A still from the film 'The Owner'.

NEW DELHI: In perhaps a first, as many as 25 filmmakers including four from India, have put their heads and directorial skills together and made a film ‘The Owner’ which premieres worldwide on May 25.

Even if the film does not find favor with audiences, it could well make its way into the Guinness Book as there may not be another film that has 25 directors from five continents, who haven’t even met once, face to face.

They stitched the story together communicating over the internet and shot the film with each director making a separate clip of between three and five minutes.

The film which is of a feature film length will premier in theaters worldwide including in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa and Dubai, besides of course the two Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai.

In Kolkata, ‘The Owner’ will be screened at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), which arranged for it by contacting one of the Indian directors from the group.

According to Neha Raheja Thakker, she and the other three Indian filmmakers were approached by Ian Bommer and Marty Shea of the United States to join the collaborative effort.

Thakker, who is a professional architect, earned a film-making diploma from New York University, and arranged the screenings in India.

Another Mumbai filmmaker Asmit Pathare and two Delhi-based directors, Vishesh Mankal and Varun Mathur are the other Indians who were part of the project.

“The Owner” is about an out of the box story of a backpack which globe-trots in search of its owner.

A unique concept of film-making, Saikat Sekareshwar Rai, a member of the faculty at SRFTI believes this trend could attain cult status soon within the film-making fraternity.

Shahrukh Khan

NEW DELHI: Denied permission to celebrate, a drunk Shahrukh Khan got into a messy scrap with a Mumbai stadium’s cricket officials, after the former’s team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat the Mumbai Indians.

Shah Rukh and his entourage which religiously follows the matches of their team the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), had wanted to celebrate at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium after winning the match against the host team, the Mumbai Indians, when officials of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) which oversees the affairs of the stadium allegedly switched off the stadium’s flood lights, which enraged the Bollywood superstar, who was otherwise jubilant with the win.

Speaking to reporters a senior police official confirmed that Shah Rukh was indeed drunk when the incident happened. Iqbal Sheikh, Mumbai assistant commissioner of police (ACP), confirmed on Thursday that film star and Kolkata Knight Riders’ owner Shah Rukh Khan was in a drunken state when he was involved in a late Wednesday night brawl at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

“Shah Rukh was drunk. He was smelling of alcohol but he was not drinking at the Wankhede stadium. It is not an offense. He was also abusing and threatening the MCA officials,” Mumbai assistant commissioner of police Iqbal Sheikh said.

“I took him out and separated him because the incident was turning ugly. While being taken away he was showering abuses on MCA and BCCI officials. We are investigating the matter,” the official further said.

The incident has cast a slur on the affairs of the Indian Premier League, even as a news channel claimed in an investigative news story that matches in the Indian cricket’s ‘cash cow’ tourney were being fixed by players in return for money.

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Rapper Jay-Z throws his support for gay marriage.

American rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has joined the list of celebrities and public figures who have thrown their support behind President Barack Obama’s stance on marriage equality.

The rapper said that bans on same-sex marriage are “holding the country back.”

“What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business,” Jay-Z told CNN.

Denying civil rights to LGBT people is “no different than discriminating against blacks,” he added. “It’s discrimination, plain and simple.”

A long-time supporter of President Obama, Jay-Z was asked by CNN whether he thinks Obama’s marriage endorsement last week will cost the President votes in the African American community, which has been traditionally opposed to gay marriage.

“Whether it costs him votes or not… it’s not about votes, it’s about people,” the rapper replied. “It’s the right thing to do as a human being.”

Jay-Z also praised President Obama’s handling of the economy.

“Reversing the direction of the decline was a full time job in itself, so I think that it’s stabilizing a bit now as some of the numbers show,” he said.

Other celebrities who applauded the news about President Obama’s endorsement include Alec Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Kardashian, Patton Oswalt and Jane Lynch.

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Lady Gaga gets criticism from Indonesian Islamic group, concert canceled.

CAIRO and KUALA LUMPUR: An Indonesian lawmaker has said that “Middle East culture” is as dangerous as allowing American pop star Lady Gaga to perform in the Southeast Asian country.

The statements came after Indonesia refused to issue Gaga a permit to perform at her sold-out Jakarta concert as Islamists in the country attacked her as promoting vice in the country.

The concert had already sold more than 50,000 tickets, but attacks from groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front alleged that her performance would promote “sexual acts” and demanded it be canceled.

