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Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2017

Mahira on being sidelined for Raees promotions.

                                                        Mahira Khan, who is not able to promote her upcoming film Raees in India, said it was unfair that she could not participate in interviews beside Shah Rukh Khan.
Pakistani exports Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan had made it in India. With a feverish fan following back at home and excited Indians who wanted to see them perform more in Bollywood, things took a turn for the worse when relations between India and Pakistan took a turn for the worse. Unable to promote the movie in India, Mahira recently spoke to an English daily and voiced her frustration at being left out of the promotions in India.
                     “Yes I’m grateful, but it’s something I have worked for! Why shouldn’t I feel it? Just because I’m an actor? Just because it’s a film? Just because it seems like fluff? I also want to promote the film. I also want to be in an interview with Shah Rukh Khan talking about it. Why not? Why is it I get told that that’s asking for too much? It isn’t! It is my right. This was also my film,” she said.
The actress is currently in Dubai, promoting the film via print and radio interviews. Mahira also shed light on how it was to get to know someone like Shah Ruhk Khan on a personal level. The actress said that SRK was brilliant, intelligent as well as funny.
                             “We’ve had amazing conversations. It’s so much fun to talk to someone who’s intelligent. It’s not just about films, he can talk about anything! He was watching [Netflix TV series] Narcos while we were shooting, he can talk about books and history. Of course, I’ve always been a fan. But if you watch his interviews, you can tell he’s witty, smart. It was a pleasure working with someone you can have a conversation with. I think he’s hilarious, sometimes at my expense,” she gushed.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Glammed up Priyanka bags second People’s Choice Award...

           
                                                                       Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra aka PeeCee is back in action! And this time she won her second People’s Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic TV Actress. Priyanka bagged the trophy for her role as FBI recruit-turned-CIA agent Alex Parrish in the American TV series Quantico.
After her glittering gold appearance on Golden Globes 2017 red carpet, the ‘exotic’ singer had another big moment at the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles, where she flaunted her pink blush tube frock with fringes at the bottom. As she picked up the People’s Choice Award for her ABC drama Quantico, Chopra said, “I’m really psyched”.
                                                                          Priyanka Chopra is recovering speedily from a concussion she suffered a week ago after falling on the set of Quantico.
                                                

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Priyanka Chopra recovering after mishap on ‘Quantico’ set.

                                                           
                                                                   NEW YORK: Actress Priyanka Chopra is resting at home after a “minor incident” on the set of her ABC show “Quantico,” the network said Friday.
Celebrity news website TMZ, citing unnamed sources, said Chopra had slipped and fallen during a stunt and suffered a concussion after hitting her head.
In a statement, ABC did not confirm this but said a “minor incident” took place on the New York set of the FBI drama series on Thursday night.
“It would be premature to comment further until we have all the information. Priyanka was examined by a doctor, released and is home resting comfortably,” the network added.
A representative for the actress said she will return to work after the weekend…
Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS.N) ABC did not comment further on whether production of the show will be halted, but trade publication Variety said production will not be shut down while Chopra recovers…
Chopra, 34, made her transition from Bollywood to Hollywood as the lead of “Quantico,” in which she plays an FBI recruit turned CIA agent. She will also be starring in the upcoming film reboot of “Baywatch.”

Actors Johnny Depp, Amber Heard finalize bitter divorce.

Film star Johnny Depp’s tumultuous divorce from actress Amber Heard was finalized on Friday, ending the couple’s marriage after months of highly publicized claims by Heard of domestic violence and counterclaims from Depp of financial blackmail.
Court papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday detailed a splitting of marital assets and an agreement by Depp, 53, to pay a previously announced sum of $7 million to Heard, 30, that she said will be donated to charity.
Heard filed for divorce in May after 15 months of marriage, and days later obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp.
She said in court filings that Depp was abusive to her throughout their marriage, culminating in an argument in May in which he hurled a cell phone into her face and shattered various objects in her apartment.
A lawyer for Depp denied allegations of abuse and argued that Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
As part of the divorce settlement, Heard dismissed her request for a continued restraining order against Depp...

                                                                She also dropped her defamation lawsuit against Depp’s friend, comedian Doug Stanhope, over an article he had written accusing the actress of blackmailing and manipulating her estranged husband.
The divorce papers showed that Depp would retain sole possession of numerous real estate assets, including properties in Los Angeles, Paris and his private island in the Bahamas. He will also keep more than 40 vehicles and vessels, including vintage cars and his motorcycle collection.
Heard will maintain custody of her dogs Pistol and Boo, the two canines at the center of a scandal in Australia in which Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak her pets into the country in 2015 without proper quarantine procedures.
Heard said she would split her $7 million divorce settlement equally between the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
Court papers said Depp has paid $200,000 of the settlement so far, and will pay the rest over the course of the year.
The payments will be made from Depp’s compensation from his upcoming film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” and sale of some of his properties, the papers showed…
Heard’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, hailed the finalization as a “great day” for his client, adding, “All Amber wanted was to be divorced and now she is.”
There was no immediate statement from Depp or his representatives.

