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There have been instances in the past where Bollywood filmmakers have requested their fellow colleagues to give them a required film title, which they might have rights for. However, what Madhur has done is definitely a first. Madhur Bhandarkar, the new age realistic director, of late has been hunting for a single word title for his next film that stars Kareena Kapoor. And the title that he was looking at was Heroine . As luck would have it, the said title was already booked by Guddu Dhanoa, who has earlier made films like Deewana, Big Brother, Kismat, Bichhoo, Elaan etc. Madhur, instead of hitting upon a roadblock, hit upon a novel solution by deciding to donate Rs. 1 lakh to Guddu Dhanoa's charity and, thus became the owner of the title! Speaking to ApnaDesi , Madhur said, "It was really nice of Guddu to have given the title to me. But I am not quite sure that if I am going to retain the same title for my film, as the film is in its premature stages. I wil

Last week, we heard the news and saw the picture in one of our tabloid newspapers of Barbara Mori along with her new close friends Suzanne Roshan and Hrithik Roshan partying in Mumbai. Well, it was now confession time for the beautiful Barbara Mori when we met her at the Oakwood serviced apartment in Juhu yesterday. Yes, the Mexican actress revealed for the first time her wish list and how it is to be such great friends with Suzanne than Hrithik. On asking her the question, Mori was quick to respond, "My best friend in India is Suzanne Roshan. I am good friends with Hrithik too. But Suzanne really gets a bit personal when it comes to taking care of me. She will keep me at bay from the 'do not do that' or 'do not go for that' list." Barbara also has her wish list ready when it comes to work and friendship. Just four days ago, Hrithik and Suzanne took Barbara to meet Shah Rukh Khan. The rest, well, Barbara will tell you, "I met Shah Rukh K

It's a bitter sweet moment for Arjun Rampal, where on one end his multi starrer film Housefull is up for release, on the other hand he is drowned in grief due to a personal tragedy. Arjun is faced with the demise of his grandmother whom he was extremely close too. It's a personal loss for the actor and he is therefore keeping a low profile. While all the other actors are going all out and promoting the film, it seems like Arjun might take time away from some of the activities as he comes to terms with this sudden misfortune. Bollywood Hungama feels the loss of the actor and extends its deepest sympathy.

At the moment Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is trying to cope up with the most impossible schedule ever faced by an actress. She was in the US to bring in her third marriage anniversary. Then Cannes for the film festival. In-between she must also start all the promotional work for Mani Ratnam's Raavan . And now with Akshay Kumar in London for 90 days to shoot for Nikhil Advani's Patiala House , where does that leave Vipul Shah with his one remaining song to be shot for Action Replay ? Not in a very happy position! Neither Aishwarya nor Akshay Kumar has any dates to spare for the song. And Vipul won't release the film without the song, which he considers extremely vital to the plot. So here's the ever-accommodating Aishwarya's plan: She generously suggested that Vipul flies down with his unit to London. She herself would fly from Cannes to London and shoot the song with Akshay in night shifts. That is when Akshay wouldn't be shooting for Patiala House .

While every top ranking star - from SRK to Salman to Hrithik to Akshay to Abhishek - is on Twitter or Facebook, or both, there are a few exceptions who aren't keen to start an account on these popular social networking websites. Katrina Kaif is one of those. Although there are several Katrina Kaif accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, the fact is, they are fake. "I don't understand this. Aren't stars supposed to be exclusive? Or should they be so accessible that everything in their life should be out in the open? From what they eat to what they drink to what they wear… I can't bring myself to this. That's the reason why I am not on Facebook or Twitter. Why would people spend money to watch stars on screen, when anyone and everyone could connect with them so easily?" Katrina tells me. While Katrina is entitled to her opinion and viewpoint and one must respect it, you cannot deny the fact that stars do need a platform to air their views. At the

The world and its favourite senorita would now get to hear Hrithik Roshan speak in Spanish. Besides the 2-hour-10-minute Hindi version and the 1-hour-30-minute English versions of Kites which are releasing worldwide in May, there will now be a Spanish version of the film to come a little later after the two other versions. Confirming this development Sanjeev Lamba CEO of Reliance Big Pictures says, "Yes we are indeed on the verge of closing a deal for a Spanish version of Kites . While the Hindi and English versions would cater to a mass audience across the globe keen on seeing Hrithik Roshan, we must not disregard Barbara Mori's fan following in the Spanish belt." According to Lamba, the global interest in watching Hrithik romance Mori puts Kites in a very different league from other Bollywood films. Reliance Big Pictures is now looking at releasing a larger number of prints globally than even 3 Idiots .1700 prints of 3 Idiots had been released in India.

In the past, Aamir Khan has been associated with many public awareness and social campaigns, such as the 'Athithidevo Bhava' campaign promoting tourism in India or the campaign to encourage people to go out and Vote. Now the 'Perfectionist' Khan has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of the National School Sanitation Initiative by the Ministries of Urban Development and HRD. Aamir, who in fact was holidaying with his family in France, took a day's break yesterday to return to Delhi and attend a function where he spoke on the importance of creating awareness about cleanliness in schools across the country. One will have to wait and watch if Aamir's message comes across strongly and helps in bringing about a change in the sanitation levels in schools across the country.

