BollyBurst 1

Katrina Kaif gets serious
The beautiful British actress who made it big in B Town, Katrina Kaif, is back with her latest role in the much talked about movie Rajneeti, by director Prakash Jha. After releasing the Rhyme Skool (Vol 1) album for AR Rahman (his conservatory students created the music), where her voice features and being a strong supporter of her Mum’s Chennai charity, Relief Projects India (RPI), she sets into her first ‘serious’ role, as Indu Pratap. Tagged as “the Diva who was forced into the battlefield”, of politics. While many complained about her accented Hindi, she continued working extremely hard to become of of Bollywood’s most expensive actresses.
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Bollywood’s Twitter fenzy
Amitabh Bachchan told Thamarai https://thamarai.com/interview-details.php?id=15 that he was quite happy with the blogging medium, yet, as his son’s next big movie, Raavan is about to release, he joined Twitter as @SrBachchan and gained over 100,00 followers in just over a week. The power of Twitter over Bollywood has been immense and films like Kites even became worldwide trending topics on the social networking medium. Whether it is Hrithik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan, Karan Johar, Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra, you can catch them all airing and sharing their views by Tweeting.
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Newcomers from abroad
The appeal of Bollywood is far and wide and an outpouring of foreign stars has become a recent trend. Chinese singer, Meiyang Chang was a dentist from Bangalore, who appeared on Indian Idol 3 – his success got him a role in the hit Yash Raj film, Badmaash Company. Then came the dashing Sendhil Ramamurthy, who is in the upcoming Ekta Kapoor film, Shor. He was in the hit series Heroes which got cancelled and is in the hugely anticipated TV series ‘Covert Affairs’. There was no doubt that he will capture hearts in Bollywood, especially after his dazzling screen presence in Gurinder Chadha’s British comedy, It’s a wonderful afterlife. Making waves with Hrithik Roshan in Kites, is Mexican actress Barbara Mori, who wants to work with Shahrukh Khan next. Cancer survivor, Mori’s exotic Uruguayan/Japanese/Mexican looks have catapulted her to stardom and into the open arms of Bollywood.
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Patiala House
Akshay Kumar, who became one of B Town’s top stars in the last 5 years or so, the man who popularised the caper comedy style of film-making, is back. This time, it’s a British Asian story, of a man who wants to play cricket for England. While his past films had popular international artistes like Kylie Minogue and Snoop Dogg making appearances, he also gave platform to Bhangra artistes like RDB and Bohemia. In this film, former Sona Family rapper, Hard Kaur, joins the cast. She’s been making waves in Bollywood and her feisty Punjabi personality will no doubt resonate with viewers. Also look out for Akshay joining Aishwarya Rai after many years in Action Replayy, which won’t be out for a while, due to the ‘dream team’ being too committed.
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Merchants of Bollywood in London
Director Toby Gough brings back this successful and colourful touring musical to London’s Peacock theatre, at the historic Sadlers Wells. A story that connects Hiralalji Merchant with his granddaughter Vaibhavi Merchant, both acclaimed choreographers in their own times, it puts Bollywood’s history of dance, on the stage. The beautiful Carol Furtado has been with the show for many years now, as the main protagonist, and the show is filled with MTV’esque choreography. The musical is colourful and vibrant and a must, for all Bollywood fans, as it features many popular cinema songs, brought to life. Tickets available here: http://www.sadlerswells.com/
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Words: Ashanti OMkar © Thamarai.com
Ashanti OMkar is a London based multi-media persona, whose work in the publishing and broadcasting has gained her a huge fanbase the world over.  She works with publications like BBC publishing Cineword magazine and Canada’s Anokhi. She comes from a corporate background (Consultancy at places like Oracle, Hilton Group, Pepsi) and transitioned into media in 2003. She has since interviewed the likes of AR Rahman, Amitabh, Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Tamil stars like Vikram, Hariharan and Madhavan, musicians like Jay Sean, John Legend, Nitin Sawhney, and actresses like  Asin, Freida Pinto, Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone amongst many others. She has also interviewed mainstream artistes like Sean Paul and John Legend. She also compères and leads Q&A’s at places like the London Mela, BAFTA, Sadlers Wells, Rich Mix and talent showcases.