Our sources reveal that Bollywood mega-star Amitabh Bachchan surprised Gujarat tourism Secretary Vipul Mittra by deciding to fly in economy class, all the way from Mumbai to Gujarat on Friday. Apparently, Mittra, who especially flew to Mumbai to receive the actor, wanted to hire a chartered plane for Big B, who has been appointed as the ambassador of Gujarat tourism.

However, the legendary actor refused the offer and asked to make reservation in Jet Airways regular flight. So arrangements were made for him to fly to Gujarat for a promotional shoot on the tourism development of the state. Everybody on the flight was pleasantly surprised to see such a huge star seated amongst them, with no starry tantrums at that.

Amitabh Bachchan, who had been appointed the ambassador for promoting Gujarat tourism by Chief Minister Narendra Singh Modi couple of months ago, will be staying in Gujarat for a week. His flight was half an hour late, so he headed straight to farm house where he was supposed to stay. Later in the day, Big B shot for couple of hours at a banquet hall of a hotel in Bhuj where set was created. More

Imran Khan who became a sensation after Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa is returning to the genre with I Hate Luv Storys (IHLS), which he says is a parody of all things Bollywood. Though Imran’s new film pokes fun at the “cheesy” treatment given to love stories in Hindi cinema, the actor says that the film does not take a condescending look at Bollywood, instead the laughters come from the fact that everyone loves the much derided cliches.

“IHLS is a self parody and we are not shying away from admitting that. See, the fact is that there is a tendency amongst a lot of people in the industry to say that the song and dance routine is passe. It is something that I have never understood,” the actor told PTI.

The Karan Johar production, directed by debutante Punit Malhotra sees Imran pair up with Sonam Kapoor, who plays a die-hard filmi romantic.

If promos are any indication, the film makes an unabashed statement about the song, dance, mush and romance in Bollywood. But he is all for more song and dance in films, said the 27-year-old actor. More

The yes and the no for the mega event are common every year. Big names in Bollywood from Amitabh Bachchan to Shahrukh Khan to Salman Khan have confirmed their presence at the upcoming International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards 2010 but Arjun Rampal will miss it.

Arjun can’t attend the event, as he is going to promote his upcoming release Raajneeti by Prakash Jha, which has invited lots of controversies including his love-making scene with a theatre actress. He cleared it on his Twitter page, “Will not be going to IIFA, have a charity event in Hong Kong for Raajneeti that day.”

Arjun had earlier said that he had observed young politicians like Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, the young Rajiv Gandhi and the young Sanjay Gandhi to know their mannerism and body language for his role in the film.  Source

The most gorgeous actress Katrina Kaif visited the Ajmer Dargah on Friday ahead of the release of her film Rajneeti.

Draped in a white coloured traditional salwar-Kameez, Katrina offered the religious ‘Chaadar’ on the mausoleum of the Sufi saint Khwaja Mouinuddin Chisty and prayed for the success of her film.

In ‘Rajneeti’, Kaif is portraying a serious politician draped in Khadi saris depicting the role of a strong woman politician.

The storyline of the film raised many speculations about it being similar to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The film has been shot mainly in Bhopal and is slated to hit the theatres on June 4. Source

The hottest bollywood babe Mallika Sherawat is making the most of her time at Cannes. The actress made it to the coveted list of the top 13 best-dressed celebs at Cannes this year.

The actress herself ascribes her dress sense to the company she keeps. “I think that it’s the result of hanging out with international designers,” she recently wrote.

While many Bollywood actresses have essayed the role of the icchadhari nagin, none have got quite as much publicity for it. However, Mallika says that Sridevi’s portrayal of the role is her favourite. “Comparisons are odious. Yet, Sridevi is in a league of her own. There can be no comparisons,” she says.

While at Cannes, the actress wasted no time in befriending Hollywood actors Gerard Butler, Ryan Gosling and Salma Hayek. But most importantly for Mallika, Roberto Cavalli complimented her lavishly when they met at a dinner. Source

Hrithik Roshan had high hopes from his latest release Kites . But critics’ disapproval seems to have hurt him and he is hitting back at them.He said recently: “I hardly take critics’ comments to heart. Even when they praised or criticised me in my previous films. I would rather go by the box office collections.”

Sure Kites grossed over Rs 21 crore on its opening day, but the verdict is that the audiences went to see the film but didn’t like it. The Spanish – Hindi – English love story didn’t jell with the tastes of the masses in India.

The film didn’t have a gripping story or screenplay either. Of course the foreign audience might have a different take on it. Hrithik maintains he tried something different and Kites is the best film of his career. Source

The Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan, who joined Twitter a few days ago, congratulated actor Shah Rukh Khan for having as many as 400,000 followers on the microblogging site.

