desi cleavage

Ranjita to pen 'how to survive a scandal'

CHENNAI: Three months after the telecast of the controversial tapes that allegedly showed her with godman Nithyananda in a compromising position, actor Ranjita is busy working on a self-help book, tentatively titled 'How to survive a scandal'. And the book draws on her experience.

"I am writing this based on my experiences in the past six months, and there are so many people out there feeling traumatised and suicidal," the actor told TOI in an exclusive interview, the first after the controversy broke. "My book will help people come to terms with personal problems, and I am in talks with a couple of publishers," she says.

"I am also writing a fiction, aimed at the youth of today, but the one drawn from my experiences will come out first," says the actor, pushing back her smartly cut hair. 'Autobiography Of A Yogi' and other books by renowned spiritual gurus line the shelf in her living room. "I was always a bookworm and you move from fiction to philosophy. I am especially fond of Indian spiritual writing," says the actor, who came to Chennai early this month. While struggling for the right word or the perfect phrase, she also took time to meet up with CB-CID officials in connection with the Nithyananda case.

Asked why she went underground when the controversy broke, Ranjita goes quiet for a minute. "I do not want to hang on to the past. I want to move on. I was very hurt and went through stress and trauma. I decided to hibernate for a while," she says. "The media was writing so many negative things about me, and some were fabricating interviews. Things piled up one on top of the other. You need time to deal with such things, to reconcile, but people think actors do not deserve that kind of time," she says with a rueful smile.

She quickly adds that her husband, sisters, parents and in-laws were pillars of strength. She has a short role in 'Raavanan', but she is yet to watch the film.

‘We fight everyday’

Prim and perfect at every single outing, it’s hard to fathom that there are times when even Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and husband Abhishek fight. But, in an interview in Vogue India’s July issue, Abhishek clears the misconception. Asked how often they fight, the actor says, “Oh, every day.”

But Ash is quick to correct him, “Not everyday baby. We didn’t fight yesterday. Or the day before. They’re more like disagreements, not fights. They’re not serious, they’re healthy. It’d be really boring otherwise,” says the actress.

And, when they do have their ‘disagreements’, it is always Abhishek who makes up. “Women don’t make up! In three years, she’s made up like, four times. But we have a rule — we don’t sleep on a fight. And in defence of all men, I want to say, half the time why we give in and say sorry is because we’re just so sleepy and want to go to bed!”

That said, the two have their moments, although not all of them may be conventional. Asked about the most romantic thing he’s done for Ash, Abhishek replies, “So this is for men everywhere —don’t believe that bit about a candlelight dinner on the beach being the most romantic thing in the world. I tried that for our anniversary last year in the Maldives, and it was a disaster. First, the wind keeps putting the candle out. Second, there’s sand in your food so it tastes like crap.”

Ash also shares the first time it hit her that she was married. “It was on our flight, going off on our honeymoon to Bora Bora. The stewardess welcomed me on-board saying, ‘Welcome, Mrs Bachchan’. And Abhishek and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing! And it hit me, I’m married! I’m Mrs Bachchan,” she concludes.

“Show Me One Couple That Dont Kiss” - Koena Mitra

Koena Mitra is one of those select few actresses in the industry, who has been an epitome of sensuality right from her foray into Bollywood. Announcing ‘Khullam Khulla Pyaar Kare’ pretty much loud and clear more than seven years ago in ‘Road’ (2002), Koena, has indeed come a long way. No wonder, her sensibility and maturity makes her feel amused about the entire hoopla that is created when actors kiss on the screen or expose for the camera.

"I guess we should move out of this mentality and do it real fast. The way the media reacts to something as common as kissing is really strange", says Koena in an exasperated tone.

"In Hollywood, kissing is no big deal at all. If Richard Gere kisses on screen, no one goes and pulls him up by saying that he is doing something odd because he is older today. But here in India, we end up making such a big deal about it even if a young couple is kissing. Come on, show me one couple that doesn’t kiss? Not just that, I think we also make so much hoopla when someone wears a bikini", continues Koena who is quite pleased with the way she has been presented on the screen so far.

Koena is particularly amused when actors themselves enjoy the mileage that they gain after doing a kissing scene for a film.

Smiles Koena, "The moment the media asks an actor a question around the ‘experience’ of a kiss or whether he/she was comfortable doing the scene, some of us jump at the opportunity and come up with these quotable quotes. It’s one thing to kiss and another to go and actually start discussing about it on national television. Now how amusing can that get."

Well, looking at the way Koena thinks that Bollywood should move ahead, rest assured that there would be many more quotable quotes following from the fraternity.

Twitter Bans Sherlyn Chopra to Upload Her Nude Photos

Twitter Bans Sherlyn Chopra to Upload Her Nude Photos

New Delhi  The microblogging website Twitter has banned bollywood Actress Sherlyn Chopra to post uploading her nude pictures on twitter.

As per information, twitter has taken this step after Sherlyn Chopra posted her nude pictures on the website a few days ago, which Indian actress withdrawn after ban.

Chopra also faces the threat of legal action by a rights group in Mumbai for her act.

After information to Twitter by rights group about her act and lodge an official complaint against her.

The site has now asked her not to upload bold images.

Gul takes up another cause

It’s been 55 days since National Highway 53 and 39 that connect Manipur with the rest of India have been blocked by Naga student union groups. The state has almost been paralysed, as prices of food, petrol and other essential commodities have shot through the roof.
As the situation worsens, those associated with the cause have now found an unlikely voice. Actress Gul Panag, who has associated herself with several social causes like awareness against female foeticide and drug addiction in the past, has now stepped up and become the first public figure to express her anger against the state of affairs.
“If something similar would have happened to UP or Bihar, there would have been a huge hue and cry about it. It’s very sad that the media is ignoring this issue completely,” she says. “By and large, North Eastern states suffer from the lack of inclusion. It’s clear that the state is failing them, and this apathy towards the states is very disappointing.”
Attracting attention
Panag, who has over 78,000 followers on Twitter, spent Monday furiously tweeting about the cause, asking her followers to re-tweet and make the hash-tag, ‘manipur blockade’ trend across the world, so it would attract the attention of the media.  She has also publicly tweeted to public figures like Barkha Dutt, Pritish Nandy and Karan Johar asking them to use their ‘star power’ to help in attracting attention towards the cause.”I’m putting them in a spot by publicly asking them for support,” she admits. “Whenever I’ve raised an issue of policy on Twitter, it’s helped. There are many mainstream journalists here, so I’d love to be the catalyst and bring this to their notice.”
“We are giving a chance to people across the border to take advantage of us. If the government fails, at least the people should show empathy,” she adds.

Bollywood stars at Cannes Film Festival 2010

Aishwarya Rai is clearly the biggest Bollywood draw at Cannes, seen here arriving for the screening of 'Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps'
In 2003 Aishwarya became the first Indian actress to be a jury member at the film festival



Desperate Housewife star Eva Longoria joined Rai on the red carpet for the screening of Mathieu Amalric's risqué comedy Tournée


The actresses seemed to have hit it off really well, making two appearances on the red carpet together


Aishwarya is married to Bollywood royalty, but her husband Abhishek Bachchan has not been by her side much at the event this year
<!-- google_ad_section_end(name=s2)

Appearing just once so far to promote Raavan, a film they star together in



The other Bollywood actress causing a stir at the festival was Mallika Sherawat who bravely posed with snakes for the promotion of her film Hisss



Mallika's reptillian antics impressed her Twitter fans immensely. Can she manage an anaconda, asked one


Looking pretty in a saree Deepika Padukone completed the bevvy of Bollywood beauties at the annual film extravaganza