Ahmad Basarah, of the House of Representatives’ legal affairs commission, said that the National Police cannot choose to only ban imports pushing western ideology when Middle Eastern influences often run counter to Indonesia’s own culture.

“The government shouldn’t discriminate when upholding the law,” the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician said. “If they dare to cancel shows that push a liberal-capitalistic ideology like Lady Gaga, then they should also take firm action against demonstrations pushing ideologies from the Middle East.”

Democratic Party lawmaker Nova Riyanti Yusuf criticized the National Police’s decision, adding that Lady Gaga’s concert wouldn’t corrupt the nation’s sense of morality.

“Whether someone goes to hell or heaven doesn’t depend on whether they watch concerts or not,” Nova said. “It depends on their deeds and their hearts.”

In Egypt, the anti-Middle East culture statements have been met with some harsh words, with a number of Egyptians asking why Indonesia “is supporting censorship, but at the same time wants to act moral.”

For many, it doesn’t make sense, but with the Islamic world’s growing conservatism, many fear that anger directed to the Middle East will not be the solution.

“People want someone to blame and the Middle East and Islam and Arabs are an easy target, but it is wrong,” said Egyptian university student Amr Ghoreib in an emailed statement highlighting the Indonesian statements.

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A still from Yash Chopra's 'Silsila'. Amitabh Bachchan is flanked by Rekha on the left and Jaya Bachchan on the right.

New Delhi: Two feminine ends of what was once India’s most poignant love triangle saga, finally find themselves under one roof; that of the Indian Parliament.

The smoldering-forever Rekha Ganesan and the once-bubbly-now-dogged Jaya Bachchan, both renowned actresses of Indian cinema, shared space under the grand dome of the Indian Parliament’s Upper House, the Rajya Sabha for the first time on Tuesday.

As Rekha Ganesan was sworn in as a member of the Rajya Sabha, Jaya Bachchan, a Samajwadi Party MP for sometime now, we presume watched on. Scope for presumption however ended, when it was obvious that the two did not exchange pleasantries in parliament. Colleagues in filmdom, the two have also acted in Yash Chopra’s 1981 blockbuster film ‘Silsila’, where the chemistry between the two actresses, sent the entire nation into a phase of sparking static.

Why? Here’s where one brings in the third and the masculine end of the love triangle.

Married to Jaya Bachchan, India’s greatest filmstar Amitabh Bachchan’s much speculated affair with Rekha was stuff legends are made of. The kind of a story which has been whispered, reported, analyzed, commented on, decoded, through the decades since the late 1970s.

What perhaps added to the aura and a weighted sense of suspense that the triumvirate exuded was a masterly coup by Yash Chopra to make a film on adultery using the three actors to play characters, which perhaps loosely resembled their real life roles and dilemmas.

Amitabh as Amit, living through an obligatory marriage with Jaya as Shobha. And Chandni, Amit’s former flame, who re-enters his life and has a longish fling with him.

The Indian Parliament in recent times has been extremely accommodating to film stars who add the glamour quotient to the parliamentary proceedings, if not anything else. Amitabh Bachchan, among many other Bollywood actors, has already had a parliamentary stint in the Lok Sabha, after he won the Allahabad parliamentary seat in 1984. The presence of Rekha and Jaya in the House of Elders, will further that tradition some more.

A seat shuffle at the request of Jaya Bachchan, has perhaps put paid to hopes of those salacious few, or perhaps many, who would have loved to see the two actress-parliamentarians sit in close proximity. Originally allotted seat number 91, Jaya Bachchan has moved to seat number 143, once it became clear that Rekha, nominated by the central government had been allotted seat number 99.

Rekha’s entry into Parliament has triggered a kind of ‘Bigg Boss’ inspired voyeuristic interest in the proceedings India’s house of democracy, even if for a day. And guess, what Member of Parliament Sachin Tendulkar is still to make his debut.

On Twitter, micro-blogger Tania Ameer Khan says

@tania85khan: As Rekha walks into parl & takes oath. Jaya Bachchan’s expression – Priceless!

Noted political commentator Rajdeep Sardesi predicts in his tweet, that he expected the attendance to rise.

@sardesairajdeep: Rekha to take oath in parliament tomorrow. Expect attendance to rise!

India’s affair with the trio continues.

Indian actor Chiranjeevi.

