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After a super-successful directorial debut in the form of Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na , writer turned director Abbas Tyrewala is back with his second directorial venture tentatively titled 1-800 Love . Produced by Sa Re Ga Ma and Big Bang Films, 1-800 Love starring John Abraham and Pakhi (wife of director Abbas Tyrewala) in lead roles, has been in the making for a while now. However, all of you eagerly waiting for this film can now smile as the makers have announced that the film would be releasing on the 15th of October this year. Bollywood Hungama got in touch with producer Madhu Mantena who confirmed the news, "Yes... 1-800 Love is releasing on the15th of October which happens to be the Dussehra weekend. We just have to shoot one more song and then we are done with the shooting part of it. Meanwhile, we have already begun work on the post-production of the film." Besides John Abraham and Pakhi, 1-800 Love also stars Raghu Ram and Mansi Scott in supporting

Piracy is the biggest threat to the film industry, causing loss of revenue in millions. The film industry is battling hard to combat this cancerous disease. The latest film that has been hit by the piracy plague is the upcoming Sonam Kapoor-Imran Khan starrer I Hate Luv Storys . The music of the film is officially scheduled to release on May 27. However, the entire album of I Hate Luv Storys has been leaked online. To find out more, ApnaDesi spoke to Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions, who said, "Well this was bound to happen. In fact to be frank the music of the film will release on the 27th, however, that will be the physical copy (of the album) while on the other hand, the digital version is already up and running on various foreign sites and carriers. So if there was a leak, it has happened from there." He adds, "We have given a date of May 27th keeping in mind that the music releases in big cities first, then smaller towns and later in other pla

Agent Vinod , the film that's all the buzz, thanks to its starcast Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, has cut all ties with Eros International. Grapevine says that budgets were an issue. Apparently, the official financers of the film, Eros International, wanted to rework the budget of the film and cut down numbers, something that producers from Illuminati Films, Saif Ali Khan and Dinesh Vijan, were not happy about. Any compromise on the film was not acceptable to the producers. This led to disagreement and fall out between Eros and Illuminati films. It is being said that Cinemax has now stepped in and will now be the official presenter of Agent Vinod . When we contacted co-producer Dinesh Vijan to confirm this news, he avoided commenting on the presenter of the film. "There are no budget issues. We are going ahead with the same budget we started off with and the film is being produced by Illuminati films. Any involvement of Cinemax is something I am not aware

India has reached the global stage and we are being recognised for not just the land we come from but also for the music we make. In a feat that no Indian has achieved before, the music composer duo Salim- Sulaiman were invited to compose the anthem for the upcoming FIFA World Cup. If that wasn't enough, the duo will also open and close the football tournament in South Africa that commences on June 11 and goes on till July 11. Adding to the plurastic sound, RnB artist Loyiso Vincent Bala who is Nelson Mandela's favourite artist and Kenian singer Eric Waninaner will perform alongside the brothers. In the past, Salim-Sulaiman had composed the popular track ' Chak De! India ' which had almost become like an anthem while the T20 matches were on. The two composers seemed visibly ecstatic with the honour to compose anthem for FIFA.

Amar Mohile, one of the leading background music composers who has done a lot of Ram Gopal Varma films like Rann, Sarkar Raj, Sarkar, Naach, Road, Agyaat, Vaastushastra, Nishabd and Contract besides Acid Factory, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Musafir, Luck, Love Story 2050, Shootout At Lokhandwala, Dus Kahaniyan, Mission Istaanbul and many more, has been nominated in the category of Best Feature Film Soundtrack for the English film Land Gold Women at the prestigious East End Film Festival 2010. This film festival is considered to be one of the biggest in Britain. A rock singer's 'devotion' Reliance Media World's radio arm, 92.7 BIG FM, which pioneered the offering of a devotional band on radio with its show Seher way back in 2006, is bringing back the show in an all new avatar. Being hosted by contemporary spiritual guru and programming director of Art Of Living, Vikram Hazra, the show will wake listeners to a spiritual start each morning Mondays to Fridays

