New Delhi (PTI): His recent roles might be ‘king-sized’ but Akshay Kumar prefers to be called Bollywood’s clown rather than its king.

“I hate being called the king of Bollywood I will better be called a clown. My main concern is to entertain people,” said Akshay Kumar, who was here to promote Kambakkht Ishq, released on Friday, with co-star Kareena Kapoor.

The Singh is Kinng star had raised some eyebrows with his rap song Sara Bollywood ek mera koi nahi mel. Acting karne chale aise hazaaro, Badshah ek baki saare fail inChandni Chowk to China.

Kambakkht Ishq boasts of an international starcast including Hollywood actors Sylvester Stallone, Bondgirl Richards and Brandon Routh and has Akshay playing the role of a Hollywood stuntman.

Akshay said like most of his films Kambakkht Ishq too is a complete Bollywood masala entertainer as it delves into the age-old battle of sexes.

“Logic does not work for me. I had worked in a logical film 8X 10 Tasveer but it bombed. I think films are bigger than life. ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ has a lot of comedy, emotions, action and battle of sexes,” said the actor, who plays a typical male chauvinist character in the film.

The actor may be hailed as one of Bollywood’s best action heroes with his death-defying stunts but Akshay said he too struggles to overcome his fears before performing a daring scene. “I just love heights but whenever I do a stunt, even if its from a stool, I get scared. But in the end I overcome my fears.”

Talking about his experiences about sharing the screen space with Stallone, he said in a jocular vein, “I thought I’d be silent when I’ll meet him. Of all the things, we were talking about bones. His knee was broken, while I had a bad back so the focus was on our respective doctors.”

Akshay was quite adamant about his ‘kissing’ scene with former Bond girl Richards and said he did what was required in the film.

“Kambhakt Ishq represents a mix of cultures, I have done what was required,” he said.

The actor who has moved away from the ‘action’ tag in recent comedy blockbusters felt it’s very difficult to make people laugh.

“It is very easy to do an emotional scene, you can just put some glycerin. But to make people laugh through comedy is very difficult,” he said.

Also see:

# I’m very much unlike the Bebo of ‘Kambakkht…’: Kareena
# ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ disappoints critics

Bollywood is still reeling from the shock. One of its own — Shiney Ahuja, one of the industry’s most critically acclaimed actors — was arrested on Sunday, June 13 for allegedly raping his maid.

A black cloth pulled over his weeping face, roughed up by the cops, being led to the back of a police truck. While Bollywood (and the rest of the country) saw this disturbing image of the otherwise confident, bordering on arrogant movie star booked for alleged rape, they waited for more concrete information before they could pass judgments. At least most of them did.

The news over the next few days: The 17 or 18 year-old maid — reports about her age vary — told the police that she was bound, gagged and raped by the actor at his residence while his wife and daughter were out of the country. She even claims that Ahuja threatened to kill her if she talked of the incident. Investigations continue, but the girl’s medical tests have confirmed rape. Sources reveal that while the actor has confessed to having sexual relations with his maid, he has denied charges of rape.

Bollywood has been known to support their own during hard times, but as reports convicting Shiney Ahuja pour in, it is clear that the film industry is not rooting for him. Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, responsible for one of Ahuja’s most successful films (Gangster), told a news channel that he was especially shocked because he worked closely with the actor. “It is a shameful act and it must be condemned,” he said. Film writers and analysts also paint a bleak future, saying that even if the charges against the actor are dropped, it will be difficult for him to resurrect his career in Bollywood.

Ahuja’s wife Anupam, however, continues to support him, during this trying time. “I am proud to be his wife…I know my man and I stand by him,” she told several media publications.

And while the accused and his family will wait for the law to take its course, some media reports are filling the gap between now and judgment day with alternate predictions. True to Bollywood style, numerologists and astrologists have sprung into action, and are busy predicting Ahuja’s fate based on planetary positions. One particular numerologist to the stars said, “Shiney Ahuja’s name adds up to No. 7(34), which represents Neptune. This number is often associated with legal hassles, injustice in matters of law, defamation.”

And while Ahuja waits in jail — the police will seek his further custody on June 18 — four films that the actor had signed lie incomplete. The film trade, however will not suffer big losses as the actor has not more than 10 to 12 crores riding on him, according to an Indian national daily.

Under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, the actor can be punished with imprisonment for seven to ten years.

Shiney Ahuja made a bright and critically acclaimed entry into Bollywood as Vikram Malhotra, the suave shyster in Sudhir Mishra’s 2003 release, Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi. Five years later, it seems like his exit will be a dark one.

Even as the IIFA’s 10th anniversary is being celebrated this year in Macau, ironically, almost all the top stars that have helped made IIFA the grandest Indian film awards show with their breathtaking performances over the years will give the ceremony a miss.