NEW DELHI: South Indian mega film-star Chiranjeevi, who plunged into active politics with moderate success a few years ago, has run into real-life trouble with the Indian tax authorities conducting a raid at his daughter’s Bangalore home and seizing loads of cash.

According to the Income Tax officials, as much as $ 70 million of cash packed in 35 cartoons of $ 2 million each were seized from the bedroom of the home belonging to the actor-politician’s daughter, Sushmita, in Bangalore city.

The raid was conducted on Friday-Saturday last and officials confirmed on Monday that $ 70 million in Rs 500 and Rs1000 Indian currency denomination notes were found.

Tax officials have handed over the money today to the Indian apex Federal Bank — the Reserve Bank of India.

According to the press release issued by the Income Tax Department, the raid was conducted in connection with an investigation related to businesses connected with firms dealing in granite stone mining, alcohol and sugar.

Chiranjeevi had launched his own political party in his home state Andhra Pradesh, where he enjoys a demi-god status through his acting exploits. His party won almost two-dozen seats in the state legislature but the performance hardly changed political equations where the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress which heads the Federal government is also ruling.

Chiranjeevi later merged his political formation with the Sonia Gandhi-led party apparently to be on the government’s side and the raid by the Income Tax Department controlled by the Congress-led government at the Center has surprised many in political and media circles.

Aamir Khan

NEW DELHI: Big screen Bollywood star Amir Khan is making waves on the Indian television now, raising social issues through a new television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth Always Prevails).

Khan’s show has managed to attract eyeballs of millions of Indian television viewers and if in its first episode he succeeded in rankling political establishments and governments over female foeticide, he moved the hearts of viewers through his inimitable style in raising the social evil of child sexual abuse.

Khan’s first episode had governments in some Indian states take drastic steps against female foeticide.

In the second episode of the show aired on weekends, several victims of sexual abuse were on the sets where an awareness workshop was held for both children and parents.

The victims dared to discuss their trauma on camera and educate viewers on potential exploitation of kids in society.

One victim from Mumbai, Harish Iyer, even detailed his traumatic childhood experiences of being raped by a male relative for several years. He described how he dealt with it, and how, inspired by another Bollywood actress Sridevi, he gained courage to overcome the trauma.

To Harish’s surprise, Amir also had Sridevi on the show, applauding him for his courage and determination. Sridevi also presented to Harish a token of appreciation.

On the show, Khan asked Sridevi to sign a letter addressed to the government supporting a law against child sexual abuse, which although introduced in Indian Parliament is yet to turn law and be implemented in the country.

Satyamev Jayate achieved commendable success after its very first episode with the Western Indian State of Rajasthan establishing fast track courts and the neighboring Gujarat too acting swiftly to cancel several dozen licenses of hospitals and clinics to conduct legal abortions.

LGBTQ rights flag

KUALA LUMPUR: Gay television characters can be a mode to tolerance and understanding, say Malaysia’s LGBT community. But the government disagrees, and they barred gay television characters from being shown on the country’s airwaves last month, in a move that has activists frustrated that the government is pushing the conservative tide against the community.

“We are facing an uphill battle for acceptance and this ruling will do a lot to continue negative stereotypes of the gay community in Malaysia,” lesbian activist Anita told Bikyamasr.com.

She added that culture is “a strong part of Malaysian society and to not allow gay characters on television will be a negative push toward alienating gay people who are simply wanting to live their lives,” she added, saying a number of activists are petitioning the culture ministry to change its policy.

The ongoing debate stems from the information department overseeing television in the country decision in April to ban TV shows that show gay characters.

The country’s Culture Minister Datuk Maglin Dennis D’Cruz made the decision last month, despite protests from human rights groups and the LGBT community.

The ban became effective immediately with state-owned TV and radio stations, he said. No specifics about which shows will be affected were revealed, but the ban will likely be expanded to cover privately-owned stations as well as satellite TV providers.

“If it means canceling some of the shows, so be it,” he said. The decision was to curb the “influence” of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, he added.

As for foreign productions, he said the Censorship Board will remove indivudual episodes from current TV shows and bar movies with gay characters from being screened locally.

“Effective immediately, radio and TV stations are asked to stop screening shows which feature gay, effeminate men as well as characters that go against the norm of a religious society because this encourages and promotes LGBT now,” said the directive.

That could mean any television show that has an inkling of “gayness” would be removed from Malaysian television, which has sparked controversy on censorship in the country and the future of the LGBT community.

