Owing to the technical challenges, the concept of weaving a story along aliens and UFOs has always been tricky for Indian filmmakers, but I would like to applaud Shirish Kunder just for the fact that he dared to make a film around extra-terrestrials, even though the success of the venture looks very bleak.

‘Joker’ upped the curiosity level of Indian audience, especially after Bollywood’s exciting and a rather successful brush with ‘Jaadu’ – the most adorable alien we all met in Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Koi Mil Gaya’. But, Kunder’s much ambitious project- ‘Joker’ clearly lacks the ‘wow’ factor which it abundantly promised in the film’s trailer. Entertainment wise, the film really has nothing to offer.

The single star that the film gets is for the fact that Joker is probably the first mainstream comic fantasy made in Mumbai. That apart, it has nothing that remotely resembles a redeeming routine. Pity, even Chitrangada Singh’s Kaafirana dil can make no dent.

What Joker delivers in the garbled guise of the genre plumbs such depths of vapidity that it stands no chance of ever coming up for air.

The run time of the film is an hour and forty-five minutes. Thank God for small mercies. But even at that length, Joker is difficult to deal with.

The story is very run-of the-mill. Akshay (Augustya), a NASA scientist returns to India to improve the condition of his village named ‘Paglapur’, apparently which has lost its identity from the face of the earth. Now since the administrators have no clue as to under whose jurisdiction Paglapur exist, Augustya’s village is devoid of any basic amenities like bijli and paani leading to the inhabitants going eccentric who incidentally happen to be former fugitives of a mental asylum. To improve the situation, Augustya with the help of the villagers hatches an absurd plan to attract media and the administration’s attention, but somehow the scheme doesn’t work out eventually leading to utter chaos.

Akshay Kumar is as good as he can be – and that isn’t all that good. Sonakshi sleepwalks through the film, grinning and frowning as he drowns in the morass,

Give Joker a miss if you value your sanity and money. It gives commercial Hindi cinema a bad name.

Model-turned-actress Esha Gupta is sharing screen space with Emraan Hashmi for the second time in Raaz 3 and she considers the actor her mentor. The 26-year-old, who played the leading lady opposite Hashmi in her debut film “Jannat 2″, said that she was initially intimidated by him but now she cannot do much without his guidance.

This is the second time that the actress will be seen sharing screen space with him. After working with him in the movie Jannat 2, now she is intimidated by him and can’t do anything without his guidance.

Esha said, “I love Emraan. I was really scared of him during Jannat 2, where he used to give his shots like a piece of cake and I would just look at him tongue-tied. He is really sweet, quite like my mentor and he has given me a lot of tips.”

Priyanka Chopra is getting into her rockstar mode. At least this is what it looks are like these days. The actress got her hair coloured purple. Piggy Chops posted a new picture of hers in her purple streaks on Twitter. Ever since she was roped in to release her pop album by Universal Music and promoted by Lady Gaga’s manager, she is making all possible attempts to be taken seriously as a rockstar.

As known to all, the desi girl of Bollywood is into singing and is busy preparing for her first ever music album to be released globally. For the uninitiated, PC in August 2011 signed a worldwide recording agreement with Universal Music Group, the World’s leading Music Company, and Desi Hits. As per the deal, she will release her debut album in North America with Desi Hits through Interscope Records and in other international markets on Island Records UK (distributed in India via Universal Music India).

The very first song of the album is said to release on September 13 and we have heard that in order to give it an Indian touch, PC has asked the makers to turn it a bit desi. The icing on the cake comes as PC’s first single song My City will be featured at the National Football League’s Thursday Kickoff match on September 13 in the United States where she will share the big space with the Black Eyed Peas’ rapper will.i.am!

Talking over the excitement brewing in, she said, “I’m really thrilled to bring my music and a touch of India to America and its football fans. I was quite nervous the first few times I went into the recording booth to sing but everyone has been very supportive and helped me find my feet”.

Last it was Pakistani troubled starlet Veena Malik, who shocked the country and also her own country, by daring to bare all for the cover page of FHM magazine. Well, the latest one from Bollywood to follow Veena’s footsteps is actress Minissha Lamba.

Actress Minissha Lamba might be playing second leads in Bollywood films, but the latest issue of the glamorous magazine Maxim gives her all the focus by placing her on the cover. Her journey from her first film Yahaan, where she played the character of a demure, simple girl from Kashmir cloaked from head-to-toe, to Kidnap where she donned a bikini, includes many makeovers, reported stories of a nose job and more. In the lastest issue of Maxim’s ‘Sex and Relationships’ issue, actress Minissha Lamba poses in the nude with a black sheet that barely covers her assets.