It seems henceforth bi-lingual films are in some financial trouble. Because Bollywood's fighters' associations now demand twice the levy on the fights and fighters participating in a bi-lingual. And if it's a 3-language film then the producer has to pay three times more levy than a one-language film. This, the makers of Rakta Charitra which is being made simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu came to know when they were asked to deposit three times more levy than usual. When asked about the unusual demand on the film's resources, director Ram Gopal Varma passed on the buck to the producer Sheetal Talwar who said, "It's true we were asked to pay up three times the normal levy for the fights in Rakta Charitra . The argument given was that Mani Ratnam's Raavan which is in two languages (Tamil and Hindi) had to pay twice the levy. But we argued back that in Raavan all the fights in the two languages were different since the Tamil and Hindi ve

Madhur Bhandarkar has never been this furious. Usually charmed and a joyous personality, Bhandarkar is fumed by a 'news break' that took place in a tabloid that proclaimed that he was all set to begin work on the sequel of Chandni Bar . Not just was he supposed to have approached Tabu for the film, he was also said to have started making plans with the film beginning soon after his recently announced Dil to Bachcha Hai Ji . "This is absolutely baseless and people should not speculate", says Bhandarkar who has decided that from here on, he would have none of such speculative news pieces making the rounds." What is indeed concrete though is that Bhandarkar has no plans of making a sequel to Chandni Bar or any other film in years to come. "I don't have any time for that. I am busy with Dil to Bachcha Hai Ji and then Heroine, something which I have always maintained. Also, I don't believe in sequels and if at all I attempt one then I w

When 1st October release date for the Stepmom remake was announced, a section of industry was surprised. Reason being that the date falls during 'shraadh', a time period when majority of makers stay away from releasing their films. It sounded unbelievable that a big film like Stepmom remake with Karan Johar at the helm of affairs would indeed think of arriving during 'shraddh'. However as it has turned out, 1st October is a tentative timeline and a final call would be taken in due course of time. "1st October is not the final date for the release of my film", assures Karan who is currently stationed in USA, "It is currently tentative and we would be in a position to talk about the new release date, if at all that turns out to be the case, pretty soon." Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures admits that 1st October is the date which has been pencilled in for Stepmom remake. However, he doesn't shy away from the fact tha

Even before his next film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey releases, Ashutosh Gowariker has already moved on to his big budget project Buddha . Produced by Dr.Bhupendra Kumar Modi and directed by Gowariker, Buddha tells the journey of Gautam Buddha right from when he was known as Prince Siddhartha to his moment of enlightenment when he became Buddha. While the hunt for the actor who will play the lead role is still on, it's quite interesting to note that the film will primarily have an all-international crew except production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai who has worked with Gowariker on most of his films. Some of the international crew members are : . David S. Ward (USA) - Screen writer (best known for his Oscar winning screenplay in The Sting and Sleepless in Seattle ) Michel Shane (USA) - Executive Producer (who is known for having worked on films like I Robot and Catch Me If You Can ) Karl Walter Lindenlaub (USA) - Director of Photography (German born Lindenlau

Trust Madhur Bhandarkar to throw a surprise when one could least see it coming. With a run of critically acclaimed films that also saw commercial success coming their way, Bhandarkar was all set to jump into another hard hitting drama Heroine where Kareena Kapoor would be the leading lady. However, he recently announced the making of another film in the interim - Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji . Nothing wrong with that because it was meant to utilise the empty space he had between now and November when Heroine will go on floors. However, what has really surprised is the fact that it is no 'stop-gap' arrangement where a small film with smaller stars is being made. Instead, it is a star studded affair where none other than - hold your breath - Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya (Chatur of 3 Idiots fame) have been signed. While many filmmakers worth their salt would have had to wait for Ajay and Emraan for at least a year before they could have consented to the p

Mumbai based VFX major Geon studios, a Sahara India Pariwar division has announced its association with world renowned VFX legend Jim Rygiel, a winner of three Oscar awards, three British Academy awards, two VES awards and many more, on his first ever visit to India. Jim Rygiel will work as an advisor and will provide his expertise and knowledge to clients of Geon studios. Jim Rygiel, a legend in the VFX industry has made history with the movie Lord of the Rings , by winning three Oscars for all the three movies of the series, the 'American Film Institute's first AFI Digital Effects Artist of the Year' award and the 'British Academy of Film and Television Arts' award for best visual effects. Rygiel supervised many feature films, both as digital effects supervisor and as visual effects supervisor. His credits include Starship Troopers, Species, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Scout, The Last Action Hero, Cliffhanger, Batman Returns, Alien III, Ghost, T

Ajay Devgn has got himself in some sticky situation. Ajay has been accused of smoking in public for the second time which has provoked an anti tobacco organisation to take action against the star. While shooting for Golmaal 3 in Goa, Ajay was apparently caught by media smoking in a public place. This has earned him the wrath of the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE) who are hell bent on making sure that Ajay pays heavily for his offence. Goa is extremely strict about smoking in public and Ajay being a second time offender has only worsen matters. The first time was in Chandigarh where he got off after paying the regular fine, though this time NOTE said to the authorities that they should take strict action against the actor. In the past NOTE, has dragged actors such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to the court for directly or indirectly promoting smoking.