For Anita, it is a sign that “the government wants to make us seem like we are the enemy of morality, and that is a path that could lead to violent backlashes against people in the country.”

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It will be Aishwarya’s 11th appearance at Cannes and the first post motherhood.

Aishwarya will once again be the face of L’Oreal, the cosmetic giant which she has been endorsing for a long time, at the festival.

At Cannes last year, the former Miss World had launched the film Heroine, but she stepped down later due to her pregnancy. She was replaced with Kareena Kapoor in the film.

Another Bollywood star who is a brand ambassador for the cosmetic giant L’Oreal, Sonam Kapoor, will also attend the Cannes film festival, which is scheduled to commence on May 16.

As many as four Indian films are being premiered at the prestigious international film festival this year. Anurag Kashyap has produced three of these films.

Chivas Regal, a partner of the Cannes Film Festival has also extended an invitation to Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal, who is expected to be at the event with his wife Mehr.

Lady Gaga taking tour to Asia.

BANGKOK: According to government sources in Thailand, Lady Gaga‘s Bangkok stop on her Born This Way Ball tour will be the largest concert Thailand has ever witnessed. The announced comes only a day after Indonesian clerics threatened to demonstrate the American pop star’s arrival in Indonesia.

Gaga’s gig takes place in two weeks at Rajamangala Stadium and will take a over a week to set up. Currently, the show was only 80 percent sold out.

“This is biggest concert we’ve ever put together, even bigger than Michael Jackson‘s concert in 1993,” Neil Thompson, deputy managing director of BEC Tero Entertainment, said, according to The Nation. “It’s taking three 747s and 20 sea containers to bring in all the production, staging, lighting, sound and video equipment.”

Gaga not only needs a small army to get her stage set up, but the magnificent tour required intense pre-planning.

“Lady Gaga only does shows with people she can trust. She needs to be sure that we can deliver what she needs to do the show. She owns the tour, and she controls every aspect of the shows. We’ve been working on this production for three years and one year has been spent working seriously on the venue and how we could get the equipment into the stadium,” Thompson said.

Gaga has a 150-person crew working on the tour, which she owns.

But the set up isn’t the only thing that’s out of the world. Her wardrobe and dressing room are extravagant, with 40 wardrobe cases and 50 pairs of shoes. To house all that couture and fashion, the promoter is making sure her dressing room is top notch. They are rolling out the welcome mat so that Gaga feels at home in Thailand, but also gets a taste of the Thai culture and ambiance.

“We are currently designing Lady Gaga’s dressing room at the venue, and we plan to make it as big as possible with a Thai ambiance. She’ll have an outrageous dressing room, that’s for sure, and she wants her dressing room here to have some Thai elements — Thai silk, imageries, furniture — so she knows which country she is in.”

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Tamil TV shows under threat in Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR: The kids sit silently in front of the television. The elder brother turns slightly and watches as his father quickly turns the channel from a program that they say is too violent for the kids to watch.

It’s a Tamil drama from India that shows violence, and Yussif, the father, won’t let his children watch.

“I just don’t think it’s appropriate at their young age,” he told Bikyamasr.com. “But I don’t mind the show.”

He said he is against calls from a Consumers Association in Malaysia that has called for a ban on Tamil serial dramas over their use of violence.

For Yussif and his wife, Sana, “we don’t think it is the government’s place to tell us what we can and can’t watch. If we are responsible, then we make that decision for ourselves.”

The are part of the new middle-class in Malaysia who are shunning censorship in favor of responsibility, arguing that the future of Malaysia will depend on its people “making right decisions for themselves and their children.”

The Consumer Association of Penang education officer NV Subbarow said that many homes “were left neglected as the families were busy watching these shows every day.”

Local daily Tamil Nesan quoted him as saying that the “negative scenes in these dramas have had a negative influence on the ethnic Indian community, with many youths involved in crime.”

Subbarow asked the censorship board to come down hard and ban these dramas, adding that the local ethnic Indian community should also boycott these dramas.

Some 8 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million people is ethnic Indian and majority of these are Tamils. Tamil language television serials are very popular in ethnic Indian households while Tamil movies are released here simultaneously with Tamil Nadu in India.

But many observers argue that other factors could play a role in neglect and violence, including what many social workers said, was the poverty and lack of opportunities that is growing among the Tamil population in Malaysia.