Here’s the top 10 absentees list from this years IIFA’s.

At no 10 is the jodi of Karan johar and Farah Khan - both are busy with My Name is Khan while KJO is directing the movie Farah is getting SRK to move and shake to her steps, yet again.

At no 9, Rani Mukherjee hasn’t been doing much lately but even she decided to give IIFA a miss this year

The 8th spot belongs to Preity Zinta - another actress who seems to have almost retired - her latka jhatakas (shakes and twists) will be dearly missed

The 7th slot belongs to John ‘6 pack’ Abraham who will also remain absent, much to the dismay of his female fans that have grown at an exponential rate since Dostana.

No. 6 belongs to new kids on the block Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan -

Ranbir almost agreed to perform at the awards but backed out later. If reports are to believed he didn’t want to overexpose his new look - which he will be sporting for Rocket Singh. And Imran Khan’s wont be present because of “Personal Reasons.” We wonder if Mamu’s had some “Personal” words with him after the Filmfare awards.

At no 5 and 4, he brings down the house each time he takes the stage but fans will miss Shahid Kapur’s scintillating performance this year as he’s busy shooting for Vishal bharadwaj’s Kaminey and Shahid’s ex-flame Kareena Kapoor will also stay away from the ceremony as she joins beau Saif who’s busy promoting his latest flick Love Aaj Kal at T20 world cup in England.

At no 3, Badboy Salman Khan is back on the small screen with Dus ka Dum season 2 and while that’s a treat for his fans that is also the reason why rejected the orgainisers plea for a Sallu performance at Macau.

The Runner’s up position goes to King Khan -over the past few years SRK chose to stay away from the IIFA as it was considered to be a Bachchan Family affair but since Big B buried the hatchet with Khan this year many expected the Badshah at Macau this year - but a vacation with his family and My name is Khan kept Shah Rukh away.

The numero uno is Khiladi Kumar who has been the real star of the IIFA awards over the years. His breathtaking performances will be dearly missed as he takes son Aarav and Wife Twinkle on a family vacation . Akshay was also busy promoting his latest Kambakht Ishq in Aamchi Mumbai.

MUMBAI: AXN presents the latest power packed edition of AXN Action Awards, hosted by the stunning Neha Dhupia. AXN Action Awards celebrates the achievement of action in Indian films, recognizing those performances that created some unforgettable pulse racing moments in the action genre.

AXN Action Awards takes pride in being the First On-air Action award event in India. Over the past three years, the AXN Action Awards has built a credible platform to honour high quality work in the genre of action. In its fourth year, the AXN Action Awards once again seeks to strengthen the popularity of action in Indian cinema. As Bollywood increasingly experiments with different genres of cinema, action has witnessed a steady rise in both popularity and quality. This is reflected in the response to previous AXN Action Awards, ensuring another successful chapter.

Speaking on AXN Action Awards 2009, AXN India Senior Vice President Rohit Bhandari said, “Being the leader in Action and Adventure, AXN is proud to create a platform that recognises performances, which have left viewers stunned with breath taking action sequences. We are glad to have Neha Dhupia on board with us, as she lends a unique tone to the AXN Action Awards, with her love for adventure.”

AXN Action Awards will continue with its tradition of encouraging viewer participation in recognizing the talent and effort involved in creating great action.
AXN Action Awards gives viewers the power to choose their favourite nominees, by casting their votes through www.axnactionawards.com or by texting “AXN” to 52525.
Viewers can also cast their votes through on ground activities like AXN’s Float activity, Biker cavalcade, and mall activities.

AXN Action Awards 2009 host, Neha Dhupia said, “Hosting the AXN Action Awards gives me the chance to brush shoulders with the real dare devils of the Indian film industry. I am thrilled to be the host for the second consecutive year and honour some of the most stunning cinematic work in Bollywood. I respect the ideas and talent that goes into creating an action sequence, and I am thrilled to be a part of the platform that celebrates these deserving individuals.”

Salman Khan finally lost his patience and has taken the final stand regarding his so called girlfriend Katrina Kaif. To everyone’s surprise, he threw one by one all Katrina’s belongings from his apartment before leaving for London for ‘Veer’. In the initial stage of her career, Kat used to visit Sallu’s house very often and had put up lots of her belongings there. And now when Katrina has repeatedly broken Salman’s heart, he decided to thrown her out from his memories.

After repeated proposal, when Kat refused to give her consent, Sallu turned atrocious. Kat thinks that she is on the peak stage of her career and marriage at this stage will nothing but damage her future. The couple had broken up under various issues. Earlier Kat used to discuss with Sallu before signing any film but now she has become her own boss and does not bother to take his suggestion. Kat’s alleged relationship with her co-stars Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor had further damage their relationship.

But what spoiled their relationship more is Kat’s frequent refusal of Salman’s marriage proposal.

