Russian firm plans hotel in space

A hotel in orbit, lunar sightseeing flights and luxury rides into the cosmos all are part of Russia s vision to ensure it is not left behind in the growing space tourism industry.

Russian firms unveiled their plans at the country s premiere air show this week at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, saying the race was on to build a new craft to take people into space following the retirement of NASA s space shuttle in April.

RKK Energia unveiled plans for a replacement shuttle and Orbital Technologies said it hoped to build an orbiting hotel with room for seven guests by 2016. Other plans include flying tourists to the dark side of the moon and, by 2030, to Mars.

Although Russia currently holds a monopoly on rides to space aboard its Soviet-designed Soyuz, it starts at a disadvantage.

Foreign experts say they doubt Russian firms can achieve their ambitious goals because they lack funding and even Russian officials said it would be hard to rival US private sector firms now competing for contracts with NASA.

KJo’s next directorial venture titled Student Of The Year

Karan Johar is kick starting his next directorial outing sooner than expected. Though he had made it pretty obvious that after his heavy duty My Name Is Khan, he would be changing gears to get into a far more comfortable zone, there were still speculations around what would be bringing on floors. The closest that one expected was a rom-com on the lines of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, his debut film.

Meanwhile there were rumours that kick-started about him launching Varun Dhawan (son of David Dhawan) and Alia Bhatt (daughter of Mahesh Bhatt). However, since there wasn’t any formal announcement from the man at the hot seat, one still waited with bated breath to know about his plans.

Well, the wait is over now with Karan Johar making it all official. He is all set to direct a young tale which is titled Student of The Year. The film would launch not two but three newcomers which include Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and also Siddharth Malhotra (who is different from the namesake director who recently made We Are Family.

Talking about the film, Karan Johar says, “Student of the Year will have everything that I love about movies. It will have songs, dances, happiness, fun and frolic all around.”

One does understand where Karan is coming from. After all not just My Name Is Khan but even his previous outing Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was a relatively seriously film. Though there were songs and dances in the film, at the core of it the film was about adult relationships. Even earlier his Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham had a massive look and feel to it with six heavy duty superstars coming together in one frame.

However, with Student of the Year, Karan Johar could well be bringing to fore the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai era, albeit in the 21st century avtar. Also, though he has worked with Shah Rukh Khan as an actor in each of his four films so far, he has no hesitation in making Student of the Year with rank newcomers.

“See, I may be looking at getting into a holiday zone with this film, especially after My Name Is Khan, but by no means would I not be working hard on it”, says Karan in his characteristic tone, “Yes, it’s a happy song and dance film with the tone and syntax being that of a holiday outing. Still from emotional energy perspective, the entire team will go all out to make it one super cool young flick.”

The name Shah Rukh Khan would still be involved in the film as Student Of The Year would be a joint presentation by him along with Karan Johar.

Smita Patil’s retrospective film festival postponed to next year

The Smita Patil’s family is going through a lot of mixed emotions. It has been a month of emotional upheaval of where they are proud to see Prateik making a debut on celluloid through Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat. While at the same time, they are missing their Smita Patil the most.

To mark the beginning of the 25th death anniversary of Smita Patil, the Smita Patil Foundation, an organization that has been instrumental in keeping the memories of Smita Patil alive, wanted to organize a retrospect of her films in India in various metro cities just like they had a retrospect in New York by Lincoln Film Center.

Arth, Bhoomika, Manthan, Bhavani Bavai, Mirch Masala, Umbatta, Bazaar, Mandi, Akaler Sandhene, Abhinatree were the shortlist films to be screened at the festival.

It was for this that Patil family approached Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan to help with logistical support and sure enough that Kiran wanted to do anything to make this happen.

However, unfortunately, all this could not kick off on Dec 13, Smita’s death anniversary, as most of the prints were not readily available. And those available were not in shape to be screened at the retrospect. Some prints are not in proper state and need to be restored.

After a lot of too and fro, the Patils have decided to restore all the prints and hold the retrospective next year.