For Yussif and Sana, both ethnically Tamil but converts to Islam, they believe “Malaysia’s diversity is so important and we shouldn’t start censoring things because it makes us uncomfortable.”

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Lady Gaga gets criticism from Indonesian Islamic group.

JAKARTA: Lady Gaga is under threat again in Asia. And again it is Indonesia’s Islamic groups who are fighting against a concert scheduled by the American pop star for June 3.

The ultra-conservative Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) has threatened to mobilize some 30,000 protesters to demonstrate against the star if the performance in the capital, Jakarta, goes forward.

They said they will take to the airport upon her arrival.

The group also challenged fans who want to see the star as part of her Asia and Australia tour to rethink their desire.

“We will stop her from setting foot on our land. She had better not dare spread her satanic faith in this country,” FPI Jakarta chairman Salim Alatas told AFP.

“Her style is vulgar, her sexual and indecent clothes will destroy our children’s sense of morality. She’s very dangerous,” he said.

Like protests elsewhere in Southeast Asia against Gaga, most Indonesians are not taking much thought in the attacks, arguing that if parents do not want their children to see the concert, they should stop them.

“I am 17-years-old and I think I have the right to see a concert,” said one young Gaga fan. She told Bikyamasr.com that the superstar is not going to make Indonesia immoral.

“I think this idea that it is the foreign stars and their sex appeal that will hurt Indonesian society is ridiculous,” the young fan continued to Bikyamasr.com. “Most young Indonesians don’t need a song or a concert to have sex or do drugs. People will do that no matter what happens to Lady Gaga.”

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Britain's Morrissey lashes out at Indonesia over Java zoo.

JAKARTA: Britain’s Morrissey has, in a letter, called on the Indonesian government to immediately close a zoo in Eastern Java known for its animal abuses.

The zoo has seen hundreds of animals die and others disappear in mysterious circumstances in recent years, which has left the global animal rights community in a fury.

The former frontman of seminal indie band The Smiths, whose 1985 album was entitled “Meat is Murder”, made the request in a letter to Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan before a solo performance in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Your ministry called for a change at the Surabaya Zoo, but no improvements have been made,” the vegetarian and animal rights activist wrote in the letter by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“There can be no justification for seemingly endless debates and delays while animals continue to suffer and die. Please take immediate action to close the Surabaya Zoo and transfer its animals to more suitable environments,” the letter stated.

The official Antara news agency said last year that the zoo – Indonesia’s largest – had turned into a “place of horror” and “death camp” for animals, while a zoo spokesman said in March some 500 animals died there in 2010 and 2011.

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A scene from Persepolis.

A Tunisian court on Thursday fined the director of a TV station to $1,550 for airing the Franco-Iranian film Persepolis, which Islamic activists saw as an insult to Islam as it contains a scene that depicts God.

The fine came as a relief to many, as the charges could have carried up to three years in jail.

Nabil Karoui, head of the private TV station Nessma, was found guilty of “disturbing public order and harming moral values” by screening the film in question.

The depiction of God or Islam’s Prophet Mohamed, or any of his family members or close followers is prohibited and some ultra-conservatives see it as “blasphemy.”

Attacks on the TV station’s headquarters in the capital Tunisia and Karoui’s home followed the screening of the film.

Rising Islamic voices that followed the ousting of former President Zine Abideen Ben Ali has brought worries for the international community. The US has expressed its concern over the sentence that they saw as endangering media freedom.

“Karoui’s conviction raises serious concerns about tolerance and freedom of expression in the new Tunisia,” American ambassador Gordon Gray said in a statement.

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Vidya Balan in 'The Dirty Picture'

NEW DELHI: Bollywood’s voluptuous actress Vidya Balan whose raunchy biopic ‘The Dirty Picture’ on India’s queen of semi-mainstream sleaze actress created waves across the country, has just been entrusted with a ‘Clean’ detail by the Indian government’s sanitation campaign.

Balan has just been made the ambassador for India’s sanitation campaign by the union rural development ministry headed by Jairam Ramesh. For two years Balan will be the face of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign), and will feature in advertising campaigns, which promote community as well as person sanitation like hand washing, use of toilets, etc.

“For an actor, what can be a better thing than doing a dirty picture on screen and off screen a clean picture. I think this role will work a lot because we are working on a national movement,” the beautiful Balan told reporters after finalizing the modalities of her new assignment during a meeting with Ramesh in New Delhi.