Meanwhile this is not the first time Lamba has been in news for wrong reasons, though this time she has indeed raised many eyebrows with her act. Earlier she made headlines for allegedly going under the knife to correct her body and appearances, though it didn’t help her career in anyway.

Bipasha Basu is attracting for her bold scenes in Raaz 3, and the likes of Poonam Pandey and Sherlyn Chopra have got with their nude photograph updates on social networking sites, it wouldn’t be a surprise that the lesser league of Bollywood actresses start following suit. With her latest film Joker releasing at about the same time of the magazine cover launch, maybe Minishha Lamba would catch the attention of Bollywood’s big banners and finally have a blockbuster to her name.

No doubts, Nargis Fakhri made a successful debut in Bollywood with Rockstar but we have to agree that it was Ranbir Kapoor’s stupendous performance that garnered all the attention in the film. Nargis too caught attention, but it was of critics, who showered flaks on her for zombie-like performance.

Needless to say, the film that worked wonders for the lead actor, did precious little for her career. The threefilm-deal that Nargis had reportedly signed with Akshay Kumar’s production house Hari Om Productions even before her first film released, seems to have been called off as well. In fact, the first film of the deal, Khiladi 786, has Asin as the leading lady, instead of Fakhri. And though a friend of the actress insists that Nargis has two film offers she can’t talk about right now, Mirror has learnt that the one-film-wonder already has a Plan B ready.

But is Fakhri is definitely not fretting. Though today the babe has precious li’l on her plate as far as B-town movies are concerned but looks like the pouty faced actor has a back-up plan all ready! Quiz the babe about what she would like to do apart from twiddling her thumbs and she says, “I want to help people, be of some service, you know. Maybe become like Oprah Winfrey some day.” Whoa! Now that’s some ambition, no? Or is it just wishful thinking? We think it’s more of the latter.Though some may think that television is her backup plan, Imtiaz Ali still swears by her talent. However, sources from the industry feel that other filmmakers have failed to warm up to the US based model. And the reasons they say, could be varied. According to sources, apart from the flak she received for her performance in Rockstar, the fact that she is based in the US may have worked against her film career. Perhaps on the small screen, she will fare better.

Now that EK THA TIGER has turned out to be a blockbuster and has been seen by one and all, it is apparent that despite Salman Khan in the title role, Katrina Kaif wasn’t just ornamental to the film but had a key part to play. This also manages to reiterate her director Kabir Khan’s statement that for an actress to see such good winning streak for eight years in a row, it can’t be luck but some solid script sense.

Katrina said, “Well, I trusted Kabir here. He comes with a very good sense of story and drama while his strong execution further demonstrates his solid grasp of cinema. He knows how to build drama and enhance it with visual treatment. Coming to your point around me believing in the script of Ek Tha Tiger then well, I had a lot of faith in the film even when just a basic thread was narrated to me. Later when I heard the entire script and then was a part of the shoot, my belief in the film and Kabir was further reinforced.”

Katrina further said, “One thing about Kabir is that he has a very strong role for his heroine. He never sees a woman as an ornamental thing where she comes for five songs and then goes away. If a heroine is cast then she ought to have a very strong and important character. Due to that reason I never felt tense about how my role would ultimately shape up on-screen.”

Esha Gupta is just one film old in Bollywood, but she is all set to push the envelop when it comes to bold scenes. The hot and sultry actress claims that her co-star Emraan Hashmi is a friend and there were no inhibitions about kissing scenes with the actor.

Esha shares the screen space with serial kisser even in her second film and about the same, she says, “I am lucky that I am working with Emraan again as it gives me experience and comfort. I became an Emraan Hashmi fan after Zeher. I remember, I wasn’t allowed to go to theatres, so I saw that film at home. That time I realized that he is a good actor. For me it was always Emraan Hashmi, the actor.”

“Now, almost everyone kisses in a film. We have seen Deepika and Saif, Ranbir and Nargis. Kissing is not such a big deal, but its just Emraan, who has got the tag of serial kisser. I was not at all nervous while kissing him. We treated those scenes just like any other scene,” adds the actress.

Bong Beauty Bipasha Basu is known for her fitness and strict diet regimes. However the actress has taken us by surprise as we hear that she couldn’t help herself from gorging on authentic Bengali food.

