Jackman, Aishwarya bag top honours at FICCI Awards

Hollywood star Hugh Jackman and Bollywood's international face Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan have bagged the top honours at the FICCI Frames Awards here.

Jackman, known for his role as 'Wolverine' in the popular 'X Men' series, received FICCI Frames Excellence International Honour, while Aishwarya got the Decade of Global Achievement Honour for her accomplishments in Hindi cinema at the awards function held on Friday night.

"It is a huge honour and I am grateful to FICCI for giving me this award. I am humbled," Aishwarya said.

Shahrukh Khan-starrer `My Name Is Khan' and Salman Khan's `Dabangg' continued their award-winning spree at FICCI Frames also.

`Dabangg' bagged two awards, including the Best Film of the year. Its actor Sonakshi Sinha was adjudged the Best Debutant (Female).

Shahrukh received the Best Actor award for `My Name is Khan', while Karan Johar took home the Best Director trophy for the same film.

"The award is special to me," King Khan said.

For the second time, Vidya Balan walked away with the Best Actress award at the event, this time for her performance in `Ishqiya'.

One of the highlights of the event was when Vidya, Shahrukh and Jackman shook a leg together on stage.

The Best Debutant Award (Male) was won by Ranveer Singh for his performance in `Band Baaja Baarat'. Maneesh Sharma got the Best Debut Director trophy for the same film.

On the television front, Sushant Singh Rajput got the Best Actor Award (Male) for serial `Pavitra Rishta' and Rashmi Desai won the Best Actor Award (Female) for `Uttaran'.

Sony TV's `Indian Idol 5' was declared the most successful non-fiction show of the year. Best TV Series Fiction Award was given to `Pavitra Rishta' (Balaji Telefilms).

Best General Entertainment Channel Award was won by Star Plus, while `Radio Mirchi' got the Best Radio Channel Award.

FICCI-Frames is an annual global convention on the business aspects of the entertainment and media industry. It was organised here from March 23-25.

Zarine Khan thanks Salman for small, glamorous role in ‘Ready’

Zarine Khan credits her “Veer” co-star Salman Khan for her cameo in director Anees Bazmee’s “Ready” and says she has got a very glamorous makeover for the role.

“It’s a cameo with a club song. Salman offered me to do this and I would never say no to Salman,” Zarine, who made her Bollywood debut with “Veer”, told IANS

This is a little role, would cause an image makeover after showing a traditional Indian look in “Veer”, maintains Zarine.

“I also found it quite exciting specially after ‘Veer’ because there I had a totally Indianised look, totally covered and after that it is like total 360 degree makeover, a very glamorous avatar,” said Zarine adding: “We shot for it for three days in a club in Bangkok. I’m really waiting for people reaction about this song.”

Her formal training in dance came in handy for the song.

“I have learnt different dance forms like Bharatnatyam and belly dancing. The latter really helped me to get the moves in this club song very easily,” said the 26-year-old.

Asked if she has signed any other project, she said: “There are two projects in the pipeline, which I am going to sign very soon, but I don’t want to talk about them, till I sign them.”

I have a ‘badmaash’ streak in me – Shahid Kapoor

Mumbai, He played a bad guy in dark thriller “Kaminey” and will now be seen as a conman in “Badmaash Company”. Shahid Kapoor says playing characters with a negative streak is an “escape route” from his good-boy image in real life.

“I think I always wanted to be a good boy, but I think inherently I have a ‘badmaash’ (naughty) streak in me. That’s why I love doing this role. This is my escape route. What I couldn’t do in my childhood, (I’m) doing it in films,” Shahid told IANS in an interview.

The actor is thrilled to get such a role but adds that he doesn’t play a ‘kamina’ (rogue) in director Parmeet Sethi’s “Badmaash Company”.

“I won’t really call this guy a bad guy. ‘Badmaash’ is a little less of a bad guy than a ‘kamina’. In ‘Kaminey’, from the very beginning Charlie is edgy and different, but here when the film begins you will find that the four characters are normal middle-class guys and then they get into doing these scams and schemes,” the actor explained.

“In ‘Kaminey’ Charlie never used to think…he was spontaneous, but here the guy is lot more of a thinker, planner and schemer. I think it’s fun playing a bad guy,” he added.

“These guys want to do things on their own terms. That’s what today’s youth are all about? They want to set their own rules, make things in their own way. They find their own route to success. That’s why the tag line says ‘they want to do all the wrong things in the right way’,” said Shahid.

Set in the 1990s, Sethi’s directorial debut “Badmaash Company” will see four young friends – Shahid, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das and Miang Chang from middle-class Mumbai joining hands to start a company. Their business is an instant success because they find a way to beat the system.

The actor says every con job shown in the movie is taken from crime stories published in the newspapers.

“When I spoke to him (director Sethi), he told me all con jobs have been picked up from newspapers. So these things happened and he has taken the basic thought of every con job from real incidents and that’s why it will seem believable. It is the strength of the film,” the 29-year-old said.

“And he has based it in the 1990s and the period is apt for this kind of plot.”

Shahid claims “Badmaash Company” is more believable than 2005 movie “Bunty Aur Babli” in which Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji conned people.

“It’s a genre that really excites me. These types of film are made less in India. I think films like ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ were not really con films…it was more of a fun movie. This one is more believable. The con jobs that have been shown in the film I haven’t seen in any Hindi or English film. It’s more original,” he said.