“Congrats!! you crossed 400,000… meri gaadi thoda dheeli chal rahi hai (I’m at a slower pace at the moment),” the 67-year-old posted on his Twitter page.

Amitabh, who has become a regular on the site now, presently has 98,228 followers. While he writes on his Twitter page couple of times during the day, he also has a blog, a voice blog and a mobile blog.

Amitabh’s son Abhishek too has an account on Twitter. Source

The King Khan is well known for his professionalism and the superstar proved his commitment to work recently when he went to shoot for a toothpaste ad despite having fever. Shah Rukh, the new brand ambassador of Pepsodent toothpaste, had to shoot for its latest ad campaign “Pappu and Pappa” at Filmcity for three days.

Even though Shah Rukh was down with 104 degree (Fahrenheit) fever, he made sure that it did not affect the shooting schedules. The actor made it a point to shoot for the campaign instead of cancelling it, said a source. Shah Rukh has teamed up with child artist Keval and had to give multiple shots till his young co-star got it all right.

Shah Rukh did not complain throughout the long hours of shoot besides the numerous takes he was made to go through, said the source.  The ad is about a father-son relationship and on the sets Shah Rukh behaved a perfect dad encouraging Keval at every cut, pepping him if he would get bored. Source

Its a known fact now that Bipasha Basu lost her role in Raavan as Mandodari (Raavan’s wife in the Ramayan) because the starcast is already top heavy.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Sita), South superstar Vikram (Ram), Abhishek Bachchan (Raavan); National Award winner Priya Mani (Shoorpankha), Govinda (Hanuman) etc.

TOI was the first to report that Bips was actually ready with costume and almost getting into her car to drive to Malshej, when she got unceremoniously dumped because it took the creative team that long to decide whether she should drive to the location or not. However, there are websites and papers still writing about Bips being dropped because certain members of the cast were threatened by her dominating screen presence. Now that isn’t true. Honestly, wish people would just let some matters ride.

Ash and Bips shared great vibes during Dhoom-2 and they are quite civil with each other. Bips is doing Dum Maro Dum that has Abhishek in the lead and though Bips is cast with Rana Dagubatti, she and AB Junior get along famously. So who is arriving at all these theories one wonders?  Source

After creating romantic offscreen and onscreen chemistry with Hrithik Roshan, Mexican beauty Barbara Mori is now eying to work with superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The 32-year-old actress has been praised for her sizzling chemistry with Hrithik in Anurag Basu directed ‘Kites’.

But before she can foray into Bollywood, the model-turned actress needs to brush up her linguistic skills and learn Hindi.

Barbara, who was here with Hrithik and producer Rakesh Roshan for the promotion of their film, sought help from the father-son duo to translate questions thrown at her by the audience.

When asked if she has signed any new projects the actress replied in negative but added, “I want to work with Shah Rukh Khan.”  Source

Hit or no hit, Hrithik Roshan’s fans couldn’t care less about the film he had come to promote on Sunday afternoon, as long as they could get a glimpse of the man himself. Added advantage? Someone had spread the word that Barbara Mori is looking hot in a cool, short dress. Phir toh, the crowd at TGIP mall in Noida multiplied by the second.

The Kites pair, Hrithik and Barbara, was to come to Big Cinemas for a press conference, but before that, there was a short interaction with the crowd too. This only excited the crowd more, and soon, they began to roar his name.

The pair was also supposed to make an appearance at the Provogue store. They’d even advertised the same – and this added to the chaos, for, the crowd outside the store became unmanageable, with everyone hanging over the barricades and floor railings to look into the store. But, Hrithik and Barbara never came to the store. Sources later told us that Hrithik, who was also accompanied by Rakesh Roshan, was miffed at the visible chaos created by the immense crowd at the event. “Hrithik was upset after the crowd present in the mall misbehaved with Barbara Mori… They leapt over, and some even tried to touch Barbara, and in the melee, it left Barbara with scratched knees and a ripped nail,” said the source, who was present there. More

It might come as a surprise to many but Lara Dutta is the latest star to join Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2. The actress has been cast alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Arjun Rampal — all three who have been retained from its prequel Don.

And though producer Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan are tight-lipped about her role, a source revealed that the actress is touted to play a femme fatale in this slick-flick. However, whether Lara will be seen vying for SRK’s attention alongside Priyanka remains to be seen. A source said, “Lara’s not replacing Eesha (Koppikhar). She’s a completely new addition to the cast with an entirely new part written for her. But yes, the role will require Lara to learn some form of martial arts and she is very kicked about doing an action role.”

For Lara, it may just be a dream come true, as she had not too long ago revealed her wish of doing a hard-core action-oriented role. Incidentally, with Lara and Priyanka on board, the film teams two former Miss Indias (Universe and World, respectively) who had made their debut together in the 2003 Akshay Kumar starrer Andaz.  Source