Bollyburst 8

A third film based on Chetan Bhagat’s writing

After having “Night @ Call Center” and “5 Point Someone” turned into films, Chetan Bhagat’s “2 States” is the third of his books to be made into a movie. The film is to be directed by Siddharth Anand, whose latest film “Anjaana Anjaani” is currently doing very well at the box office. The lead roles are believed to have been given to Priyanka Chopra and Saif Ali Khan, two gorgeous people who have not yet worked together.  Who thinks their on-screen chemistry will be amazing?

Vivek says “No!” to smoking

Actor Vivek Oberoi is well-known for his stance on smoking; he is part of the “No Smoking Campaign”.
His role as Paritala Ravi in Ram Gopal Varma’s “Rakht Charithra” required him to smoke, but the actor stuck to his guns and refused to do so, as he did not want to set a bad example for his fans. The film is being made in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, and is based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, a politician in Andhra Pradesh, South India, who was killed by political rivals in2005. Vivek Oberoi plays Paritala Ravi and Tamil star Suriya has taken up the role of Ravi’s political opponent – Maddelacheruvu Suri. Radhika Apte plays Ravi’s wife, and Shatrughan Sinha and Priyamani also star.

On a related note, Vivek Oberoi also recently spoke about working with Tamil actor Suriya: “I’ve known Suriya anna for almost 7 years now and with every year he has only grown, both as an actor and as a human being with a golden heart! …[he] has been a source of inspiration and advice and I treasure him as a brother….He is the true ‘singham’ at heart :)"

Akshay Kumar’s R-Word campaign makes progress

We recently reported on actor Akshay Kumar’s campaign to ban the use of the word “retard”. To date, over 9 million people have signed the pledge! The campaign will come to a head with a fashion show, where the actor will model clothes designed by Ramesh Dembla – a local designer. Then he will award those who have collected the most signatures – at the moment this goes to a school in India which collected 98,000 signatures! The next step will involve him handing all the signatures he’s received to the Parliament, in the hopes that this will lead to the banning of the use of the R-word in all languages spoken in India. Let’s hope that this campaign can help to make a change! Click here to check out his pledge video.

“Honoured” to be a villain

Hollywood actor Jeff Doucette, who stars as the villain in upcoming movie “Hisss” which also stars Mallika Sherawat, has said that he is “honoured to step into a proud tradition”. He says that the “villain is a respected character in India”, and is proud to be the first American to play a villain in Bollywood.  He also assures us that the film has a good story and is definitely worth a watch. Hisss was shot in both English and Hindi, and is slated for an October 22nd release.

Kavya Rajagopalan (c) thamarai.com