Madonna blasts criticism over younger lovers.


                                                                                                    Pop icon Madonna has described herself as “oppressed,” saying she was tired of a gender double-standard over her relationships with younger men...
The 58-year-old singer said in an interview published Tuesday that she has endured criticism throughout her entire career despite her professional success.
“I’ve always felt oppressed,” she told Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
“A large part of that is because I’m female and also because I refuse to live a conventional life. I’ve created a very unconventional family.
“I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable. I feel like everything I do makes people feel really uncomfortable,” she said.
Madonna has been linked romantically to a number of men in their 20s, most recently Ivorian model Aboubakar Soumahoro and earlier French choreographer Brahim Zaibat and Dutch dancer Timor Steffens.
The Material Girl — who has four children and has been married twice — also said she faced sexism in that she is often asked why she remains active as an artist.
“Did somebody go to Pablo Picasso and say, ‘Okay, you’re 80 years old. Haven’t you painted enough paintings?’ No. I’m so tired of that question..”
Madonna, who last year completed a global tour for her latest album “Rebel Heart,” will soon be directing a movie, “Loved.”
Madonna wrote the screenplay for the film, an adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells” about a woman who is transported to different eras as part of psychiatric treatment for depression.

I don’t have a relationship with Kajol. She doesn’t deserve me.


                                                                                               Bollywood director, producer and actor Karan Johar spoke about his falling out with actress Kajol, stating that him and the Dilwale actress can never go back after she accused him of bribing someone to undermine her husband Ajay Devgan’s movie.
In his upcoming biography, Karan Johar opened up about his falling out with Kajol, someone with whom he was known for being close friends with. According to the Bollywood director, K-Jo and Kajol’s relationship turned sour after the latter endorsed an allegation by Ajay Devgan that Karan had bribed Kamaal R Khan to tweet negatively about his movie Shivaay, in a bid to prmote his own film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in a more positive light.
Kajol had retweeted her husband Ajay Devgan’s message with one word-‘Shocking’. That one word, according to Karan Johar, was enough to part their ways for good.
“That tweet validated the insanity, that she could believe I would bribe someone. I felt that’s it. It’s over. And she can never come back to my life. I don’t think she wants to either. I never want to have anything to do with them as a unit. She was the one who mattered to me but now it’s over,” wrote Johar.
“I wouldn’t like to give a piece of myself to her at all because she’s killed every bit of emotion I had for her for twenty-five years.”
Karan also wrote that it hurts him that people he’s close to are also close to the Bollywood actress. He wrote in his biography that when they talk about Kajol, it angers him and that normally he’s not territorial or asks his friends to choose sides but in this matter, he feels quite strongly.
Regarding Ajay Devgan, Karan Johar said that the actor did not mean anything to him.
“He doesn’t matter to me, he never did. I still don’t want to say anything about her husband because I want to respect the history she and I shared,” he said.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Shakira urges Davos elite to nurture future leaders.


Music star Shakira urged world and business leaders at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum on Monday to support efforts to feed, educate and care for underprivileged children.
“Today’s babies will drive tomorrow’s business. Their capacity to contribute will shape tomorrow’s societies, will solve tomorrow’s problems,” the Colombian recording star, who is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador devoted to early childhood development, said in an impassioned speech.
Shakira, who was given a Crystal Award in Davos for her humanitarian work, is the founder of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, which works to provide underprivileged children in Colombia with access to quality education.
“In this room there are some of the most powerful people in the world, and definitely I’m convinced you know what it means to be ahead of the curve,” 
“We need to apply the brains and strategies of business and the assets and human resources and talents of your companies to do social good and to solve social problems.”
The World Economic Forum also gave awards to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who runs a foundation providing scholarships for young musicians, and actor Forest Whitaker, who has worked as a global advocate for peace, focusing on empowering youth as leaders and entrepreneurs in communities touched by violence and poverty.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Deepika's Hollywood debut to release in India before anywhere else.


Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone disclosed that her upcoming Hollywood debut film xXx: The Return of Xander Cage will release in India first before anywhere else in the world.

The actress made the announcement via a tweet and claimed that she was proud of the fact that the movie will be released in her home country before anywhere else in the world.

The action-packed trailer paints a clear picture of what the movie would be like. Plenty of action in there Xander Cage style, with Diesel jumping off of planes, firing shots left, right and center as well as indulging in fierce hand-to-hand combats.

In the movie, Xander Cage is tasked to retrieve a device which controls every military satellite in the world from a group of four dangerous terrorists. In doing so, the lethal agent needs a team of his own composed of eccentric individuals. Padukone, who plays a huntress in the movie, also joins Cage's team.

This will be Deepika's first ever Hollywood venture. Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has already made it big in Hollywood thanks mainly to her hit TV series Quantico.

