deepika Padukone who would be happy to move out of her ‘Aarakshan’ mould and pronto march into the much more glamorous and audience friendly world of ‘Desi Boyz’. The one who won’t be too pleased though is Prakash Jha for whom this is his first commercial disappointment in ten years after back to
back success of ‘Raajneeti’, ‘Apaharan’ and ‘Gangaajal’.
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