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The nominations for the IIFA awards 2009 have just been announced. And Madhur Bhandarkar is not amused. Though he has been nominated as Best Director for Fashion, the film has not been nominated for 'Best Picture', although all the other directors who are nominated are also part of the 'Best Picture' category. Madhur says that he's used to this snub. "They've done this to me before. My films have been denied popular awards, right from Chandni Bar. So I'm neither hurt nor amused. I just wonder what it means. If I'm one of the best directors of the year, isn't my product automatically among the best films? But I'm sure they've their own rationale and I'm the last person to question it. Right now, I'm too drained out shooting for Jail in the heat of Karjat." The film is being shot in the sun and members of the unit are suffering from dehydration. "We've a doctor on standby throughout the shooting. Anyone can suffer fro

Karadi Tales, an ACK Media company and a pioneer in the world of original Indian content in home video space for the pre-school audience, recently launched its new audio book (book and audio CD) series and campaign 'Will you read with me?' The series and campaign was launched by Padma Bhushan and Oscar winning lyricist Gulzar and Bollywood actress Vidya Balan. Vidya Balan, who has lent her voice to the audio book, read a few stories along with a number of kids present. Speaking at the occasion, Gulzar said, "Books are precious and integral part of our life. As we give flowers and sweets as a gift, in the same manner we should also gift books to people." To start with, Karadi has released two books, Little Vinayak and The Lizard's Tail, both narrated by Vidya Balan and written by Shobha Viswanath, Creative Director, Karadi Tales. The books have been illustrated by Shilpa Ranade, animation head, Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay and Christine Kastl, respectively.

Animation production company Compact Disc India (CDI) has forayed into the licensing and merchandising (L&M) business with a wholly-owned subsidiary Premier Brands. The company has tied up with the Brazilian soccer legend Pele for an animation film and holds worldwide licensing and merchandising rights for the animated character. Compact Disc India Chairman Suresh Kumar told Bollywood Hungama, "The licensing and merchandising subsidiary would as its first project create products around CDI's unlimited worldwide rights to Pele's animated character. We might then also look at tie ups with other sports personalities and Bollywood stars." The Pele merchandise would include the famous No. 10 jersey, shoes, autographed footballs, comic books, etc. The merchandise will be worked on by the company's in-house design studio. It is also considering establishing the Pele chain of cafes in India, Suresh added. The 3D animation film on Pele is currently in the pre-productio

If you feel like spying on someone in a festive and fragrant manner, consider getting a GSM listening device hidden in a basket of potpourri. Send it to one of your enemies along with a deceptively cheery card, and then call the bug from anywhere in the world (a SIM card is included) and you’ll be able to hear whatever is going on around the basket for up to two weeks. To be honest, whenever someone has given me a stinky bag of dead plants, I’ve said something along the lines of “thank you, this is absolutely wonderful!” and then thrown it out as soon as they were gone. I mean, putting a bug in potpourri strikes me as being like trying to feed your kids vitamins by mixing them in with lima beans. It doesn’t help that the GSM bug is about $275, but at least the potpourri and basket are included.

Buzz doing the rounds in B-Town hint that drop-dead gorgeous Deepika Padukone, and not sultry Bipasha Basu, will star in the sequel to 'Corporate' directed by Madhur Bhandarkar.

It seems Salman Khan has finally made his mind about Katrina Kaif. After her career took an upward swing, Kats and Salman's relation has been going through some ups and downs.

Dusky babe Bipasha Basu gets bolder by the day. The Bong bombshell, who has donned the mantle of a sex symbol through her sizzling performances in films from Vikram Bhatt's RAAZ to Abbas Mustan's RACE, is now to cross her limits, quite literally. Well this svelte figured babe, who gets men on their knees and makes ladies go green with envy, is all set to reportedly do her first-ever exotic love-making scene with Hollywood hottie Billy Zane who played the ruthless villain in TITANIC. Putting all speculations to rest, the stunner has agreed to do her first Hollywood movie, titled CHIMERA in which she will be seen performing some hot bedroom antics. CHECK OUT: Bipasha's sweet revenge To be directed by filmmakers Daniel Silverman & Tapan Saha, the film is set to go on floors in July this year, provided Billy Zane is able to give his dates and come down to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani to shoot for the film, that also has Victor Banerjee playing Bipasha's father. CHIMERA i

Toronto, May 28 (ANI): The age-old love triangle of Archie comics has finally been broken, after Riverdale's ultimate Playboy Archie Andrews picked the vixen Veronica over girl-next-door Betty to be his wife. So what if Betty was a blonde, loyal and kind- when it came to popping the question Archie chose the raven-haired, charming and rich Veronica. After 67 years of being in a dilemma, Archie is all set to tie the knot with the vixen-a choice that left many Archie comic fans in gasps. Archie Comic Publications announced on May 27 that the flighty redhead from Riverdale picked Veronica over Betty Cooper. Already in mid-May, the publisher sent speculation swirling when it announced a special marital-themed storyline for release in August, but didn't reveal the lucky lady. The wedding will take place after the gang graduate from college, and venture out into the working world. However, the response to the proposal has been markedly divided-Betty fans are outraged that the girl ne