Dil Bole Hadippa To Feature At Toronto International Film Festival 2009

Dil Bole Hadippa International Film Festival 2009

Yash Raj Films had a successful start to 2009 with their film New York turning out to be the biggest hit of the year so far. Now all eyes are on YRF’s next Dil Bole Hadippa which brings together the duo of Shahid Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee for the first time.

Even before its worldwide release (Sept 18th), Dil Bole Hadippa has managed to achieve a rare distinction. The film has been selected for the esteemed Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2009 and will be presented in the prestigious Gala Presentations section of the festival as a World Premiere. The movie’s cast and crew will grace the red carpet and attend the first public screening of the film, on September 13, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Dil Bole Hadippa is the story of Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee) who belongs to a village where girls don’t play cricket. In order to fulfill her dreams, she puts on a turban and beard and becomes Veer Pratap Singh. Her brilliance on the field earns her a place in Rohan’s (Shahid Kapoor) team and then begins a roller-coaster journey of Veera and Rohan filled with music, romance and comedy through Punjab and beyond.

The film is produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by debutant director Anurag Singh.

Lighting A Billion Lives Asin Picture

Lighting A Billion Lives

Asin at the launch of India’s largest ever public service communication programme.

Sardars Of The Silver Screen! Picture

Sardars Of The Silver Screen!

This Friday’s release Love Aaj Kal has two special ‘firsts’ for Saif Ali Khan. It’s the first film produced by Saif under his banner Illuminati Films and secondly it’s the first time that the suave actor would be seen as a ‘Sardar’ in a Hindi film. Saif who would be seen in a double role in Love Aaj Kal, plays Jai the uber-cool dude of the present era and Veer Singh a passionate sardar who would do anything for the love of his life. While this is a first time experience for Saif playing a sardar, many of Bollywood’s top actors have donned the pagdi and portrayed the role of a sardar with elan. Bollywood Hungama takes a trip down memory lane and looks at some of the best on-screen sardars of Bollywood in recent times.

Sunny Deol

Sunny Deol’s name figures first in this list for the Deadly Deol has effectively portrayed the role of a sardar in not one or two but three popular films namely Border, Gadar-Ek Prem Katha and Jo Bole So Nihaal. While his role as the bumbling cop Nihaal Singh in Jo Bole So Nihaal didn’t find many takers and also created some unwanted controversy, his acts as the stern Major Kuldeep Singh in Border and as the immensely patriotic Sardar Tara Singh in Gadar- Ek Prem Katha received a thunderous applause from one and all.

Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar may have starred in many films with a Punjabi flavor but he got a chance to portray a full-fledged sardar character for the first time in Vipul Shah’s Singh Is Kinng. Akki played the bumbling village idiot ‘Happy Singh’ who in a twist of fate becomes the Kingpin of a Mafia gang. The makers had even designed a special designer pagdi embedded with diamonds for Akshay’s character of Happy Singh. The character was loved by one and all and it surely made Akshay Kumar and Vipul Shah ‘Happy’ as they laughed all the way to the bank

Salman Khan

Salman Khan may have done a variety of roles in his career but never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that one day he would be playing a ‘Sardar’ on screen. The unthinkable happened when Salman was cast as the Army Major Balkar Singh in Samir Karnik’s multi-starrer Heroes. Sallu did portray the role with a lot of intensity, however, his trademark dialogue delivery with accent didn’t really suit the character of a Sardar.

Amitabh Bachchan

Big B is one actor who is always known to experiment with his looks in film after film. So when he was required to play a ‘Sardar’ in Anil Sharma’s Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo, Big B left no stone unturned in getting into the skin of the character. The turban, the beard all looked just perfect on Big B as he played the role Major General Amarjeet Singh with elan. What’s more he even did the bhangra with as much as ease as a true Punjabi would do. However, this was not the first time that Big B played a sardar. Few years back Amitabh even played a sardar in the forgettable flick Kohraam alongside Nana Patekar. That portrayal however is best forgotten