Says Manya Patil Seth, Smita Patil’s sister “We were very keen on holding a retrospective for Smita this year, the way it was held in New York. However, due to the bad condition the prints were in, we were unable to materialise our plans. But we plan on holding the retrospective next year after we restore all the prints.”

Kiran and Aamir’s holiday plans cancelled due to Dhobi Ghat

On 28th of December this year, Kiran and Aamir will celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary. Funnily, Kiran and Aamir have never been to a proper honeymoon till date. So Kiran was planning one in a big way for this year.

Kiran was planning to go the scenic South of France, and book a chalet over there, where Kiran and Aamir would get to spend quality alone time together. Kiran even threw in a dash of the typical European back packing trip.

She was really kicked about the honeymoon, as since the past 3 years Aamir has had releases (TZP, Ghajini, 3 Idiots) at this time of the year; therefore they have been unable to celebrate their anniversary in a special way. Kiran has planned the holiday to the last detail this year, and had even put in extensive research, behind the holiday. Both of them were very excited to finally have their long due honeymoon.

Everything was in place and Kiran and Aamir were scheduled to leave on the night of 24th of December and return on the 2nd of January.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans, as the mixing of Dhobi Ghat’s sound was not yet over. The producer in Aamir sprung up, and he decided to cancel the holiday. After all, Dhobi Ghat is their baby, and they should dedicate all their time to Dhobi Ghat. It marks the coming together of director Kiran Rao and Aamir the actor. And therefore, after much contemplation, and to Kiran’s dismay, they decided to cancel their trip.

Well, everyone knows how dedicated Aamir is, and Dhobi Ghat being Kiran’s first film, it is extremely close to her heart as well. So they decided to forego their holiday, and instead work on what is the love of their lives – Dhobi Ghat.

Govinda celebrates 47th birthday

MUMBAI: It’s Govinda’s 47th birthday today, and he is going to have quite a day, that his kids, Narmmadaa and Yash have ensured.

In fact, celebrations began last night, when the family rang in his birthday over a sumptuous dinner. Today”s plans include a private family lunch. Says Narmmadaa, “Dad’s not very fond of Continental, so we’ve zeroed in on a nice place that serves great Chinese cuisine, and we’ll be cutting the cake after lunch. It’s a private family get-together.”

The brother-sister duo then plan to gift daddy a surprise birthday present. “We’ve have been doing it for three years now. Since he’s very fond of gadgets we gifted him a smart phone last year. This year, well, it’s a surprise, so we aren’t disclosing now.”

Govinda, who was earlier set to fly to London on his birthday, for a solo vacation, has now postponed the plans. After the family lunch, Govinda is set to fly to Kolkata, “I am going there for a show, and will be visiting a few temples there on my birthday,” he told.

Salman Khan in Farah Khan’s next, SRK ignored

MUMBAI: No other lady in B-town understands the pulse of the nation better than Farah Khan. The helmer of potboilers like ”Main Hoon Na” and ”Om Shanti Om” is fondling with the idea of casting Salman Khan in her next. After Sallu”s cameo in Farah”s latest ”Tees Maar Khan”, the chemistry between them is growing by the day.

Fresh reports confirm that Farah Khan wants to make a full fledged Salman Khan film anytime soon. The lady wants to cash in actor”s massive fan following in the nation and the idea of doing a film with Salman is riding high on her mind.

On being asked about her new found interest in Salman, Farah said, “Well, this has been in the pipe line for long but now I feel the time has come where I need to do something seriously about it. And imagine the outcome of two mad people getting together. I think I`m mad and Salman is madder. After I finish with TMK, I am considering working on our plans to doing a film together.”

"God willing, Housefull 2 will be biggest ‘paisa vasool’ entertainer" – Sajid Khan

Plans are being put together at a frantic pace to bring Housefull 2 on floors. Meanwhile, Sajid Khan has made a promise to his team as well as audience. For the sequel to his hit flick Housefull, he is confident that the film would prove to be 10 times funnier than the first in the series.