“Sanitation should become a national obsession,” Balan said, even as a UNICEF-WHO report suggested that more than half of India’s 1.1 billion population defecate in public, giving rise to various health hazards.

Speaking to reporters Ramesh said: “This is a clean picture. She (Vidya Balan) has agreed to give her time for the campaign for two years. She will be fully involved in the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan”.

Balan on Thursday, won the coveted federal government endorsed national award for best acting (female) for her performance in ‘The Dirty Picture’ which mirrors the life of southern India’s celluloid sex goddess of the yesteryears ‘Silk Smitha’.

The film, which required Balan to put on oodles of weight, had the buxom actress spout sleaze and turn on the heat, as her character that of a film extra, rose to become of the most popular and feisty actresses in Indian cinema.

Aishwayra Rai Bachchan through the years. Collage courtesy The Hindustan Times.

New Delhi: In a country where pot-bellies and bulging midriffs are not exactly uncommon, Indians, it appears are suddenly ‘outraged’ that arguably the country’s most beautiful woman Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has put on post-pregnancy weight.

Aishwarya, 38, with her cold, sculpted fair-skinned and porcelain-like features has held the country in awe ever since she featured in a Pepsi-Cola ad, where ‘Ash’, a new comer, starred with another Bollywood star Aamir Khan in the early 1990s.

Over the next two decade the Bengaluru-born Rai, won the Miss World Crown, starred in a several dozen films, got covered on Vogue magazine thrice and married into Indian cinema’s most well known family, to become to daughter-in-law of Bollywood’s biggest star Amitabh Bachchan, Amitabh’s son Abhishek, is incidentally also an actor.

Through the two decades, Aishwarya was perhaps the most hankered after beauty icon in India, which is obsessed with fair skin. Before her post pregnancy beef-up, perhaps the only time that the beauty was in the news for being ‘unkempt’, was when she attended an Indian television awards show in 2000, with what appeared to be a “black eye”, amidst rumors of a fight with her then boyfriend and Bollywood’s mercurial kid Salman Khan.

One of India’s leading news agencies the Press Trust of India (PTI) writes about Aishwarya’s weight issue after delivering a baby daughter Aradhya, in November last year.

“The shape which Aishwarya Rai is in five months after her pregnancy has generated unusual public interest with the Bachchan bahu coming in for some criticism for the ‘oodles of weight’ gained by the actress,” a PTI report has said.

“The pictures set off a buzz on the internet and in the social media with articles, videos, blogs and tweets highlighting her ‘oodles of weight’, ‘double chin’ and calling the photos of the beauty queen ‘shocking’,” the report further said.

Sunny Leone to make Bollywood debut.

New Delhi: Canadian born porn star of Indian origin had to wear a burkha, a full body cloak worn by Muslim women, to a meeting with a producer keep a film deal under wraps.

The raven haired Sunny Leone, who was named Penthouse pet of the year in 2003, became a household name in India, after she participated in reality show Big Boss 5 last year and is now feeling her way into Bollywood films.

Sunny’s ‘under cover’ (quite literally) meeting with producer Ekta Kapoor happened last week at the producer’s indoor office in Mumbai.

“The producers hadn’t met Sunny before this. And they wanted to meet her, especially Ekta. But at the same time, they wanted it to be a secret, as Ekta didn’t want the news to be out before the contracts were signed,” says the Bollywood buzz.

“The entire negotiation took place over a confidentiality mail between both the parties. After everything was decided, Ekta wanted to meet Sunny personally so she called her to the office to sign the contract. In order to keep the gossip-mongers away, Sunny had no choice but to wear a burkha and visit the office. Nobody got to know that it was Sunny”.

Sunny has already signed a Jism 2, a provocative sequel to Jism and another sequel called Raginin MMS 2.

New Delhi: ‘Vicky Donor’, a quirky Bollywood film about the travails of an unusually virile, but broke sperm donor, has left the ribs of an otherwise moralistic mainstream Indian audience, tickling.

The relatively low budget film directed by Shoojit Sircar, which has well known video jockey Ayushmann Khurrana, playing the sperm donor Vicky, and the beautiful Yami Gautam as his love interest Ashima, has not only grossed over $ 2.60 million in ticket bookings, but has also left sperm banks in India rubbing their hands in glee.