Shahid debuted in Bollywod with “Ishq Vishk” in 2003. After that he featured in films like “Fida”, “Dil Maange More”, “36 China Town” and “Vivah”, but he got his major break with 2007 hit “Jab We Met”. It was followed by “Kaminey”, which won him critical and commercial acclaim.

Shahid says he’s been lucky to get challenging roles after Imtiaz Ali’s “Jab We Met”.

“I am happy. This is something that I hadn’t done for the first three-four years of my career. Of late…it’s exciting to get the opportunity to do roles like this.”

“Sometimes you get roles that break the ice. For me, ‘Kaminey’ and ‘Jab We Met’ were of those kind. It showed me new light. This film is also like that but apart from just the role, I think it’s the space of the film…a con job film based in the 1990s, a very youth-oriented film and I am working with three new people.

“When I read the script, I found it very, very fresh. I have been really lucky in the last three years to get one significant film every year,” he said.

Shahid’s next will be “Milenge Milenge” opposite Kareena Kapoor. He is also working in his father Pankaj Kapoor’s directorial venture “Mausam”.

Watch Bollywood films to know Indians – Rani Mukerji

Sydney, Cinema can go a long way in promoting positive bilateral relations between Australia and India, especially Bollywood films as they are “all about heart”, said Rani Mukerji, who was here as chief guest at the 2010 Indian Film Festival – Bollywood and Beyond.

“Cinema showcases different cultures and Indian films are all about our culture, our traditions, human relations and all about heart. So when Australians watch Indian films, they will get to know Indians better and that will help in knowing each other better,” Rani told IANS in an exclusive interview.

So will she act in a film on racism? “As an actor, I would be part of any film that inspires me as an artist. If there is a great character for me to play, if I feel there is something interesting in the film about racism and if there is a positive outlook towards changing the mindset, I would hundred percent do it.”

She would like to do diverse, challenging roles. So does she feel socially responsible while doing a movie?

Giving the example of her role as a deaf, dumb and blind girl in “Black”, she said, “I do expect that people who do not know about the deaf and blind get more aware of people like them. You should never pity them because they are such spirited, lively, fun people and there is so much to learn from them.

“Michelle McNally did graduate despite her handicap. The sheer fact that if you have the passion, nothing is impossible in life. That is what my character in ‘Black’ and the film taught me and that is what I would like to portray to the hundreds and millions of my fans who watch the movie”.

The festival, which opened with “Black” and “Dil Bole Hadippa” in Sydney, is screening a retrospective of Rani’s distinctive films alongside recent Bollywood hits, some regional cinema gems and documentaries.

For Rani, every role is a dream role, but the role that debutant director Anurag Singh gave her in “Dil Bole Hadippa” was “wonderful”.

“It is wonderful being a man and to feel like a man and get attracted to beautiful women. It was a dream role because I could never imagine in my life that I would cross dress as a man. I also got to experiment with cricket, a sport I had never played in my life. I trained for eight months and fell in love with the game. And, of course, being a man and tying your hair up in a turban was the most relaxing part!”

Being a Bengali, was it difficult for her to play the role of a Sardar?

“Punjabis and Bengalis make a great combination; even marriages between them are lovely,” said Rani, relating an interesting episode about how she was exchanged with a Punjabi baby at the hospital and her mother had to fight to get her back.

“I still have to crack the code whether I am a Sardar or Bengali,” she said.

Rani also revealed that if she weren’t an actress, she would have been “a housewife with my sari tucked in my waist, making chapattis for my husband, raising two kids probably in Allahabad or Kolkata or somewhere where my parents would have married me off!”

So is she ready to direct films after a career spanning 17 years as an actress?

Rani was forthcoming: “I would like to do a lot of things in life, but you never get to do everything that you want to do. When an actor probably completes 10 years, you are often asked would you like to direct or write?

“I didn’t want to become an actress, but I became one and so I have this thing in my head that ‘Never say never’. It is not something I have planned, but if I do get an opportunity and have this energy rush in my body to take up the responsibility of a director some day, I would definitely love to direct.”

Asked if she dreams about winning an Oscar, the multi-award winning actress said: “I would dream about everything and as an actor our greed never stops for awards, recognition, fame, and love and warmth from people; so it is a never ending process for an actor.”

The actress, who chooses her roles with care and takes what inspires and excites her, is looking forward to “No one killed Jessica”, a film based on the murder of Delhi model Jessica Lall in which she plays the journalist.

“It is a very different film that I am doing after a long time. It is a very different and powerful role; so I don’t know how my fans are going to react to it, but I am looking forward to it because it is an interesting movie based on a true life story.

(BollywoodWorld.com)

Big B, SRK, Salman to attend Shilpa's reception

After a royal wedding in Khandala, Shilpa Shetty oops! Shilpa Kundra and hubby Raj Kundra will be holding a grand reception in Mumbai. It will be a star studded night at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai where all the big names of Bollywood will come to wish the couple. Shilpa and Raj have not left any stone unturned to make this reception grand in what has so far been called 'wedding of the season.'

The guest list includes Amitabh Bachchan and family, SRK and family, the Kapoors, Rekha, Farah Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, the Deols, Sushmita Sen, Salman Khan and the liquor baron Vijay Malya. Shilpa has invited Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne and popstar Jermaine Jackson for her grand reception.