“The entire team is quite gung-ho about the sequel to Housefull. The script has come up pretty fabulously. God willing, Housefull 2 will be biggest ‘paisa vasool’ entertainer for the audience”, says Sajid confidently.

Housefull stays on to be one of the top money spinners of 2010 and also the film that boasts of highest collections of an Akshay Kumar starrer. Though Sajid isn’t quite pointing on any particular milestone that he has in mind for Housefull 2, he doesn’t deny the fact that sequels always rake in manifold collections than the first in the instalment.

Whether it is Dhoom 2, Krrish, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Golmaal Returns, Golmaal 3, Phir Hera Pheri – each of these films have done double (and at number of instances even triple) the business of their predecessor.

“Well, such statistics are always good to know. Going by that logic, I guess I should be confident of Housefull 2 also doing three times the business of Housefull”, smiles Sajid.

Shooting of Housefull 2 will kick start in middle of 2011 and wrap up in three months flat. Yet again, producer Sajid Nadiadwala would be making Housefull 2 a lavish affair by taking the film to some of the most exotic locations worldwide.

“Every product demands a certain budget and with the kind of setup that we have brought together for Housefull 2, there has to be certain expenditure involved”, says Sajid Nadiadwala who has put his money yet again on Sajid Khan after Heyy Babyy and Housefull.

Talking about the film’s setup, it indeed is turning out to be the biggest ever for a Nadiadwala production. From the original cast of Housefull, Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey have been retained. Though Lara Dutta and Jiah Khan are not really making the cut in the sequel, there are good chances of Arjun Rampal finding his way into the film. However, John Abraham is the confirmed new entrant in Housefull 2.

Says our source, “It is anyways a huge cast that Housefull 2 is boasting of. The makers are also planning to rope in Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar as well as Paresh Rawal along with two other girls.”

If that indeed turns out to be the case, Housefull 2 could well be the biggest ever film till date for both Sajid Khan as well as Sajid Nadiadwala.

“Of course to hear something like that always feel good. Having said that, all my concentration is on making a hugely entertaining film for the audience. First and foremost the product should be terrific enough for people to crave for it. I am working in that direction”, assures Sajid.

RGV all set to resume productions

After a hiatus, Ram Gopal Varma would be back into the business of making films with a vengeance. He would soon be flagging off multiple films in the year 2011 where he won’t necessarily be coming behind the camera as a director.

“That’s true, I can’t sit quite for long. I have to start new productions now”, confirms Ramu whose last production without him as a director was ill fated Go (2007). On the other hand, his other production Shabri is stuck in the cans for years.

There was a time when Ram Gopal Varma was busy giving breaks to number of first time directors. They could have ranged from spot boys to assistant directors to writers but anyone with promise who caught fancy of Ramu had a good enough opportunity to get a film for himself.

“However, the results weren’t always favourable”, comments an industry veteran, “Look at the line up of such films with first time directors. Except for Shimit Amin (Ab Tak Chappan), Sriram Raghavan (Ek Hasina Thi) and to some extent Chandan Arora (Main Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hoon) and E. Niwas (Shool), none of the others managed to make any niche for themselves.”

His argument does make sense. After all, post their debut films, the makers of Pyaar Tuyne Kya Kiya, Road, Gayab, My Wife’s Murder, James, Mr Ya Miss and Go have hardly made much mark in Bollywood over the decade gone by.

“Ramu went back to directing each of his last few productions, whether Rakht Charitra, Agyaat, Sarkar Raj, Sarkar, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, Nishabd or Shiva in the interim period”, adds the veteran.

However, as things stand today, Ramu is pretty gung ho about making films with other directors and is all set to announce his plans. When asked to comment on the concrete timelines, Ramu commented, “It is a little too early to divulge the whole plan. Announcement around the new line up would be made soon. Just wait a little.”

We hope the wait is indeed worth it, Ramu.