“We can thank Vicky Donor for increasing the general awareness about sperm donation and even making it fashionable. Sperm banks report that since the film was released, there has been a rise in the number of calls being made by young men keen on donating their sperm,” Ritu Bhatia said in the India Today.

Dr Bharati Dhorepatil, operates an infertility clinic in the central Indian city of Pune. According to Bharati ever since the movie, which sees the donor Vicky raking in the money for donating sperm hit the silver-screen, she has been receiving a flood of queries.

“I think we started getting emails ever since the movie’s trailer hit the screens.When films are made on such a subject, people accept it more easily,” she said.

The film revolves around the three central characters Vicky, Ashima and Dr Baldev Chaddha, a fertility expert based in New Delhi, who can ‘assess’ the quality of a sperm by merely looking at the donor’s face. Like in most popular Bollywood stories, a love angle and a climax, forms integral part the film’s discourse.

“I had a lot of misconceptions about sperm donations. I went to see the film for fun, but came back with some education on fertility and sperm donation issues,” Isaac Costa, who saw the film Sunday night said.

Produced by actor John Abraham, the film’s director Sircar said that it was a “light-hearted look at the taboo attached to infertility and artificial insemination”.

Abraham is more simplistic: “Basically, Vicky Donor is a romantic comedy between a Punjabi boy and a Bengali girl. But the concept is set against the background of sperm donation.”

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan puffing awat at a cigarette.

New Delhi: We know he’s ‘smoking’ hot, but Shahrukh Khan is fast turning out to be the bad boy of Bollywood, at least during cricket matches.

After being taken to task over smoking during a cricket match at the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2009, Khan’s lighting of the taboo tobacco stick during a match in Rajasthan has triggered controversy again.

A local magistrate Shilpa Samir has issued summons to the actor after a complaint was filed by Anand Rathore, a director of a local cricket academy in Rajasthan’s Jaipur. Khan has been asked to remain present in the court premises on May 26.

Khan was seen smoking at the Sawai Man Singh stadium on April 8, during a match between IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and the Kolkata Knight Riders, a team which is partially owned by Khan.

“Smoking publicly is banned in Rajasthan since 2000 under the Rajasthan Prevention of Smocking Act. However, Shahrukh Khan was smoking publicly in front of thousands of spectators. The actor was broadcast live while smoking on the TV channel which was showing the match,” Rathore’s lawyer told reporters here.

In 2009, during the IPL, which was held in South Africa that year, South African anti tobacco vigilante organization National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) had complained about Khan’s penchant for smoking during the high-octane cricket matches and had even asked the organizers that the actor should be evicted from the stadium for defying South African smoking laws.

American actor Morgan Freeman and Adel Imam in an undated photo.

CAIRO: One of Egypt’s best known actors, Adel Imam, has been handed a three-month hard labor sentence and a fine of about $170 for insulting Islam in roles he portrayed in film and on the stage.

The films include “The Terrorist,” “Terrorism and the Kabab,” among others.

Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswany, whose international best-seller “The Yacoubian Building,” was turned into a film co-starring Imam, said the court ruling sets Egypt back to the “darkness of the Middle Ages,” according to a report in Al Ahram.

“[The court's ruling] is an unimaginable crime of principle in developed nations,” he tweeted on his Twitter account.

The impetus behind this, and another case featuring the founder of Mobinil telecom, Naguib Sawiris (who tweeted an image of Mickey Mouse with a beard, and his lovely consort Minnie Mouse, wearing a face veil), are indicative of the growing draconian influence of the ultra-conservative Salafists in Egypt.

The Salafist Nour party won 25 percent of seats in Egypt’s first democratically elected parliament, emerging as the second political party in Egypt, after the comparatively moderate Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party.

One Salafist MP, Mamdouh Ismail, interrupted the inaugural session of parliament by shouting the call to prayer, which did not go over well.

Sawiris was acquitted by two courts of his charge of blasphemy.

Iman, is not so fortunate.

Imam, 71 years-old – and with a career that spans nearly half-a-century of cinematic portrayals – was found guilty of blasphemy in February.

He was retried, as he had been tried in absentia the first time around.

He did not appear in court Tuesday either, although his lawyers were there to represent him.

Imam can appeal.

Under the decades-long rule of military strong-man Hosni Mubarak, government censors controlled cinema.

The films Imam had starred in, were approved by those censors.

Bizarrely, there has been no legal action against the writers, directors or producers of the films that are considered blasphemous.

BM