This year is likely to see the release of two big films with similar sounding titles. Yes...we are indeed referring to Mani Ratnam's Raavan and Shah Rukh Khan's home production Ra.One . However, the two similar sounding films are as different as chalk and cheese when it comes to their plotlines. While Mani's Abhi-Ash starrer is a modern-day adaptation of the mythological epic Ramayan, SRK's flick is a highly stylized film with a lot of gizmos and gadgets. Coming to Ra.One , while it is known that SRK plays a super-hero kind of character in the film, what is not known is the fact that the title Ra.One is the acronym for 'Random Access-Version One'. This fact has been confirmed by the Superstar himself on Twitter. Says SRK, " Ra.One means Random Access- Version One, u will understand when u see the film. The Superhero is called G.One. Ra.One site will be up soon." Meanwhile with his close friend and CEO of Red Chillies Entertainment-

Making a film is never an easy task. Who can say this better than Shekhar Kapur, the acclaimed director of some mega big films, who has finally announced his next titled Paani . The film in question has been in the news for quite some time now, five years to be precise. Bearing witness to this is Shekhar's blog post on August 6, 2005, stating, "Today another dream was rekindled. Paani ! A film that has lived in my consciousness for almost 5 years, when I watched 50 women and children standing in the hot sun in Mumbai, with each carrying a bucket, waiting for a tap to start dripping with water. Paani means Water in Hindi. I had just come down from a friends place in Pali Hill, one of the more expensive residential areas in Mumbai. My friend had me waiting for half an hour while he showered. He lived on the 30th floor, and the slum where there was no water was just below his apartment building. This inequity in the most basic resource necessary for human survi

Everyone's pinning hopes on five films - HOUSE FULL , BADMAASH COMPANY, KITES , RAAJNEETI and RAAVAN - to bail the bleeding industry out of the crisis. In fact, RAAVAN wasn't much in news till Saturday night, when the first look of the film and also its music was unveiled at a classy get-together at Yash Raj. RAAVAN is an acid test for everyone associated with it, mainly Abhishek Bachchan. The stakes are high if you accept the challenge of a solo lead. While the Mani Ratnam - Abhishek Bachchan combo worked wonders in GURU, there's optimism that the duo would scale dizzy heights of success this time. The general feedback after watching glimpses of the film was, Abhishek has truly arrived! So what happens if RAAVAN works? It would catapult Abhishek to the top bracket overnight. If you look at Abhishek's body of work, you'd realize that the talented actor hasn't tasted [solo] success after GURU. The two solo starrers - DRONA and DELHI 6 - failed to do

Starcom Worldwide has appointed Vineet Sodhani ( pictured ) as general manager – integrated marketing. He will be based in Mumbai and will report to Sandeep Lakhina, COO-South Asia, Starcom Worldwide. In this newly created role, Sodhani will be the leader on delivering integrated marketing communications offerings to clients of Starcom Worldwide. Starcom MediaVest Group offers clients the circle of advantage that include specialist disciplines in rural marketing, digital marketing, retail branding, OOH, mobile marketing among others. Vineet will help clients make optimum use of these service offerings by working closely with account management teams. Speaking on the appointment, Lakhina said, "Marketers’ needs are constantly evolving and they are actively looking for innovative solutions to achieve their objectives in the most productive manner. In this new role, Vineet will help us identify clients’ needs and work with client servicing teams to offer clients an inte

Now here's vital info. While everyone knows that the much-awaited KITES will be released worldwide on May 21, its international cut - in English language - will be released one week later, on May 28. It means, the American audiences will get to watch the two versions [Hindi and English] in two consecutive weeks. While the Hindi version, targeted at the Indian diaspora with a running time of 2 hours, will arrive on May 21, the English version, with a running of 90 minutes, will arrive at select venues on May 28. Here's more on KITES! More than a week ago, a reputed newspaper had done a 'Spoiler Alert' and had revealed the climax of this keenly anticipated film. Expectedly, the news-report sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the film fraternity, since an expose of this kind, much before its release, usually harms the film in question. While the newspaper tendered an apology the very next morning, KITES director Anurag Basu couldn't hide his a

Today when cinema and films no longer represent just the wild imaginative realm of thoughts and fantasies, but instead also deal with the current topics and issues plaguing the nation, we have our very own Mahesh Bhatt who recently announced yet another contemporary hard hitting film. If the sources are to be believed then Mahesh, will be the creative consultant to a film being produced by Irfan Izhar. The film in question is based on Chandrashekhar Prasad, the student leader from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and an activist, who was shot dead in 1997 while addressing a gathering in Siwan, Bihar. Bhatt who has already begun casting for the said film, has finalised on Imran Zahid to play the character of Chandrashekhar in the film. Producer Irfan Izhar is an NRI and an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University, who is currently based in Dubai. Bhatt who for sometime now has been vociferously talking about making meaningful cinema will now be engaged in giving much importan