During the shoot of the upcoming thriller Aatma, shot at Filmalaya Studios, the actress came across multi cuisine and she went out of her way and ordered Bengali food on the sets of the movie. The film is a psychological thriller directed by Suparn Verma and also stars Gangs of Wasseypur fame Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

A source from the sets said, “Bipasha is a fish lover and yesterday she called for some delicious Bengali food for her and the entire crew from the very famous Bengali restaurant ‘Bhojohari Manna’ in Oshiwara. And once the gourmet food was on the sets you can only imagine what must have happened! The entire unit went crazy over the yummy delicacies and it was a feast of sorts on the sets since there was so much food ranging from fish to prawns and also mishti doi and rasogullas.”

”And once the gourmet food was on the set, you can only imagine what must have happened! The entire unit went crazy over the yummy delicacies and it was a feast of sorts on the sets since there was so much food ranging from fish to prawns and also mishti doi and rasgullas,” the source added.

Kareena Kapoor and Salman Khan indirectly called Sonakshi Sinha fat sometime back. There’s an addition to the list. Bigg Boss winnner and her Joker co-star Vindu Dara Singh thinks “Sonakshi is a little fat“.

Shooting for a film calls for quite a long schedule, which ends up making the entire cast and crew bond well.

And one such house on fire tale was seen on the sets of Shirish Kunder’s upcoming Joker. The film alongside, Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Shreyas Talpade and Minissha Lamba; also stars Vindu Dara Singh. In the film he plays the character of Shundi, Akshay’s friend. It has been learnt that the veteran had a whale of time working with both Akki and Sonakshi.

“Akshay used to often say that Sonakshi’s mother should make the food. Sonakshi’s mom made Sarson ka sag, fish in sarson ka tel and paye ka soup many times. We used to often joke that Sonakshi should not be fed with such good food,” Vindu was quoted by the tabloid.

Vindu is not the only one who has remarked about Sonakshi’s weight. Here’re others who took a dig at the lady’s broad frame.

Actor Arjun Rampal is no longer part of Apoorva Lakhia’s remake of “Zanjeer”. He was earlier slated to essay the part of Sher Khan, played by Pran in the 1973 original, but date hassles played spoilsport.

“Arjun Rampal is not doing the film. He had some date issues so he could not do the film,” Lakhia told IANS.

The role was reportedly first offered to Sanjay Dutt even before Arjun was approached for it. But Lakhia dismissed it as mere speculation.

“It’s all media speculation. We never considered anyone else other than Arjun for this role. We have not yet decided who will be replacing Arjun in the film. Talks are on,” he added.

Produced by Amit Mehra and directed by Lakhia, the “Zanjeer” remake features southern star Ram Charan Teja as the male lead. He will reprise megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s role from the original.

While some say emotions doesn’t need the mantle of language to cover them, we guess the dialect plays a substantial role in letting the thoughts and ideas expressed in the right manner.

Now just look at ace chorographer-turned-director Prabhu Deva, who as known, is not well versed with Hindi. He finds it hard to converse in Hindi as he feels more comfortable interacting in Tamil.

However, now that he is more into Hindi films, the director feels that his command over the language is getting better day by day. But he still loves talking in Tamil and this was when actress Shruti Hassan came down for his rescue. Buzz has it that Shruti is working in Prabhu Deva’s yet to be titled next, which features Kumar Taurani’s son Girish in his debut role. Sources from the film’s set say that Shruti speaks to Prabhu in Tamil only and makes sure that he is at ease while explaining the scenes to all.

On Sunday August 26, Bollywood mourned the demise of the grand old man of Hindi cinema and distinguished theatre artist AK Hangal. The town stars fondly remembered the veteran actor saying his demise has left a ‘sannata‘ (silence).

“My father was put on a ventilator but his health kept deteriorating since yesterday. He passed away at 9:00 am (0330 GMT) today,” he said.

The film artists went the Twitter way to pay their condolences. Shabana Azmi tweeted, “A K Hangal no more. An era comes to an end. Theatre and films were enriched by him.” While filmmaker Shekhar Kapur tweeted, “A K Hangal. Lifetime dedicated to the art of acting in theatre. Will always be remembered by his films.”

Actor Arshad Warsi, who shared screen space with Hangal in Amitabh Bachchan’s 2006 home production Tere Mere Sapne, prayed for the departed soul. “I had the pleasure of working with A K Hangal in ‘Tere Mere Sapne’, my first film… May his soul rest in peace,” Warsi said.