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

Katrina's love making scene is explicit: Censor Board

'Raajneeti' has finally got a UA certificate but not without some vital scenes, including Arjun Rampal and Katrina Kaif's "aesthetically shot love making scene" that director Prakash Jha says was "absolutely essential", being edited out.

"It was a very aesthetically shot love making scene. Arjun and Katrina are two very beautiful people. And they made love to the camera. The Tribunal (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal) felt it was a bit too explicit for a 'UA' audience. I didn't argue," Jha told us.
Jha's weeklong battle with the censor board ended Wednesday with the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal in New Delhi viewing 'Raajneeti' and granting it a 'UA' certificate.
The director had challenged the censor board's decision earlier last week to grant 'Raajneeti' an 'A' certificate with cuts.
Jha sees the reduction of the Katrina-Ranbir love making scene as a blow.
"The love scene was absolutely essential. Unlike other directors I had not shot extra footage so that the censors could take away whatever portion they liked. I had shot the love making scene exactly the way it was meant to be. I've had to reduce it by half.
"It's a disappointment to all of us. I've also had to beep out the F... word uttered by Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in two different places in the plot. Ex-justice Usha Mehra, who headed the Tribunal, requested me to do away with the F... word. But it didn't make a difference," he said.
Ajay Devgn, Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar and Manoj Bajpai too will be seen 'Raajneeti'. Releasing June 4, the political thriller will be the behind-the-scenes look at politics, strategies behind election campaigns, scandals and much more.
Apparently, the censor board had earlier objected to two sequences - one showing the rigging of elections by fitting ballot boxes with specially designed gadgets and the other showing a female politician offering sex in exchange for an election ticket.
"An 'A' certificate brings on a specific mindset on the audience. They think the film has sleazy content. So I preferred to let the film be referred to the Tribunal," said Jha.
Also Arjun's volatile character in 'Raajneeti' shouts lurid and graphic expletives Hindi at a police officer. These remain intact while the 'f' word is gone.
Several recent Hindi films like 'Omkara' and 'Ishqiya' were plastered with expletives but got away at the censors with an A certificate.

Southern sirens

Anjali: Model-turned-actress Anjali has acted in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies. She made her acting debut with the Telugu movie Photo in 2006. After doing a few Telugu films she moved to Tamil cinema, her first Tamil movie was Kattradhu Thamizh (2007). Anjali has also won the Filmfare Best Debut award for the same movie.


Ankitha: Ankitha is the cute little girl who had won hearts by saying "I Love You Rasna" on national television years ago. Now an actress, Ankitha made her acting debut in the Telugu movie Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo in 2002. The movie went on to be come a huge hit and Ankitha signed many films with the top actors.



Anushka Shetty: A graduate in Computer Applications actress Anushka Shetty is also a yoga instructor. She first appeared on the silver screen in 2005 in the movie Super. Anushka gave her first hit in 2006 with the movie Vikramarkudu, after which she got recognition in the Telugu film industry. She also starred in Astram, the Telugu remake of the Aamir Khan starrer movie Sarfarosh. Anushka made her debut in Tamil movie opposite R Madhavan in the action flick Rendu.


more here

Is Barbara Mori the next Katrina Kaif of Bollywood?

Mexican actress Barbara Mori, who is making her Bollywood debut with Anurag Basu's 'Kites' has already made a splash of sorts with her off-screen antics including her much-touted romance with hero Hrithik Roshan. Western, beautiful, big-budget film in her kitty - is Mori the next Katrina Kaif of Bollywood?

Entertainment » Bollywood » Features » Full story First look of Mallika Sherawat's Hollywood film Love, Barack

Mallika Sherawat may be missing in action on the Bollywood front but she is surely making a lot of heads turn in the West. While her immediate next release is Hissss where she plays a snake-woman, Mallika would also be seen in the political comedy Love, Barack alongside side Laz Alonso.

The first look poster of Love,Barack was unveiled at Cannes Film Festival yesterday and going by the looks of it, this one indeed promises a lot of naughty fun. In the film directed by American filmmaker Doug McHenry, Mallika plays Aretha Gupta, a devoted local Obama volunteer coordinator. A month before the election day, Democrat Aretha unexpectedly falls for her Republican counterpart (Alonso), a handsome, dynamic African-American working for the local McCain office.

Well going by the first look poster, the film will surely have some sizzling chemistry between Madame Sherawat and Alonso. What say?

Naina