SRK has taken it upon himself to make Ra.One the biggest of them all films,

"The film hasn't become costly during the process of its making; it was always supposed to be expensive right from the time film's script was being written. Later when the process of storyboarding started, Shah Rukh and Anubhav rea...lised that Ra. One would require much more than just 100 crores. As things stand today, the making itself has cost over 125 crores. This doesn't include Shah Rukh's remuneration as he is the film's producer as well and hence is a partner in all profits that come along", confirms an industry source on condition of anonymity.
Given the fact that even on a conservative side Shah Rukh's fees wouldn't be less than 25 crores, the cost of making Ra.One elevates to a good 150 crores. This would be notches above Rajnikanth's Endhiran/Robot (132 crores) which is the costliest India film ever made and Bollywood's Blue which was pegged at 100 crores. Going by the super-success of Endhiran which was a regional film and had a limited market in Hindi speaking circuits, the makers of Ra.One are confident though that they would not just recover the amount but also make neat profits, courtesy the huge market that Shah Rukh commands

"Not to forget the scale at which the film has been made", says Anubhav Sinha who has invested half a decade into the making of this film, "The kind of VFX that would have seen in the film belong to never seen before variety. Also, when we claim that the film is big, it is big in all regards. It was all planned though."

Continuing in the same vein, he adds, "We invested as many as two years into the pre-production of the film, the actual filming was spread through one full year and then the post-production has been a year long process as well. Don't forget that Ra.One is not one of those films where only the shooting days consume money."

When asked to quote the exact money that has gone into making the film, Anubhav just smiled it all away. "Please ask Shah Rukh about it. All I can say is that the amount of money Shah Rukh has pumped into the film is unimaginable. Trust me, it will all show on screen. I can see how passionate Shah Rukh is about this film and he has taken it upon himself to make Ra.One the biggest of them all."

Akon to sing, celebrate b'day in city, Shah Rukh, Siddharth Mallya expected to attend midnight birthday bash after R&B singer's Friday,

POPULAR rapper and R&B artist Akon will be in the city this weekend. The rapper will not only perform before a 2000-strong audience at Westin hotel on Friday, but will also bring in his birthday -- April 16 -- with a grand celebration there at midnight.

According to sources close to the event, biggies from Bollywood and other celebrities are expected to attend the birthday party, including Shah Rukh Khan and Siddharth Mallya.

Though Westin authorities said they did not know whether Khan or Mallya would be present on Friday, they confirmed the singer's performance and birthday bash.

"We can not confirm Khan's or Mallya's presence because there haven't been any reservations in the hotel, but we have heard that a few VIPs will be present at the party -- but we do not have the names yet," said Nasir Shaikh, director, food and beverages, Westin.

Akon will also be performing at Gurgaon and Bengaluru over the weekend. But the inclusion of the city in his itinerary happened at the eleventh hour, said sources close to the event. They said they had started working on the programme just a few days ago and were having a tough time managing things.

"We have loads do, including the concert and the birthday celebrations," said a source. "The event got confirmed only last week."

Birthday cake
Hotel authorities said they had booked a presidential suite for the artist as he was expected to stay the night.
"We are planning a special Akon cake and menu for him, especially for his birthday. We are looking at what he likes and after that the chef will decide on what to prepare," said Shaikh. "As for the cake, it's going to be a chocolate cake."

According to hotel authorities, a popular poultry brand from the city is getting the singer to the city. Though a spokesperson from the poultry company denied the concert and the birthday celebrations, other sources said it was on. About 22 people will accompany Akon, crewmembers as well as family. His sister and personal bodyguards will be with him.

"He will be belting out six popular tracks, after which there will be the birthday celebrations," said Shaikh.
Though the singer had performed at a private party in the city in December, this week's event will be his first before a large crowd.

Last week there were reports that Shah Rukh Khan was throwing a birthday bash for the rapper and that the singer would perform either in Mumbai or the city,

Long way to go in the tournament: Gambhir

A guarded Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir on Monday refused to get carried away with their victory over Deccan Chargers here and said the Shah Rukh-owned team have a long way to go in the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League.

After the shocking two-run loss to Chennai Super Kings in their tournament opener, all eyes were on the Knight Riders in their first home match today and they did not disappoint the crowd, securing a nine-run victory over Deccan to register their first points in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament.

