stoppress
Mila splits with beau
P 10
ENGAGED, NOT MARRIED
SALLU ON KJO’S SHOW
Contrary to recent reports that actor Celina Jaitly has secretly married Dubai-based hotelier, Peter Haag, Jaitly says she’s not married, only engaged. The actor, who started dating Haag 10 months ago, says she she got engaged in a private ceremony in her Mumbai house. Only close family members were present at the event.
Actor Salman Khan may be Shah Rukh Khan’s biggest rival, but SRK’s best friend, filmmaker Karan Johar, doesn’t mind sharing a cup of coffee with Sallu. Sources say KJO invited Sallu to be a guest on his show Koffee with Karan, and Sallu has finally agreed. Actor Aamir Khan with wife Kiran Rao, too, will reportedly be a part of the same episode.
A SUNSET WEDDING
PHOTO: ZABEEH AFAQUE
N EW D E L H I , We d n e s day J a n ua r y 0 5 , 2 0 1 1 , 1 0 PA G ES w w w. h i n d u s t a n t i m e s . c o m
PHOTO: FOTOCORP
Salman Khan may feature on Karan Johar’s chat show
Inside
All the dope on Imran Khan’s wedding and beach after-party in Thailand next week
Neha Sharma and Navdeep Kaur Marwah ■
‘Yellow journalism is important’ Minakshi Saini ■
minakshi.saini@hindustantimes.com
R
ani Mukerji, who is otherwise infamous for media bashing, is suddenly all praise for scribes. Reason: the actor plays a crime reporter in the forthcoming film, No One Killed Jessica. “I really respect journalism. In a world where people are so diplomatic, journalists speak their minds based on facts, which is fantastic,” says Mukerji. The actor had criticised tabloid journalism when reports of her engagement with filmmaker Aditya Chopra surfaced. But, predictably, she now seems to have buried the
hatchet. “Yellow journalism is important as people wish to read sensational stories about their favourite actors,” she says. However, she feels it is crime reporting that is serious stuff. “Bollywood reporting is easy, as you know that the stars are not going to get nasty with you, since they just want their egos inflated. Crime reporting is a tough job, as you risk your life with every incident you cover.” Though she doesn’t have any suggestions for journalists, she says, “I have tried to portray them as nobly as they really are. Journalists are the heroes of the film.”
neha.sharma@hindustantimes.com
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et ready for the first Bollywood wedding of 2011. On Monday, January 10, actor Imran Khan ties the knot with long-time girlfriend Avantika Malik. The wedding ceremony itself may be a family-only affair, but there’s also a starstudded mehandi party and a wedding bash in Thailand on the cards. On Saturday, the couple will host a mela (carnival) themed mehandi cum pre-wedding bash at the Maliks’ farmhouse in Karjat on the outskirts of Mumbai. Cooks who’ve served Imran’s family for over five decades, will be flown in from Lucknow. The registered marriage will take place at Imran’s house — with a black, white and silver-themed ceremony. This will be followed by a dinner at Mumbai’s Taj Lands End. After this, the party will move to Phuket, Thailand, for a beachside celebration.
For Christina... love, Bollywood Aaron George ■
aaron.george@hindustantimes.com
I
PHOTO: LFI
Publicity ke liye kuch bhi karega? It was a publicity video with a cause — actors Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan conducted a ‘sting operation’ on a producer asking a female actor for sexual favours. Now, detractors wonder if they may have gone too far for publicity. “All the marketing done by UTV is in tune with what the film is trying to say — especially the importance of fighting for women’s rights,” Rajkumar Gupta, director, No One Killed Jessica. AARON GEORGE
Designers Shantanu and Nikhil Mehra, who are designing outfits for the beach ceremony, reveal, “It is a sunset wedding, so we’ve designed a scarlet gown for Avantika.” Designer Varun Bahl is designing one of the wedding outfits, while Manish Malhotra is designing Avantika’s wedding lehenga. The invite for the pre-wedding bash (see pic, inset) has been designed by Mumbai-based designer Uttara Shah. The box with the invite has chocolates and a swipe card. “The invite is designed like a 2011 planner, personalised with names. They were clear that they did not want a traditional wedding card,” says Shah. Among the invitees are filmmakers Danish Aslam, Punit Malhotra, Kunal Kohli, actors Genelia D’Souza, Sonam Kapoor, Shruti Seth, Kunal Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Deepika Padukone is cutting short her London vacation with beau Siddharth Mallya to attend Saturday’s bash. “The wedding is going to be one mad party,” says Seth. “I’m really looking forward to the wedding. I wish them all the best,” says Kohli.
t’s a marketing strategy with an international twist. In an attempt to promote the upcoming film Turning 30, which stars Gul Panag and Purab Kohli, its makers are sending Grammy award winner Christina Aguilera a special gift hamper to mark her 30th birthday. The film’s director, Alankrita Shrivastava touched base with Aguilera’s manager in Los Angeles and received a reply from the pop queen herself, saying she would be more than happy to accept the present. “Hitting the big 30 mark has become a great deal, especially for women, and that is what the movie is about. So, we decided to do something special for those who turned 30 recently, and decided to start with Christina,” says the Alankrita, adding that Aguilera also said that she’s a big fan of Bollywood films.
Good job, Censors! Hiren Kotwani ■
I think the committee found NOKJ to be too powerful and didn’t want to cut anything, lest it affects the overall impact.
hiren.kotwani@hindustantimes.com
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very time a film with a controversial subject is censored, filmmakers protest against the cuts demanded by the Censor Board. However, for a change, certain filmmakers are lauding the Board’s understanding in clearing No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ), Turning 30 and 7 Khoon Maaf without any deletions — albeit with ‘A’ ratings. While Rajkumar Gupta’s NOKJ is based on the Jessica Lall case and Alankrita Shrivastava’s Turning 30 is about an independent female protagonist, Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf is an adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands, in which the lead actor kills her seven husbands, one by one. Given the nature of the subjects, there are a number of scenes
Rajkumar Gupta
and a lot of dialogue, which would have to be edited to get a ‘U/A’ or ‘U’ (Universal) rating. But the filmmakers chose to go with the ‘A’ rating. Conceding that he expected an A rating, Gupta says, “I think the committee found my film to be too powerful and didn’t want to cut anything from it, lest it affects the overall impact.”
Shrivastava attributes the change to the new regional officer, Pankaja Thakur. Initially, the director had issues with the Board for not clearing the film’s promos that showed Gul Panag’s character saying that she can’t marry a man just because she’s slept with him. “After I had a discussion with Pankaja, things got sorted
out.” Though she feels the Board needs to do some serious rethinking, she praises them for finally clearing her film without any cuts. However, Thakur maintains that there is no change in the guidelines. “We recommend cuts only when the filmmakers want a ‘U/A’ or ‘U’ rating. We aim to not compromise the director’s creativity,” she says, adding, “Sometimes we go the extra mile to do something for a film. Even filmmakers were not so forthcoming about talking well about the Censor Board earlier.”
It’s only a short Argentina trip for Shah Rukh Khan ENTERTAINMENT Page 2
Gear up for some experimental theatre MY CITY Page 6
Imran Khan and Avantika Malik have been seeing each other for eight years
New year, old faux pas LIFESTYLE Page 7