Ram Gopal Varma has put his proposed Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bhudda: Don't F…K With Him directed by Telugu cinema's most successful director Puri Jagannath, on the back burner. Instead Varma and Puri are getting together to produce and direct Surya in The Businessman . Says Puri Jagaanath, "It's the story of a gangster's journey from Chennai to Mumbai in three languages Hindi Tamil and Telugu." Puri has written the screenplay on his own. Strangely none of the three individuals helming the project is conversant with Hindi. Jagannath who is the highest-paid director of the South with an enviable track-record of Telugu blockbusters admits there is a linguistic problem in creating The Businessman in Hindi. "I agree, I don't know the language. Neither does Ramu nor Surya. But I don't think that would be a problem." Ram Gopal Varma who will produce the film is far more forthright, "I'd have you know that Murugadoss who

Madhur Bhandarkar, who is known for his hard-hitting films like Chandni Bar, Page 3, Fashion and Jail , has now for a change decided to make a light hearted romantic comedy next. While the cast is yet to be announced, Madhur's new film is titled Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji . Madhur made this announcement of his new film on popular social networking site Twitter. Said the director, "My New Film is titled "DIL TOH BACHCHA HAI JI". Its a feel good Rom-Com & shoot starts this July. Tryin a new genre this time..Need ur wishes." Well, we're sure that fans of the director would be eagerly waiting to see if the director is able to pack a punch in this genre too.

Kalki Koechlin gave a rocking performance in Dev D , and then poof! She does a vanishing act on everyone. But good news for her fans is that she is back and on movie signing spree. Bejoy Nambiar, who assisted Mani Ratnam during the making of Guru , has written his first film which is a thriller based on real life incidents, titled Shaitan . He has signed Arshad Warsi to play the male lead in the film while Kalki will be seen opposite Arshad. Bejoy had initially produced this project in English for Ashok Amritraj and Hyde Park entertainment in L.A. but since things didn't really happen, Bijoy redid the whole project in Hindi. The other cast includes Manita Das, Shiv Pandit, Jackie Shroff, and Rajit Kapur.

Whatever Salman does, he does it with style, class and panache. The face of 'Being Human' foundation, that he has been promoting quite voraciously, he has gone a step further and brought India and Pakistan on the same platform, so beautifully and for a worthy cause. It takes a Salman to do that. For the Being Human Foundation's event that is being organised in Dubai, in pursuit to take the cause across the border, something rather special is in store. The event would start with a charity cricket match, Celebrity 2010, organised by Cynosure that will see two teams comprising of Bollywood celebs and Pakistani A-listers. The match would be followed by a fashion show in the evening, organised to showcase the collection of his charitable trust. Right from watches, to T shirts and paintings will be showcased. Though Sallu bhai was expected to present the entire collection, he is now showing only exclusive products and to a selected audience. Reason being, he fear

When they are not busy shooting for their films, our B-town celebs are pretty occupied with their endorsement deals. The latest actress to bag yet another endorsement deal is Celina Jaitly who has been anointed as the face of Proactiv. For those in the dark, Proactiv is the World's No.1 selling Acne Treatment System. Sounding super-excited about bagging this endorsement deal, Celina tweets, "When I first used PROACTIVE as a 17 yr old, had no idea will end up being among the line up of wonderful faces who represent this wonder product. Becoming the new face of PROACTIVE is a great honour. It gives me gr8 pleasure to join the line up of Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Vanessa Williams, Katy Perry and become the face of PROACTIVE. The ad campaign launches on Monday and will wait for feedbacks from my tweeple." We are sure Celina's fans would be more than happy to see the gorgeous actress in this ad campaign.