"It was a great feeling. We want to play some good cricket and bring some joy to the people of this city. The venue is fantastic. We hope to win a lot more games. We are hungry and we want to do well," he said at the post-match press conference.

"We are just happy, not relieved. It's just the start of the tournament. We got a long way to go. I don't believe in a word called relief. I want to take every game seriously. It's a good feeling to get points on the board and we hope to continue with the momentum," a visibly upbeat Gambhir said.

Gambhir said he was confident of a victory after setting Deccan a challenging 164-run target.

"It was a very good total on this slow and low wicket. 163 was a par score. We have a good bowling attack as well. Initially we were thinking of 150, but getting to 163 was good," he said.

Gambhir hailed young left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, who returned with impressive figures of three for 24 runs from his four overs.

"The wicket suited him (Abdulla). We thought he could be used in the first six overs. He is a quality player and has a great future ahead.

"The way he has shown his character bowling in the first six overs and then in the death, it says a lot about him. I hope he can keep his head on his shoulder and it will be a lot more for him," the left-handed batsman said of Abdulla.

Gambhir insisted that his team was the better side on display today but said Knight Riders should have won their opening fixture against Chennai Super Kings the other day.

"It was not much different. We just played better cricket. I feel we should have won the first game as well. It's how you finish the game is important. Our batting order was flexible and we have the depth," he said.

I want KKR to win for Ganguly: Shah Rukh Khan

Aware of the negative vibes in Kolkata after the exclusion of local boy Sourav Ganguly from the team, Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan on Monday night dedicated his team's nine-run victory to Sourav Ganguly and the sports loving people of the city.

"I came back only for the fans. I wanted to do this for Knight Riders, the fans of Kolkata, I wanted to do this for Sourav Ganguly.

"I want my team KKR to win the IPL for Kolkata and Sourav Ganguly," said the matinee idol.

"I am very happy. It was really a cool moment. (Skipper Gautam) Gambhir and (Jacques) Kallis were really cool. It was really a cool moment as our team is unused to wins," said Shah Rukh Khan after KKR clinched their first win in IPL edition four.

Shah Rukh also expressed his disappointment over unnecessary controversies revolving the team for the last three seasons.

"A win is always welcome. We had lot of unnecessary controversies in the last three seasons," said Shah Rukh.

SRK and Anubhav set high standards for ''Ra.One'',

While RA.ONE is in its first leg of promotion, in parallel there is extensive work being done on the film's post production. This means that director Anubhav Sinha is neck deep into supervising finer details for the film which are being added shot-by-shot at various studios all across the globe. Meanwhile VFX department of Red Chillies (Shahrukh Khan's production house) is driving the entire show to ensure a view in totality.

"Red Chillies VFX team is the best in our country. Period", exclaims Anubhav whose earlier films like DUS and CASH have boasted of heavy duty VFX as well, "Jeff Kleiser is the best VFX supervisor that I could have got while people like Harry Hingorani and Ketan Yadav from Red Chillies are just superb. I could be convinced by a particular shot in the film but they find it difficult to convince themselves. Since they are at the helm of making the biggest Indian film ever, they know that the stakes are high, reputations are at stake and hence they are in no mood to compromise."

No wonder, despite the film's shoot being over late last year, there were as many as 9 months reserved for the extensive post production of RA.ONE.

"The team's standards are really high and folks involved are the masters of the game", says Anubhav with a sense of contentment in his voice, "These are the folks who have been associated with some of the best visual effects in many major films. When you have such people in your film and a producer (Shahrukh Khan) who goes all out to make it happen, you do end up reaffirming your own belief that there is indeed something special on the way."

SRK to do cameo in Always Kabhi Kabhi

It has been known for some time now that Karim Morani's daughter Zoa is being launched by Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment in Always Kabhi Kabhi. However, there was much speculation about SRK's presence in the film.

Well, it has now been confirmed that King Khan will not be a part of the film but he will do a promotional video for it. The said promotional video will feature SRK talking about his school days.

With the backdrop of high school students, their issues and their relationships, the film is expected to hit the screens on June 17. Besides Zoa, the film also stars Love Aaj Kal damsel Giselle Monteiro, Ali Fazal and Satyajeet Dubey.

New-look KKR eye a fresh start,

For three years, the Kolkata Knight Riders have been the Indian Premier League's most under-performing side. The Shah Rukh Khan-owned KKR have lost a whopping 24 games out of the 42 they have played in the three editions.

In the two seasons that the IPL was played in India, KKR won a meagre three matches away from Eden Gardens. They are also the only franchise not to have made the last-four grade even once. In a bid to turn things around, the team management changed the coach, captain, players as well as support staff, but to no avail.

Lack of success perhaps explains the non-retention of a single marquee player by KKR for IPL 4. By freezing out their former icon player Sourav Ganguly and not showing interest in the likes of Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle and Ishant Sharma, the KKR management has made it amply clear that they want to make a fresh start with 'new' faces.

At the auctions they spent half of their $9 million purse in picking up Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan, whose reputation as a big hitter has taken a big hit in the World Cup. The KKR management has tried to correct the imbalances in the their squad during the first three seasons by assembling an array of all-rounders who are expected to mount a strong challenge for IPL glory.

Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Rajat Bhatia and Laxmi Ratan Shukla are all Jacks of all trades who are expected to back up the specialists - Gambhir, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin and Manoj Tiwary in batting and Brett Lee, L Balaji, Jaidev Undakat and Iqbal Abdulla in bowling.

There is no denying the fact that there is plenty of quality in the KKR's 20-member squad but the Indian component is rather lightweight.

Gambhir has the right credentials to lead KKR, having led India successfully against the Kiwis in the run-up to the World Cup, but apart from the skipper himself, Pathan and Tiwary, the other Indian players are yet to prove themselves at this level. KKR's other big worry is that they will miss the services of Lee, Haddin, Pattinson and Shakib for at least the first two matches as they will be on national duty. KKR, however, will take heart from the fact that on paper they have a pretty decent side. It may not be as imposing as the ones assembled by the Chennai Super kings and Mumbai Indians, but KKR are certainly better on paper than the likes of Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals and Kochi Tuskers.

The biggest challenge for Gambhir and KKR, however, will be to win over the spectators at the Eden Gardens, who are known to swear by one Sourav Ganguly.

Gautam Gambhir (Captain)

No doubt, he is right man to lead KKR in IPL 4, but his brand of leadership will constantly be compared with that Sourav Ganguly, the man he has replaced. Gambhir must win over the KKR faithfuls, who remain distinctly bitter about the manner in which their favourite icon was discarded.

Key players:

Yusuf Pathan: He could be the key to winning over KKR faithfuls in the stands with his big hits. KKR need him to fire consistently with the bat and finish close games, something they have failed to do in earlier seasons. Pathan's quickish off-spin gives Gambhir an added option if one of his frontline bowlers take a pounding.

Shakib Al Hasan: Will be worth his weight in gold when he joins the squad after national duty. His batting and bowling in Indian conditions will be an asset for KKR. The Bangladesh captain will be a key component in the middle-order as well as the middle overs.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat, Sarabjit Ladda, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla Foreign players (7) Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, James Pattinson.

Shah Rukh, Hrithik patch up!

SRK and Hrithik Roshan seem to have patched up after their mini-war...

There were talks that actors Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan weren't on talking terms. And it was all around the time Hugh Jackman was in Mumbai. Apparently, Hrithik Roshan was miffed that SRK didn't invite him and wife Susanne at the bash at Mannat, SRK's residence thrown in honour of Hugh Jackman.

There were talks that Hrithik was going to adopt the eye-for-an-eye attitude and not invite Shah Rukh and Gauri for a bash hosted by him, but all seems to be well now. With the cricket World Cup came about a spirit of friendship and unity.

Hrithik and Susanne Roshan made it to Shah Rukh Khan's house to watch the India-Sri Lanka finals with much luxury and with friends. The actors later went outside and even danced with the crowds gathered there in jubilant furore when the Men in Blue brought home the cup!

So, there's no bad blood between SRK and Hrithik. MS Dhoni, Sachin and the boys seem to have undone what Hugh did!

Chak De India! says SRK on World Cup win

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said "Chak De!" on the Indian cricket team winning the cricket World Cup in a thriller against Sri Lanka here Saturday.

"Chak De India," Shah Rukh exclaimed in front of media at his Bandra residence after the team picked up the trophy.

Until India winning the World Cup the tattoo 'D' in his hand was meant for " Don 2" but from now it would mean skipper M.S. Dhoni, said the actor.

"Now the tattoo 'D' would mean Dhoni," said Shah Rukh.