CELEBRITY HUB

Dec 22, 2007

Dec 21, 2007

GAURI KHAN On Vogue Magazine Cover

AAMIR KHAN--“I have never used the media,”

“I have never used the media,” Aamir Khan

You used the media at your own whims and fancies?
Not true, tell me one incident when I have used the media for my own selfish interest. I think I’m the only star who hasn’t used the media till date.

Then how come we are doing this interview prior to the release of your film TZP?
Because I wanted people to know that I have made a great film and I want you guys to spread the message. You guys play a very important part in that.

That’s exactly what we mean. You are inaccessible throughout the year and appear before the media only when you have a film to release?
(Pause)It’s a false allegation again. Name a single interview I have given before the release of Mangal Pandey and Faana . I know the media have often accused me of appearing before them when I have a film to release. I was sick and tried of this allegation and decided not to speak to anyone during Mangal Pandey and Faana. My producers cried and pleaded with me to speak up, but I refused. I told them no matter what, I will not promote the film as I want to prove a point.

And you continued to play hide and seek with us?
Hmm, no. You now what? I got very bad press after Mangal Pandey . They hit me right, left and centre. And same the thing happened during the crisis in my personal life. Every individual goes through ups and down in their personal life, but I got such unfair press coverage that I went into a shell and decided to stay away from you guys.

What made you come out of your shell?
My friends in the media advise me to speak up. They told me you are the only intelligent guy in the industry who makes sense and please don’t stop talking.

The general impression is that you are a recluse?
I’m not. I’m as normal as anyone. Do I look like a recluse from any angle to you? My only problem is that when I get involved with something, I don’t see any other thing. I get occupied with it till I finish it. I can’t handle two many things at the same time.

But you have just done with ‘TZP’, actor, director cum producer. Donning three hats at the same time?
Trust me it was never a planned move. It just happened. Maybe I was destined to direct this film.

Destined?
Yeah, thought I’m glad I’m making my directorial venture with ‘TZP’, but if I had my way I would have chosen something else.

‘TZP’ was Amol Gupte films, until you decided to throw him out and become the director.
Hey, I didn’t throw him out, but yes we had major creative differences. He shot the film for a week and showed me the rushes. I was not happy with it. I told him, Amol it’s not happening; I think we need to re-think. If you want the film to be produced by me, I should be given the freedom to decide how the film will be made. And its better if you give the film to someone else, or else let me make it my way.

source:thetimesofindia

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Cake-Mixing Ceremony

Dec 20, 2007

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ABHISHEK BACHCHAN Praised TAARE ZAMEEN PAR

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Shah Rukh Khan Made History

BOLLYWOOD KA BADSHAH

SRK gets a crore to grace event
Forget Lakhs, Crore Is The New Lakh In Bollywood

Shah Rukh Khan made history. When the Bollywood supremo appeared as the guest of honour at a function where the Gulf Finance House (one of the leading Islamic Investment Banks in West Asia) signed a business pact with the government of Maharashtra, the actor reportedly mopped up a whopping Rs 1 crore as his fee

For Khan, charging a crore is nothing new — he has been paid several crores for stage performances both in India and overseas, as, reportedly, have Akshay and Hrithik. However, no actor in Bollywood history has ever charged the Big C just to grace an occasion.
It took Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood’s biggest star in the 1970s and part-’80s, three decades of hard work before he could reach the magical 1-crore figure for K C Bokadia’s Lal Badshah (1999). And it took his ‘bahu’ Aishwarya Rai a Miss India crown and a few topsy-turvy years in the movies before she could charge Rs 1 crore.

“Today, thanks to loaded corporates, the crore has lost its significance in Bollywood,’’ avers trade analyst Amod Mehra. Adds Ram Mirchandani, UTV executive vice-president (motion pictures), “One crore is the new one lakh.’’

Indeed, say trade sources, it is not only the top echelons of the film business that are raking the moolah in hand over fist. “Directors, cinematographers and music directors are also demanding a croreplus as their remuneration,’’ says a Bollywood insider.

In the past few days, several deals have fallen through because a lot of actors have been demanding a crore — it is alleged that Tabu walking out of Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ is one such. An insider claims that the internationally feted ‘The Namesake’ actress was signed for the film two years ago for Rs 20 lakh. However, since the project came back to her after a few glitches and with many changes, including a new leading man, Farhan Akhtar, she asked for Rs 1 crore.

While sterling performers Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi, who are clearly slotted as supporting actors, have recently shocked filmmakers by demanding Rs 1.5 crore as their fee, even those on the periphery of tinseltown like Zayyed Khan and Abhay Deol have had the gumption to demand Rs 1 crore.

Mehra confirms that membership to the Crore Club in Bollywood is no longer exclusive. While Alist actors and directors like Karan Johar, David Dhawan, Raakesh Roshan and Madhur Bhandarkar have been enrolled for a while now, smaller players, albeit reluctantly, are also being let into this no longer cocooned space.

'Mother Teresa, not Diana, first saint of the celebrity age'

Mother Teresa, not Princess Diana, was the first saint of the celebrity age, according to a new book on the diminutive nun.

In an attempt to re-define the world's idea of the 20th-century icon, 'Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?', sociologist Dr Gezim Alpion says Mother Teresa's image was a creature she allowed to come to being by using media attention to further her cause.

Alpion, who shares the nun's Albanian origins, lays bare the astonishing decision she made to invite the world's media into her life, in stark contrast to other missionaries and people in public life.

Pointing out that "any internet search engine confirms the assertion (she) was a media celebrity", the book lists 4,470,000 Google hits from a search for Mother Teresa. In contrast, Diana gets 4,250,000 Google hits, Hitler 4,090,000, David Beckham 5,150,000 and God gets 168,000,000.

The book, just published by Routledge in India, says that much of the world's fascination with the tiny nun was part of her extraordinary use of media attention, so much so that she successfully got the Vatican to recognise her mission as a new order in the shortest time ever.

Alpion, a lecturer at Birmingham university, says that the Missionaries of Charity have always been the only Catholic order to be independent of Vatican funding, right from the start and Mother's success in attracting private donations was at least partly because she masterminded her image at the hands of the media, the Indian government and, much later, the Vatican.

Offering a canny view into the nun's skills with the press, Alpion adds hitherto little-known insight into Mother Teresa's remarkable embrace of Indian garb and Indian citizenship, both of which helped her to establish her Catholic order in Indian minds as completely indigenous. She was able to woo novices directly from India at a rate unknown for any other Catholic order, the book says, adding that this was a recipe for success unsought by any missionary in India.

The book, originally published in London is expected to renew the debate over Mother Teresa's work and motivation in half-a-century of caring for the destitute and dispossessed in India.

source:thetimesofindia