The volatile situation in Kashmir has created a strange and difficult problem for Lamhaa . The film based on the problem of Kashmiri militancy is all set for release on July 16. Much as the director Rahul Dholakia wants to take the hard-hitting political drama for its initial screening into the Valley, there is no way he can do so for the simple reason that there are no proper and operational movie theatres in Kashmir. And Rahul is at his wit's end. " Lamhaa was made for the people of Kashmir. It's about their life, their anguish and their politics. How can I not show it to the people of Kashmir? The film belongs to them. It is unimaginable for me that the rest of the world would watch Lamhaa and not the Kashmiris." Dholakia now plans to take the print and projection equipment and screen the film at key centres of Jammu & Kashmir on his own. "There's no option but to follow an unconventional method to get the film screened in the Valley.&quo

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had a special guest on Monday and it was none other than our very own 'Munnabhai' Sanjay Dutt. Before you start wondering whether this was some high prolife political meeting, let us assure you that it was not. Sanjay had in fact gone to meet Modi to discuss the prospect of setting up a film studio in the state of Gujarat. Sanju Baba apparently has been mighty impressed with the way Gujarat has developed as a state over the last couple of years. He has also been toying with this idea of starting a state-of-the-art film studio for a while now. However with escalating costs and lack of spaces in Mumbai being a problem, Sanju thought of discussing the possibility of setting up the studio in the neighbouring state of Gujarat. If this dream turns into a reality, you will suddenly see a host of Bollywood bigwigs making a dash to Gujarat every now and then.

Cricket and Bollywood are soon going to be shaking hands again, this time for another cause but only with a sense of festivity. The venue being Sri Lanka, the twenty 20 charity match between Bollywood and the Sri Lankan cricketers will be played at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on June 4. Organised by IIFA, this one would surely get the crowds soaring in. To add to the delight, IIFA's Bollywood stars' cricket team is said to be captained by none other than Shah Rukh Khan himself, while Kumar Sangakkara will captain the Sri Lankan cricket team. The festivity would be added by the local and Indian singers who would be performing there and the fans would have an opportunity the rub shoulders with their favourite stars. Add to that, the fact that the match isn't extremely serious, the general rules remain except that the Bollywood team gets to have eleven players in a rotating manner so that every player gets a chance to perform. Sri Lanka Cricke

Anupam Kher will be seen yet again with Shahid Kapoor in Mausam . Kher has been asked to join the unit in Edinburgh. The busy actor says, "I'm yet to get a clear indication of my role. But the fact that Pankaj is directing is enough incentive for me. I'm very fond of him as an actor and as a human being. And I also like his son Shahid a lot. In fact in his brief career, I've played Shahid's father thrice (in Sooraj Barjatya's Vivah, Dil Bole Hadippa and Badmaash Company )." This time, though, Anupam isn't playing Shahid's father. It is apparently the role that Pankaj Kapoor had earmarked for himself. Now with direction proving a full-time occupation, Pankaj would much rather concentrate on direction and let the others do the acting. However, the dates for Mausam are still being worked out. Anupam now flies out to the Lake District in England for a walk-on talkathon on the BBC's prestigious business talk show Peschartdt's

For a while it seemed a lost opportunity for the hyper-anxious team of the Kites cast and production members who were in New York for the premiere on Sunday. The team comprising of Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Sussanne Roshan, Rakesh Roshan, wife Pinky Roshan, Anurag Basu and his wife, Rajesh Roshan and his wife plus senior members of the Reliance Big Pictures team were supposed to fly out of New York after the premiere on Monday evening for the London premiere at Leicester Square on Tuesday. That's when the ash clouds struck again and almost all the flights to Europe had to be cancelled or diverted. On Monday morning the Kites team waited anxiously for the verdict. Not being able to reach London in team for the premiere would have meant huge losses. However the team arrived in London from New York late Monday evening. Sanjeev Lamba, the CEO of Reliance Big Picture, says "Flights carrying all of us landed on Monday evening. We were in American and British airline

Tusshar Kapoor and Amrita Rao will head the star cast of Rajshri Productions P. Ltd's new film titled LOVE U... MR. KALAKAAR!, which will be directed by Debutant S. Manasvi, who has also penned the story, screenplay and dialogue. The movie is produced by Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Rajkumar Barjatya and Ajit Kumar Barjatya, with Sooraj R. Barjatya and Rajjat A. Barjatya as Associate Producers. Sandesh Shandilya will score the music. LOVE U... MR. KALAKAAR! is about Sahil, a cartoonist, an artist who derives his inspiration from emotions that come from the sky, from the earth, a scrap of paper, a passing shape, a spider's web, while Ritu is a management trainee, whose world revolves around debits, credits, turnovers, profits, deadlines. She falls in love with Sahil. Will she help him "sketch" the new rules of business? An artist's simplicity amidst the dynamic corporate world! The film will go on floors in early July 2010.

