Anil Kapoor cuts down on film assigments

Anil Kapoor has put his film career on hold. He starts shooting for his prestigious series 24. In the last six months he has said no to offers from Raj Kumar Santoshi, Rensil D'Silva, Yash Raj Films and Prabhu Deva.

Until then he is busy looking into what the tirelessly energetic actor describes as "family matters".

A little probing revealed that Anil is actually trying to set his son Harshvardhan's career plans in order. Harsh, the apple of the family's eye, has decided to become cinema savvy.

Anil is spending as much time as he can with Harshvardhan

Says Anil, "Yes, my priorities have changed. Now it's family time, my children and my brother and his family. Earlier I'd sacrifice the time and attention meant for my family for shooting with outside producers. Now my son needs me. My brother needs me. All these years he has been there for me. Now I'm there for him."

Anil feels he has been squandering too much time outside the family fold. "I've lately begun to change that. I recently went to the Olympics with my family. And it was a glorious experience. Sonam was supposed to accompany me to the Olympics. But she couldn't because of her work schedules. She is going through that busy phase that I've now run away from. To Sonam her work is top priority right now."

Anil is happily taking it easy on the work front. I've realized there's a life beyond the camera. I am taking time off from shooting to do things I had never done before. I regret missing out on family opportunities for shooting round-the-clock. I don't want to leave the pleasures of being there for my family for another time. I want to grab those opportunities now, even if that means missing out on plum roles. Work could wait."

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Bollywood News Sanjay-Manyata shoot for an ad together

Celebrity endorsements are a dime a dozen, but celebrity couples endorsing a product are few. Now joining the band wagon are Sanjay and Manyata Dutt who recently shot for jewellery major Gitanjali. In fact the couple shot for four different labels under the same brand name of Gitanjali.

The couple shot for the adverts on Sanjay's birthday July 29, for Gitanjali, Sangini, Rotary watches and Jewelsouk. With these adverts the couple joins the likes of Shah Rukh Khan -Gauri Khan, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bachchan, Ajay Devgn-Kajol, Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Raj Kundra-Shilpa Shetty who have shot for ads together.

The Rotary watches spot also features homage to Sanjay's mother late Nargis Dutt.

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Competition Commission rejects Devgn's plea

By now its common knowledge that Ajay Devgn had filed a complaint against Yash Raj Films (YRF) with the Competition Commission of India for using their dominant position in the Bollywood film market to deny Ajay Devgn Ffilms due,

for their November 13 Diwali release, Son Of Sardaar.

Now that latest is that the Competition Commission has rejected Devgn's plea on the ground that it doesn't have sufficient merit. The fair trade regulator has not found any violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act that relates to anti- competitive agreements.

Meanwhile commenting on this verdict, the official spokesperson of Ajay Devgn Ffilms said, "We are shocked by the rejection of our legitimate case by the CCI. We have approached the Appellate Tribunal against the order"

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Mani Shankar to shoot documentary on L K Advani

Filmmaker Mani Shankar's plans of a feature film on L K Advani are pending mainly because of the director's inability to find the correct actor for the part.

So, for now, Mani has opted for the next best alternative. He is all set to make a documentary on the BJP leader who, in many ways, defines the fast-evaporating breed of self-disciplined politicians.

The documentary will be based on the footage that Mani will shoot for a week with Advani beginning on 7 November which is the eve of Advani's 85th birthday.

Mani says, he will 'Blend into the fabric of the Advani household to see how the patriarch lives, eats, interacts with family friends admirers and colleagues.'

All this, with only a skeletal crew.

Says Mani, "If I have crew members sauntering all over the house the spontaneity of the endeavour would be lost. I don't want the rhythm of Advaniji's household to be broken. I just want to blend into the fabric of his family life, to look at him not as a filmmaker but as one individual trying to understand the amazing lifestyle of another."

Mani has already sought and got the permission of Advaniji's family to be a house guest.

"I will be like a member of the household. I will try to capture Advaniji as candidly as possible. The camera should disappear from between the audience and Advaniji" says Mani Shankar whose last feature film Knock Out about politicians stashing the nation's money in Swiss banks, made a lasting impression on Advaniji.

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Big B aids Vishal Bhardwaj's shoot in Gujarat

Vishal Bhardwaj says shooting his new film in Gujarat was a cakewalk, all thanks to the State's brand ambassador: Big B aka Amitabh Bachchan. In fact, the shooting nearly came to a halt when Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma were unceremoniously asked to leave an important location where most of the film was shot.

One phone call to the Big B and from him, to the powers-that-be solved what could have been a critical loss of time revenue and faith for the crew of Bharadwaj's Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola.

That Gujarat is turning out to be an alternate paradise for filmmakers in Mumbai, is proven by the increase in the number of films being shot in the State. Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Nikhil Advani are currently shooting their new films Ram Leela and D Day respectively, in the Kutch district of Gujarat.