The ink on HP’s press release was hardly dry when speculation about a HP webOS tablet began; by the time of their investors call, it was inevitable that they’d be peppered with questions about the possibility of Palm’s elegant OS on more sizeable hardware. For their part, beyond a tidbit promising they were looking at smartphones, slates and potential netbooks, HP are playing things close to their chest. Still, we’ve not been shy before in putting forward our opinion that webOS would make for a mighty fine tablet platform, which raises the question: exactly what needs to be done before a webOS slate could come true? Ironically, while it’s iPhone OS that has swept up attention for its tablet implementation on the iPad, and Androidthat has cornered the market for OEM/ODM models with a generally tenuous chance of reaching retail, webOS is perhaps the closest to being tablet-ready in its current state. As Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein told us a few weeks ago, webOS was designed not as a pure sm

Boost is already known for offering up one of the more aggressive prepaid unlimited plans in the industry, pushing all-you-can-eat voice, messaging, and web for $50 a month -- but it's upping the ante just a tad today on news that customers of both its $50 plan and its $60 BlackBerry plan now have free access to 411 information, instant messaging, and email. Then again, it seems like we're past the point where carriers should be differentiating between types of data, but the fact that Boost offers dumbphones almost exclusively across its range gives it more leeway than most for this sort of stratification. Oh, and to take advantage of the new hotness, Boost would like to cordially invite customers to take a look at the Samsung Rant, a device that actually launched a good long while ago on Sprint but now makes its way over to Boost on May 19 for $149.99 (contract-free, of course). The landscape slider's got full QWERTY, EV-DO, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD support up to 16GB,

Moto promised the Backflip (among other Android-powered wares) to its Canadian fans back in March, and it's now delivering thanks to an official launch on Telus. As you can clearly see, the phone isn't quite the same thing that AT&T customers are grabbing -- the outer bezel is a darker shade, something we suspect a good deal of users might prefer -- but otherwise, it's got the same processor, 5 megapixel camera, 3.1-inch HVGA display, and wacky hinge that we're already well-accustomed with. Whether that's a good thing or not... well, we'll leave that for potential buyers to decide, but you can pick it up for CAD $100 (about $99) on a three-year deal.

There’s something about a product that just looks shiny, sleek, and sexy. The three S’s if there ever were three S’s to explain something. And, we’ll admit, the Targus Premium Laptop Charger fits the bill. Plus, it’s actually useful. With the ability to charge two gadgets of yours at the same time, plus a few extras thrown in for good measure, Targus knows how to get your money. Having dead batteries, especially having more than one at a time, can be a real pain. So, thankfully, the Targus Premium Laptop Charger makes it possible to charge two things at once. For example, your BlackBerry and iPod Touch. Or your iPhone and laptop, the possibilities seem to be almost endless. Additionally, the charger’s got a little trick up its sleeve: it can rotate 180 degrees vertically, so that if you’ve got it plugged into a power strip, it doesn’t get in the way of any other cords you might have plugged into it. Also in the package, there’s 9 laptop tips, an iPhone/iPod tip, and a miniUSB tip. Bas

Preorders of Apple’s iPad WiFi + 3G aren’t expected to be delivered until tomorrow, April 30th, but it sounds like some people have got lucky. BoingBoing reader Mike Ryan has apparently already received his 3G-enabled iPad, proving it with this close-up shot of the microSIM card slot. What’s surprising is that Apple managed to keep their initial WiFi-only iPad deliveries to schedule, and we didn’t hear of any early recipients a few weeks back. BoingBoing seem to imply that they’ve heard from more than one person whose 3G model has arrived today, however, so keep an eye on your mailbox. Full deliveries are expected to take place tomorrow, while Apple Stores will have the iPad WiFi + 3G in stock from 5pm. Pricing is $629 for the 16GB iPad – a $130 premium over the non-3G – while 32GB and 64GB units will be $729 and $829. 3G service itself is provide by AT&T in the US, with 250MB for $14.99 and unlimited data for $29.99 per month.

You can be sure that the irony of Skyfire launching their Skyfire 2.0 Flash-happy browser for Android within hours of Steve Jobs taking Adobe to task over Flash being unsuitable for mobile devices will be well noted, but don’t let that distract you from just what’s on offer here. The big news is the new “SkyBar”, which throws in automatic Flash video streaming for otherwise broken video links, together with social networking integration. The browser doesn’t actually play Flash videos as such – it uses a remote server to convert them, on the fly, to HTML5 and other formats that mobile devices are happier streaming. So, if you come across a YouTube link, for instance, you can hit the video button and choose Skyfire’s version instead, watching it in the browser rather than having to use a standalone YouTube app or wait until you’re on your desktop. There’s also the usual multitouch gestures and tabbed browsing, and there’s simple integration with Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and other socia