After getting tremendous response on his blog, Big B has joined the Twitter parade and the followers are just rising by the minute. Bachchan goes with twitter handle @SrBachchan . In his effervescent style, his first tweet reads, " @juniorbachchan hey baby !! I made it on twitter !!! Yeeaaaaaahhhh !! ... sorry.. just got carried away .. safe onward flight and love." Now you can be in touch with Big B all the time, though it's yet to be seen what his average tweets would be. Though his fan "following" on twitter would be massive, Big B himself is following his son @juniorbachchan . It'll now be interesting to see if Bachchan breaks records of other superstars like SRK, Salman, Hrithik etc. as far as fan following on twitter is concerned. For now, we can only wait and watch. Till then, Happy Tweeting Mr. Bachchan

Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam is all set to be bestowed with the Jaeger-LeCoultre 'Glory to the Filmmaker' award at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. In recent years, the award has gone to other major world filmmakers such as Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Varda, and Sylvester Stallone. This year however, Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates its six years of partnership with the Venice International Film Festival by announcing Jaeger-LeCoultre 'Glory to the Filmmaker' award. Speaking on why they chose Mani Ratnam for this honour, Marco Mueller, Venice Film Festival director says, "Mani Ratnam used to initially make movies only in his native tongue, Tamil, but has now been one of a handful of filmmakers to successfully handle the transition to the All-India market. One of the great innovators in contemporary Indian cinema, he helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. His movies display precisi

Hrithik Roshan proved a real and literal traffic-stopper in New York on Sunday night when all traffic was halted for him to sprint across 42nd Street to meet his fans. Amidst heavy security bandobast at Times Square, the New York premiere of Kites concluded on Sunday evening to a roaring ovation. There were some heart- stopping moments of security hazard caused mainly by Hrithik Roshan's fan-concern when breaking all protection protocol the star made a dash across the bustling 42nd Street from the venue of the premiere to eager fans across the road. Hrithik Roshan's considerate gesture towards fans at the Times Square venue of the Kites premiere on Sunday evening, created panic for the tense and anxious Kites team. The story goes…at around 5 in the evening when Hrithik along with his co-star Barbara Mori and wife Sussanne, Dad and Mom - Rakesh and Pinky Roshan, director Anurag Basu (with wife) and other members of the team reached the 42nd street at Times Square,

Arjun is the happiest person on the planet as of now. The reasons - Housefull doing well, his next film is a sci-fi film Ra.One , and him opening his club LAP in Mumbai. On the flip side, he is sad too. The reason - 'IPL after party' controversy. But first, the happy moment. Arjun Rampal is quite excited about opening his lounge bar LAP in Mumbai. On questioning him about his ongoing plans, he said, "I'd love to open LAP here in Mumbai. LAP is doing great in Delhi and it's time it sees its inception in this city. I am looking for the right area and space and have almost confirmed one as of now. Hopefully, if I confirm the location in the next few months, you might just see LAP opening by the end of this year in Mumbai or next year. I am excited and can't wait for the launch of LAP now." With location hunting for LAP, then off to the sets for his next film Ra.One with SRK, then off to home spending time with kids and wife, then off to the g

Katrina Kaif is increasingly becoming a security hazard to herself. In spite of the constant flow of stalkers and mobs she continues to step out fearlessly, some would say recklessly without care about repercussions. While Salman Khan has always believed in following security measures, all efforts to convince Katrina to do the same fell on deaf ears. In fact, Katrina has always disregarded security threats. Sometime ago when hordes of young and old people had descended on her at a public gathering she had fobbed off the security arrangements made by the organizers arguing, "They love me. They can never harm me." But her latest daredevilish disregard for all rules of self-preservation takes the cake. On Monday morning, when Katrina was required to fly to Bangalore for an event with Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina just hopped into a taxi with her hand-luggage and took off. Much to the shock and disbelief of the cabbie who had no clue about the VIP passenger he was carrying