Ajay Devgan

While most of the above actors portrayed fictional ’sardar’ characters, Ajay Devgan had a tougher task at hand. He had to portray one of India’s most well-known freedom fighters Bhagat Singh. The film in question was Raj Kumar Santoshi’s The Legend of Bhagat Singh. Ajay delivered one of the finest performances of his career as the young Sikh Bhagat Singh who gave up everything for the sake of his nation’s freedom. This was probably the most sensitive portrayal of a ’sardar’ character in Bollywood and it rightly fetched Ajay the National Award for Best actor

Sanjay Dutt

Sanjay Dutt is best known for his portrayal of a bhai or a don in countless films but if one takes a closer look at his filmography, one realizes that even Sanju Baba has played a Sardar in a film. The film in question is a patriotic film Sarhad Paar (2007) which starred Sanju alongwith Tabu, Mahima Choudhary and Chandrachur Singh. Sanjay played the role of Ranjit Singh an army man who returns home after a long time. The film had Sanju sleepwalking through his role and given the fact the film was in the making for a long time, no one really bothered about when the film released and when it was removed from theatres.

Bobby Deol

Bade bhaiyya Sunny may have portrayed a sardar character effortlessly in quite a few films, however when kid brother Bobby tried the same playing the freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in 23rd March 1931- Shaheed, the impact and the result was not the same. While he may have got the look right, Bobby’s portrayal of a sardar lacked the desired punch and with quite a few films on the life of ‘Bhagat Singh’ being released on the same day Bobby’s film lost the race.

Ranbir Kapoor

He is touted as the ‘Next Big thing’ in Bollywood and after an impressive debut in Saawariya and a cool performance in Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ranbir Kapoor is all set to try something completely different in his next film. Yes…Ranbir would be seen as a ‘Sardar’ in Yash Raj Films’ forthcoming flick Rocket Singh- Salesman of the Year, directed by Shimit Amin. While not much is known about this movie, going by the looks of it one can safely say that this Punjabi munda does look like a pucca sardar in this get-up. Way to go Ranbir!

Rani Mukherjee

In case you are wondering that it’s only the men folk in B-town who have portrayed a ‘Sardar’ in Hindi films, you couldn’t be further from the truth. The latest person to don a pagdi and get into the character of a sardar is none other than Rani Mukerjee. The actress will be seen as a cricket obsessed girl who dresses up as a sardar to play the game in YRF’s forthcoming flick Dil Bole Hadippa alongside Shahid Kapur. Whether the movie will click at the box office or no, one will have to wait and watch. However, we do give it to Rani for trying out something drastically different this time around.

Besides the above mentioned names, there are quite a few other actors too who have portrayed a sardar in Hindi films in recent times such as Kunal Kapoor (Bachna Ae Haseeno), Jackie Shroff , and Sohail Khan (in the forthcoming flick Kisaan).

We would like you to tell us who you think portrayed the sardar most effectively? Post your views in the comments section below.

Akki, Sunil And Paresh Re-Visit Signature Step Of Hera Pheri In De Dana Dan

Hera Pheri In De Dana Dan Picture

The trio of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal seem to be having a blast on the sets of Priyadarshan’s De Dana Dan. After all, the three actors are re-uniting together with their director Priyadarshan after a gap of 9 years. Even Priyan is very excited at the prospect of seeing his 3 musketeers back together on the silver screen after Hera Pheri.

Recently during the shooting of promotional track of De Dana Dan at Mehboob Studio, Akshay Kumar came up with the idea of incorporating the signature dance step of Hera Pheri.

According to a reliable source, “The promotional track, choreographed by Ganesh Hegde, was being picturised on Akshay and Katrina Kaif. While discussing the song, Akshay Kumar came up with the idea of having the signature step of Hera Pheri in the song. He immediately called up and requested Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal to visit the sets of De Dana Dan for a short while.

Next day, Paresh, who was shooting at Film City, and Sunil Shetty shot for De Dana Dan’s track for half an hour and left. The three of them relived old memories as the step was part of the song ‘Dena waala jab bhi deta, deta chhapar phaad ke’ from Hera Pheri.

An excited Priyadarshan remarked, “It’s not been easy to get the four of us together to shoot a film. De Dana Dan is a special film for all of us. When we were shooting the promotional video, we thought of making it even more special by adding the signature step of the Hera Pheri song.”

Now that the signature step of Hera Pheri has also been added in the promotional track one will have to wait and watch if this number goes on to become a chartbuster in the days to come.