For once, Ravi Shastri was entitled to bellow his lungs out on the mic and invite the world and its uncle to party, because this was an occasion that was worthy of some over-the-top hype. The finals couldn’t have featured teams better suited to headline writers if it had been scripted - after all, these were the sides that were locked in a ‘least-worst’ contest last year. But in a true testament to the nature of T20 cricket, where the form of the day (or sometimes of a particular over) is what counts, they had risen to the summit of this year’s contest.

It started off on expected lines - Anil Kumble won the toss and opted to bowl, Adam Gilchrist said he wasn’t sure what he would have done on winning the toss.

With Kumble opening the bowling in recent matches, one of the most eagerly awaited battle-within-battles of the finals happened in the first over itself, when Gilchrist faced up to his opposite number. However, it was not a classic by any means - it was a hands down triumph for Kumble who bowled Gilchrist off the third ball of the match, giving his team a huge early advantage. Mindful of Gilchrist’s penchant for swatting faster bowlers like so many flies, Kumble cleverly slowed down the pace of the ball, to lure him out and fool him with the wrong ‘un.

Actor Salman Khan said that he is back on small screen as host of the second season of game show ‘Dus ka Dum’ because the audience has loved it.

“I am my usual self on the show. I love interacting with the audience just like I talk with my fans. Just because you saw it on television, it looked very novel,” Salman told reporters at launch of Sony television’s new slate of programming.

He said he was normally in a good mood whenever he is with fans. “But, my mood depends on you (media). Celebrities are always in a catch-22 situation. You keep writing false stories and when there is no reaction, the falsehood continues Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so veteran filmmaker Prakash Mehra is no more and the round of obituaries has begun. ‘Oh, he was a great filmmaker!’, ‘He was the one who made Amitabh Bachchan’, ‘His presence would be sorely missed’, ‘Industry has lost a major asset’ etc. etc. Quite a lot of these being canned quotes, considering the fact that Prakash Mehra was ill for quite a while and most news channels and other media forums had already done their ‘homework’ on writing obituaries. Makes sense - after all in the cut throat competition where ‘Breaking News’ ceases to be ‘breaking’ in two minutes flat, it all boils down to ‘being their first’.

Which brings me back to all the kind of things being said on the lines of ‘Industry has lost a major asset’.

So let’s dissect this statement - There is a truth and a lie here. ‘Major asset’ Read the rest of this entry »

There were rumours that actress and L’Oreal ambassador Aishwarya Rai may have held back Sonam Kapoor from walking the Cannes red carpet.

But sources close to the former beauty queen say she didn’t even know that Sonam was to visit the French film festival.

“She (Aishwarya) did not even know that Sonam was going to be at Cannes because she was there for just two days (May 13-14) where her days were packed with back-to-back interactions with the international media, fashion shoots for various European fashion magazines and other business meetings besides attending all the events at the festival,” a source close to Aishwarya told IANS.

“Anyone can go to the Cannes Film Festival as a visitor and that is how many in the film fraternity and normal public go from across the world.”

Confusion ensued when L’Oreal issued a list of those ambassadors that were to represent the brand at the French festival and Sonam’s name was missing from it. This, despite a formal announcement made by the company officials on Sonam’s presence at the Cannes at a press conference in Mumbai on May 10.

Sonam, who was earlier set to leave for Cannes Monday and was excited to rub shoulders with Aishwarya and Hollywood A-listers like Elizabeth Banks
and Eva Longoria, finally did not go for the film festival when company officials asked her to stay back.

According to media reports released thereafter, Aishwarya was not very upbeat about the fact that Sonam would share the same stage with her as the face of L’Oreal and asked company officials to deny her the opportunity of being there
.

But clarifying their decision of holding back Sonam to go for Cannes, a spokesperson from L’Oreal said in a press release: “We do not want to take part in or encourage any controversy involving our spokespeople. There were adverse reports in certain sections of media after some comments by Sonam Kapoor, which were presented out of context.

“Following this, in order to avoid further escalation, we have advised Sonam not to go to Cannes as was planned earlier, bearing in mind that there would be more interesting opportunities for future appearances in Europe for her.”

Katrina Kaif has been voted the sexiest woman alive for the second year running in a poll by FHM (India), ahead of Bollywood hotties Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. The results of the poll, which are yet to be announced, were leaked to Mumbai Mirror. Katrina Kaif has been voted the sexiest woman alive for the second year running in a poll by FHM (India). Photo Credit: Yogen Shah When Katrina was quizzed on the poll, she seemed to be blissfully unaware too.

“I haven’t been informed about this. It was great to win the poll last year and would be lovely to win it again… let’s wait and watch what happens,” she said excitedly. She is currently wrapping up filming for Kabir Khan’s New York with co-stars Irrfan Khan, John Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh.