Dr. Mahathir Has Date With Shah Rukh On Christmas Day

When former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad arrives in Mumbai on Christmas Eve, he will be a special guest of Bollywood hearthrob Shah Rukh Khan.

Dr Mahathir and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, both on a private visit to India, will be arriving in the Indian financial capital on Friday, where the famous actor will play host to the elder statesman.

"When he heard I was coming to India, he said I must go to Bombay (Mumbai).

"Well, he is more a friend than fan. I have known him for quite some time. His last movie I watched was 'My Name is Khan'," said Dr Mahathir.

Khan is expected to host a special high tea for the couple at his Mumbai residence on Christmas Day.

During his two-day visit to Mumbai, Dr Mahathir is slated to visit the Yash Raj Film Studio, India's premier film studio.

Dr Mahathir is the second luminary to meet Khan in less than a week, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the actor in Mumbai last Wednesday.

Medvedev was on an official visit to India last week.

Malaysian Consul-General in Mumbai Wan Zaidi Wan Abdullah will also host a special dinner for the visiting dignitaries.

Dr Mahathir will conclude his Indian tour with a visit to Kerala after Mumbai.

On Thursday, he met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

'Where's the ticket Shah Rukh'

Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan's presence at the Sunburn Goa electronic music festival has not been confirmed yet but the festival organisers maintain that the superstar will have to buy a ticket to attend the event.

Harindra Singh, managing director of Percept - the organiser of arguably India's biggest electronic music festival to be held in Goa next week - said Shah Rukh will have to shell out money, if he wants to attend the three-day festival.

"If Shah Rukh buys a ticket, he is welcome. There is no guest list for the event," Singh said, adding that only the sponsors were allowed to bring a limited number of guests.

Sunburn Goa, which will be held Dec 27-29, is expected to host some of the top names in the world of electronic music like Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten and Dave Seaman who will showcase their music at the picturesque Candolim beach.

The festival over the last few years has attracted several celebrities and, according to Singh, bookings for this year's event started happening as early as January.

"We had the first bookings from January. This is one of the most sought after events in India's events calendar and we have people from all over the world coming in to attend it," Singh said, adding that such festivals will give Goa tourism a big fillip.

"I have been told that the season in Goa over the last few years has not been good and events like this help the local business because of the thousands of tourists who come in," Singh said.

SRK does not like Bigg Boss!

Shah Rukh Khan, who will soon be back on television, loves foreign shows like Desperate Housewives and Dexter.

He agrees that all three seasons of Khatron Ke Khiladi were fantastic, but the one show that he is not keen on is Bigg Boss, currently hosted by his rival Salman Khan.

When quizzed about whether he has watched the show, he is quick to reply, "I've caught bits of it when they are aired on news channels, but I haven't really watched an entire episode.

I don't like voyeuristically looking at other people's lives. I think my life is much more interesting."

Meanwhile..

SRK recently saw Vishal Bhardwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf. And was completely bowled over by the film and most performances in it.

The ones that he really loved were that of Naseeruddin Shah, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Annu Kapoor. Neil essays the youngest husband, while Annu is the fifth husband.

SRK, Kareena dance for Russian prez

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has Bollywood on his agenda. During the course of his visit to Mumbai, he met a delegation of filmmakers at Yash Raj Films Studio in Andheri on Wednesday. The meeting organised by the Russian Embassy was to encourage and improve cultural relations with Bollywood.
Apart from Yash Chopra, Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment, Ramesh Sippy, Rakesh Roshan, Mukesh Bhatt, Randhir Kapoor, Manmohan Shetty, Puneet Goenka of Zee were also present.

During the relatively short meeting, the Russian delegation managed to strike a chord with Bollywood's big guns. According to Amit Khanna, "The idea was to explore co-productions, shooting in each other's countries, furthering cultural ties with entertainment. It's good to see the Russian President himself initiating this consolidation of cultural relationships."

Rakesh Roshan said, "The Russian president committed a one-window facility for us to visit his country for shooting, promoting and marketing our films," he enthused.

Medvedev also dropped in at the sets of Shah Rukh Khan's superhero fantasy, RA.One. The actor did a little jig with Kareena Kapoor for the President. "It was a nice and amicable meeting. He also complimented on the important role music plays in our films," Kapoor said.

SRK keeps away from rude tweeters

Shah Rukh Khan prefers to lay low instead of hitting back at rude tweeters,

Shah Rukh Khan has vamoosed from his micro-blogging site for over a month and a half. He last tweeted on his birthday November 2 stating "Birthday with the babies at the shoot in Berlin."

And then strangely, went quiet. Considering that the eloquent star was pretty active, his long silence has led to all types of speculation as SRK did not announce that he is taking a sabbatical from Twitter as others do.

Withdrawn?

Certain sections also feel that he has gone off to avoid any questions pertaining to Tees Maar Khan and Farah Khan.

However a source close to the actor pooh-poohs the rumour, "Shah Rukh had been receiving a lot of negative comments lately. He was upset and hurt as a result.

And that is why he has withdrawn. He preferred to lie low instead of hitting back through the micro blogging site.

Also, he doesn't believe in blocking people who post negative comments but he is in a headspace where he doesn't want any kind of negativity."

That's rude!

In an upcoming episode of Koffee With Karan, the actor has confessed to the reason behind his disappearance from Twitter.

He said, "I feel love from lakhs of people but there are lots of people who say rude things about my family and friends and that hurts me. I don't want to read those things, so I am staying away from Twitter."

An insider who was present while filming adds, "SRK's show is totally non-controversial. It is like no other episode of KWK. He spoke about love, friends, family and it got really emotional.

Most people on the set were dewy-eyed while filming, including the host." The episode airs on January 1, 2011.

SRK learns gymnastics!

Even after being in the industry for 22 long years, Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan is keen to learn new things, a quality which he has possessed when he started his acting career.

TOI has learned that SRK, who starts shooting a high energy song-and-dance number today for "Ra1", has learned gymnastics to pull off some awe-inspiring steps and stunts in it.

Sources working on the sets confirm that SRK has trained to shoot this number for Anubhav Sinha. The last time the superstar had put in so much effort for a song was during the shooting of Chaiyan Chaiyan for Mani Ratnam's Dil Se in which he grooved with Malaika Arora on a moving train.

The special song for Ra1 will have trapeze artists and many elements from the circus embedded into it. However, SRK is not going to go shirtless, as reported earlier, or flaunt the six pack that he showcased in Om Shanti Om. It is said that 200 firang beauties have been hired just to shoot this song. "SRK will show the world that his injury and persistent back problems are a thing of the past. He has learnt gymnastics for the song and will also do trapeze stunts," said the source.

SRK has been simultaneously working out and doing cardio, weight training and functional training because he wants to carry forward the same fitness and agility for Don 2 whose next schedule will also start in sometime. His physiotherapist, Dr Ali Irani, has been taking care of SRK and the actor is now raring to go in this song. When contacted, Anubhav confirms, "We had specially trained people flown in for the song. SRK will definitely be seen doing a new form of dance which has many elements to it."

SRK makes heads turn (away from Farah)

It seems SRK still holds a grudge against Farah Khan. Why else would he at the recent Mumbai Police Mela, try and divert the crowd’s attention away from Tees Maar Khan’s publicity campaign?

While Shah Rukh’s patch ups with Vishal Bhardwaj, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sunil Gavaskar and Aishwarya Rai have been the talk of town for a while, it seems the actor is in no mood to mend his differences with ex-best friend Farah Khan.

It appears as though King Khan is still upset with Farah for choosing Akshay Kumar in Tees Maar Khan over him. On Sunday, at the Mumbai Police Mela in Andheri, Shah Rukh tried to sabotage Farah’s Tees Maar Khan publicity campaign by diverting the crowd’s attention.

Apparently, SRK, who was backstage at the time when Farah, Akshay and Katrina began the Tees Maar Khan act on stage, suddenly walked out into the audience, accompanied by his entourage of 8-10 bodyguards.

An eyewitness told Mumbai Mirror, “SRK and his bodyguards started walking towards the audience. Sab logon ka dhyaan SRK par chala gaya. And though they glanced at Farah, Akshay and Katrina, their attention was divided.”

You wonder if Farah or Akshay noticed this. Says the eyewitness, “What could they do? Farah and Akshay just shrugged their shoulders and smiled.”

All three Farah, Akshay and Katrina completed their act but Shah Rukh had definitely managed to steal the limelight away from them to a great extent.

Added the eyewitness, “Surely, SRK knew what he was doing. If a person of his stature walks into the audience, whose head wouldn’t turn?”

Grapevine has it that SRK too is waiting with bated breath for Tees Maar Khan to release in theatres, to see if his absence in the film has any effect on its collections. But that’s something only time will tell.

Marina Bay Sands: $100,000 Donation For Singapore Indian Development Association From ICICI´s SRK

THE King of Bollywood was in town - not to make a new blockbuster movie, but to present a $100,000 donation to local self-help group Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda).

The sum was given by ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the bank's global brand ambassador, was on hand to pass the cheque to Sinda's president, Ms Indranee Rajah at a gala event last week at Marina Bay Sands.

The money will go towards helping financially disadvantaged Indian children in their studies, said Ms Indranee.

'This will greatly facilitate our upcoming plans to provide greater depth and breadth in our tuition and education assistance to these children,' said the Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC.

The move comes on the heels of ICICI Bank's first retail branch in Singapore, which opened in September.

SRK to romance Tamil girl in Chetan Bhagat's Novel "2 States"

Chetan Bhagat is known for his popular novels. After the adaptation of his novel ‘One night at a Call Centre, made as Hello, fans are inquisitive about what to expect next. If his novel ‘3 Mistakes of my life’ is in the pre-production stages of an upcoming Bollywood movie, his recent novel ‘2 states’ is already grabbing attention.

The reason for the attention is because Shah Rukh Khan has been roped in to play the lead role of the movie. 2 States is supposed to be an inspiration from Chetan Bhagat’s life that revolves around a Punjabi guy falling in love with a Tamil girl. The movie will be directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, known for his movies like Omkara and Kaminey, and will be produced by renowned producer Sajid Nadiadwala. The female lead opposite SRK will be a newcomer, sources say. We will keep you posted on latest developments!

SRK to act in Paul Schrader’s film "Xtrme City" Produced by Anubhav Sinha

Raging Bull writer Paul Schrader, who will direct SRK-starrer Xtreme City, learnt some hard truths about India from producer Anubhav Sinha during his first scripting session, including why you can't woo your friend's sister and get away with it easily

When Hollywood writer-director Paul Schrader met director Anubhav Sinha two years ago through a common friend and expressed interest in working on a cross-cultural film, Sinha responded with enthusiasm. "Paul is so modest. He sent me DVDs of all the films he had directed. He assumed that I may not have seen his work. Who does something like this?" says Sinha of the writer of films such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and director of noteworthy films such as American Gigolo. And that's how Xtreme City, an action drama based on the underworld in Mumbai was born.

Schrader promptly flew down to India for an "orientation trip" to visit Dharavi, Sion and Koliwada besides other parts of Mumbai, "The idea was to develop the story -- in India, we don't have a concept of developing a film story." The Ra.One director also recalls how the story graph developed. "The day Paul narrated the story to me, he said he was stressed. I was like 'What!' I was so taken aback but I realised this is why they are who they are. He had written the entire graph of the story on a paper; I took that piece of paper from him, asked him to autograph it and have framed it on my wall now."

When things progressed to scripting, the first draft did not take off instantly admits Sinha. "The Indian context was a little weak. Paul didn't know India that well; whatever he knew of India was largely by watching Hindi films. So I asked Mushtaq Sheikh to help him. Mushtaq and I spent a weeks in the US. We talked about differing cultures."

Sinha also remembers teaching Schrader some Indianisms. "Paul had written a scene in where the hero tries to woo his friend's sister. We told Paul that this doesn't happen in India often. A friend's sister is like a sister. Paul was shocked. I told him that here, even if I want to marry my friend's sister, I have to inform my friend before telling the girl. The friend may react saying: 'How could you see my sister in that light?' I believe Sanjay Dutt had a tiff with Kumar Gaurav when he got to know that he was seeing his sister Namrata."

Buzz has it that Aamir Khan too will work with internationally-renowned directors. Aamir Khan's name has been linked to a Danny (Slumdog Millionaire) Boyle project based on Suketu Mehta's bestselling book. As for the crucial question of casting Shah Rukh Khan in Xtreme City, Sinha hedges: "The film will happen when Paul and I agree that we are on the same page. Only then will we decide whom to cast in the film. Shah Rukh just knows that I'm working on these lines with Paul. I had introduced both of them even before I had signed Paul."

For now, the project is in the development stage. Sinha updates us: "Yesterday, Paul sent me a mail detailing how he was thinking of moving the story forward." Sinha, who is known for his towering ambition, says, "The script is not ready yet. Paul is currently directing another film and I am busy with Ra.One. After we finish our respective films, we will start talking again in earnest."