"Why should I return their 5 crores?" – Anees Bazmee reacts on controversy

BJN Group of Hotels may have changed their mood when it came to their filmmaking plans in Bollywood. However, writer-director Anees Bazmee doesn’t have any

plans to change his mood. Though Nichanis of BJN Group are taking a legal route to get back the signing amount of Rs. 5 crores that they had paid to Bazmee a

couple of years back, the filmmaker is perplexed with the demand. Bazmee on his side of the story.
No interest to begin with “I signed up to do a film for Nichanis around 2

years back, Nichanis were the ones who were actually after me to make a film for them. I wasn’t even interested. To woo me, they used to send food for my

entire unit when I was shooting for some other film. They just wanted to impress me and make me happy. It was only after my team also persisted that they

were good people that I actually took a signing amount from them.”
Jab We Met “When I met them finally, they seemed to be very

enthusiastic. They really wanted me to make a film for them and were ready with the money. They were quite serious about their filmmaking plans and wanted to

do something really big.”
Rokda “Yes, the signing amount was Rs. 5 crore. This

was the amount that I used to charge during those days. I was paid by cheque.”
Change in mood “I worked on the entire writing process for 7-8

months. When I was ready, they had a turnaround. They now came back to me and said that they were no more in mood to make a film. Fair enough. But then they

also asked me to return the signing amount. Now that’s unfair. Why should I do that?”
The loss “Putting together plans for a film is hard work. For me it

was a lost opportunity. During this time period, I could have worked on some other film and got paid for it. Mera bhi nuksaan hua iss film ke naa shuru hone

se. For them it is a loss of signing amount; for me it is a loss in my career journey. You don’t make a creative person work on something and then ask your

amount back. Aise nahi hota hai!”
The contract “There was no contract around signing amount or anything.

All we had done was write it down on a small piece of paper that I had to work on a film and had been paid the signing amount of Rs. 5 crores by cheque.

Today, after retracting from their plans, they have sent me a notice through their legal team. That’s okay, mera jawaab bhi gaya hai. Yeh sawaal-jawaab toh

chal hi rahe hain. Let’s see.”

Aborted plans for band performance restricts TMK celebrations

It was expected that Akshay Kumar would be the one acting Tees Maar Khan for the music launch of the namesake film. However, what happened was something totally on the contrary as it was a massive crowd comprising of ‘aam junta’ which came with it’s own preparation. So much so that it went uncontrollable as the train (on which the music launch of this Farah Khan directed film took place) reached its final destination, Lonavala, on Sunday afternoon.

“As such it was a great event. However, I do feel saddened by the fact that a specially arranged music band, which was supposed to do a medley of Tees Maar Khan songs at the Lonavala station, couldn’t proceed with it’s plans. There were a 4000-5000 strong crowd already waiting at the station in anticipation of arrival of Akshay and Katrina. Police had to be called and we all had to make a hurried exit from the station to another destination where we continued with the launch”, informs Farah who was accompanied by Shirish Kunder, music baron Bhushan Kumar, composer duo of Vishal & Shekhar as well as lyricist Anvita Dutt Gupta.

Akshaye Khanna couldn’t join the event as he was out of town.

The music launch of Tees Maar Khan was designed as a unique affair with as 125 strong media contingent travelling from CST Mumbai to Lonavala in a specially booked train. The cast and crew travelled along as well which interacted with the media at length in this 150 minute long journey, followed by a formal music launch.

“Yes, we booked an entire train with five bogies for the event”, informs Farah who is now most excited about guaging reactions to ‘Sheila Ki Jawani’ which would be on air soon.

The band which had to abort the plans of a performance on the station didn’t go back disappointed either. Though it was a no-show at Lonavala station, there was a performance later for the media at the venue.

“In fact there was also another trained bunch of artists who sung like those people who frequent the trains and ask for alms while singing songs. They imitated ‘Wallah Wallah’ in their characteristic manner right through the journey. Also, snacks and cold drinks were served by boys who frequented from one bogie to another, just as it happens in real train journeys”, continues Farah.

Well, seems like there was something indeed real in the offing here!

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