One hears that Ajay Devgn and Vipul Shah are planning to buy land in Gujarat to build studios in the State.

Could these developments denoting Bollywood's movement towards Gujarat have something to do with the Big B, Amitabh Bachchan being the ambassador for Gujarat tourism?

It has now come to light that the Big B stepped in at a very critical moment to bail Vishal out of a crisis when the filmmaker was shooting on location in Rajkot, Gujarat.

Suddenly things started falling apart.

Says a source very close to the project, "Vishal had a certain kind of location in mind. He needed a particular haveli for Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola. He finally found it in Rajkot. Luckily for Vishal, the haveli was available for shooting. Everything was finalized. But then some suddenly, a government rule regarding relics and heritages came up, and the deal fell apart."

In a panic Vishal got in touch with the Big B.

Says our source, "Amitji and Vishal go back a long way. Vishal has been desirous of working with Amitji forever. And Amitji is a fan of Vishal's work. Vishal got in touch with Amitji about the haveli in Rajkot. One phone call is all it took from Amitji to get the haveli back into Vishal's shooting schedule. Vishal owes Amitji a big favour. If it wasn't for that haveli in Rajkot, Vishal's film would have been stuck."

Vishal Bhardwaj confirms, "Yes, Mr. Bachchan got us permission to shoot in the haveli. And not just that, the permission to shoot in Gujarat was obtained by him. Because of him we were treated like stars in Gujarat."

While this incident has definitely brought the Big B and the enterprising Bharadwaj together, we also hear that the two are most certainly getting together for a movie next year

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Sridevi injures her eye

Sridevi, who made a stunning comeback to films with Gauri Shinde's film English Vinglish, has been receiving accolades the world over for her performance. Though the actress is all set with her revived acting career, we hear that she recently suffered a minor setback due to an eye injury.

Apparently, the actress was putting her eye drops while simultaneously having her hair blow-dried, when the hairdresser's hand hit the actress' eye. Though the accident may sound a bit gruesome fortunately, the retina was spared, but a blood clot has formed in her eye.

Post a checkup, Sridevi has been advised to rest her injured eye till the clot recedes.

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Delhi Safari shortlisted for Best Animated Film at Oscars

Nikhil Advani's animation flick Delhi Safari, which released recently to rave reviews, has now added yet another feather in its cap. The English version of the film has been shortlisted for consideration in the Best Animated Feature Film category for the 85th

Annual Academy Awards.

As of now, 21 animated films have been shortlisted for consideration out of which the final nominations will be decided. Some of the popular English films that Delhi Safari would be competing against to make the final cut include Brave, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Hotel Transylvania, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Delhi Safari got a lot of appreciation when it released in Hindi recently. While the Hindi version featured voices of Govinda, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani and Urmila Matondkar, the English version of the film features the voices of Jason Alexander, Cary Elwes, Christopher Lloyd, Jane Lynch, Vanessa Williams and Brad Garrett

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Akshay Kumar to endorse Signature whisky?

Looks like Akshay Kumar's latest offering OMG! Oh My God. has indeed taken not just the mortal world, but also the immortal world by storm. No wonder then, post the success of this film, Akki has become super active than ever before, not just on the films front... but also on the brand endorsements as well.

After having endorsed almost every product under the sun, OUR reliable sources say that Akshay Kumar is now all set to be brand ambassador of Signature whisky.

The official confirmation of the same is being awaited.

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Subhash Ghai signs Mithun Chakraborty for Kaanchi

After signing Rishi Kapoor to play the role of a villain in his next directorial venture Kaanchi, Showman of Bollywood- Subhash Ghai has now signed Mithun Chakraborty for a stellar role in the film.

"Mithun is one of the most talented actors of Indian Cine

ma but he has never played a character like the one he will be playing in Kaanchi. The way it has been conceived is extraordinary and he will enhance that. We can share details of this character only just before release and not now", said Subhash Ghai.

Kaanchi is a musical love story with music by Salim-Sulaiman and Ismail Darbar and lyrics by Irshad Kamil. The film is set to release in August 2013.

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Madhur Bhandarkar to direct film for T-Series

Indian music major T Series, which ventured into films a while back, is currently contemplating its next. The as yet untitled film, which will be produced by Bhushan Kumar's T Series, will have Madhur Bhandarkar as the director.

We spoke to Madhur who confirmed the same and said, "Yes I am making the film with Bhushan and T Series; however we will start that later. First I have a film lined up with UTV post which I will work on the film with Bhushan. As for the casting of the film we haven't even got the script ready yet, so it will be much later that we will reveal details of the film."

Rumours are that Emraan Hashmi will be playing the lead in the film. Reacting to the same, Bhushan Kumar said, "It's too early for me to comment about the film. As a producer, I am in talks with many actors, including Emraan. But I can't divulge anything right now."

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