Raavan Film Shoot Disrupted By Wild Elephant To Resume Friday

Film Shoot Disrupted By Wild Elephant To Resume Friday

Ashiruvananthapuram, July 30 (IANS) The shooting of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai starrer “Raavan”, disrupted when an elephant ran amok in the jungle where it is being shot, will resume Friday, cinematographer Santosh Sivan said here Thursday.

“We will resume shooting tomorrow (Friday),” Sivan told IANS.

The tusker, whose name is Kunju, killed 51-year-old mahout Andavan. After the incident, the road at nearby Athirapally forest was blocked and the cast and crew of Mani Ratnam’s film could not return to their hotel.

“We didn’t see much since we were shooting on the other side of the bridge… so we couldn’t cross over… we had to stop shooting, but I didn’t see anything except the confusion. We had to spend a few hours in a guest house in the forest,” said Sivan.

Neither the actors nor any crew member of the film was injured.

Later the elephant was chained and tranquilised by veterinary doctors.

Besides Abhishek and Aishwarya, “Raavan” also stars Vikram, Govinda and Manisha Koirala. It is being made in Hindi and Tamil simultaneously.

Celina Sends Flowers To Police Officers! Pic

Celina Sends Flowers To Police Officers!

Pune, July 30 (IANS) Beauty queen-turned-actress Celina Jaitley was so overwhelmed with a ban on use of horses, elephants and camels by police here that she sent flowers to the officers.

Celina, who is an active member of animal rights organisation People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), sent bouquets and a card to commissioner of police Satyapal Singh and DCP Special Branch R.P. Sengaonkar who were instrumental in banning the use of the animals in the city, said a statement released here Thursday.

“Thank you for standing up for those who cannot speak for themselves”, Celina wrote in the card.

Anuradha Sawhney, PETA India chief functionary, said: “Humane people around the world are watching India’s treatment of animals. We applaud the Pune officers for taking action and urge other officers to do so, too”.

The animals were forced to pull oversized loads or give joyrides on crowded streets.

“When You See Him As Sardar, You’ll Forget Saif Ali Khan Is Muslim” – Kareena

You’ll Forget Saif Ali Khan Is Muslim” – Kareena

Kareena Kapoor wants to work with Imtiaz Ali again. “I need my acting energies to be re-fuelled. I’d love to work with Imtiaz Ali again after Jab We Met. Right now, he’s soaked in Love Aaj Kal. And that’s just fine. That’s my film too.”

Kareena has her fingers crossed about Love Aaj Kal. “I just want it to do well. I’m right there for it. I’m totally involved in it. Earlier I knew Saif as an actor. Now that he’s a producer I see a completely different Saif at home. He’s running around till 1 am. I’ve seen the film twice. Ain’t I lucky to see Imtiaz Ali’s new film twice over? Saifu is a killer in Love Aaj Kal. It’s his best performance after Omkara. When you see him as a Sardar, you’ll forget Saif Ali Khan is a Muslim. Everything from body language to beard, trousers and shirt is unbelievable.”

Last week Kareena airdashed to Jaipur to join Saif ad Imtiaz for the promotion of Love Aaj Kal. “I need to be by his side now. Love Aaj Kal is equally important to both of us.” No regrets about Kambakkht Ishq? “Any actress would give her right arm to do such a glamorous glitzy role. And I got to work with Sylvester Stallone. I couldn’t believe when he said he knew my work. I remember Saif was shooting in San Francisco. He flew down to LA to see my shooting with Stallone. I remember Saif was introduced to Stallone as a member of a royal family and the son of a former Indian cricket team. I remember our lunches. We had Indian kebabs. Stallone loved it. I’ll never forget it. He had heard of my grandfather (Raj Kapoor). He wanted to see my movies. I gave him DVDs of Jab We Met and Omkara. ”

Like Saif? “Let me tell you, he’s the most decent human being I’ve met in the industry. He takes everything and everyone on their face value. These past few weeks have been really tough on him. Promoting his film he had to keep talking about himself. We both hate discussing our lives specially our marriage plans. We’re constantly asked to fix a time frame….two years, three years. Frankly we don’t know. And does it matter? We are together, aren’t we? I know people had given our relationship six months at the most.”