As 2016 ends, Bollywood at the edge of a cliff.



For the third straight year, the Indian film industry did not grow. As some studios shut up shop, Hollywood films such as “The Jungle Book” trumped most Hindi films at the box office. Big-ticket movies didn’t strike a chord with audiences and the industry finds itself scrambling for a long-term solution.

Apart from Salman Khan’s wrestling drama “Sultan”, the year’s top grosser with more than 3 billion rupees ($44 million) in revenue, most Bollywood films couldn’t woo audiences or recover their money.

The Bollywood industry made around 23 billion rupees ($338 million) in domestic box-office revenue in 2016, a significant drop from the 27 billion rupees ($397 million) in 2015, according to Shailesh Kapoor, who runs media consulting firm Ormax Media. The 2016 figures are till Dec. 22 and do not include box-office returns for Aamir Khan’s “Dangal”, which released last Friday.

Bollywood is hugely dependent on its male stars to deliver blockbusters, specifically the trio of Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, who have delivered some of the industry’s biggest hits. But this year, even Shah Rukh Khan’s “Fan”, a thriller about a man obsessed with a movie star floundered at the box office.

“There are two kinds of films that work at the box office, the big star vehicles like ‘Sultan’ and the niche content films like ‘Piku’ last year. There weren’t too many of either this year. ‘Fan’ not making it past the 100 crore ($14 million) mark was a huge setback,” Kapoor said..

More than 200 Hindi films opened in cinemas this year. Of these, some 60-odd films got a proper release and had a marketing budget. Only 12-14 films made a profit, Kapoor said.

What must strike fear in Bollywood’s heart though is that the number two position in terms of box-office revenue was taken by a Hollywood film. “The Jungle Book”, Disney’s live-action film based on Rudyard Kipling’s book made around 1.8 billion rupees ($26 million) in India, surpassing every other Hindi film except “Sultan”. Marathi film “Sairat” (Wild) also enamoured audiences, crossing the 100 crore rupee ($14 million) mark, more than what most Bollywood films managed.

Biopics might have been the saving grace in 2016 with films such as Ram Madhvani’s “Neerja”, based on the last hours of flight purser Neerja Bhanot, and “M S Dhoni: The Untold Story”, finding audiences. Raja Krishna Menon’s “Airlift”, based on true events surrounding the evacuation of Indians during the Gulf War was one of the first big hits of 2016, making more than a billion rupees at the box office.

“Films like ‘Neerja’ and ‘Pink’ prove that ultimately, content is what matters. Star vehicles are few and far between and even those work when the story clicks,” said trade analyst Amod Mehra.

The problem with star vehicles is that Bollywood doesn’t have too many of them. Other than the Khans, and Akshay Kumar, who had two big films this year (“Rustom” and “Airlift”), no other actor delivered a big weekend opening.

The lack of consistent success took its toll on the industry. In September, media reports said Disney India had decided to shut down its Hindi production department, and would not greenlight any films in 2017.

Balaji Motion Pictures, owned by Ekta Kapoor, which burned its fingers with films like “Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3”, “Azhar” and “Great Grand Masti” also reportedly shut down its film production wing, with the film adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s “Half Girlfriend” likely to be its only film in 2017.

“No individual producer has the money to make a film - they have to go to the studios for funding. The biggest problem is the stars - they need to scale down on fees and bring down the cost of making films, but none of them will do that,” Mehra said.

Kapoor said his firm tested more scripts on a test audience this year than in the last three years combined, as studios and production houses looked to cut losses and guard against failure.

Narendra Modi and his government’s demonetisation drive only added to the industry’s woes, with single screens in smaller towns facing the brunt of the decision and several films have seen depleted collections since November.

“Especially in the smaller centres and for the regional industry, demonetisation has largely impacted revenues because there is a huge cash component. In the long run, it would have a positive impact, because even smaller theatres would be forced to go digital, which leads to more transparency,” said Rajkumar Akella, Managing Director, Comscore Theatrical India, which tracks box-office figures for many industry bodies..

Whether it was demonetisation, or just the lack of good films on screen, audiences this year were harsher than before, with films such as “Rock On 2” and “Mirzya”, failing to cover their marketing costs, let alone production costs.

“From our qualitative understanding, people are really beginning to question whether they really need to go to theatres to watch average content. They are happy to watch it on TV or by downloading pirated content,” said Kapoor. “Eventually they will feel that it's not their money's worth, they will stop going to theatres, and the habit will break.”

As companies such as Netflix and Amazon try harder to draw Indians away from TV and theatre screens, offering the same content at half the cost, Bollywood will have to use every trick in the book to make sure it retains its audiences in the coming year.

Scarlett Johansson is 2016 top-grossing movie star.


Scarlett Johansson was named the top-grossing actor of 2016 on Tuesday thanks to her roles in superhero movie "Captain America: Civil War" and Hollywood satire "Hail Caesar."

Forbes said Johansson just edged out her "Captain America" co-stars Chris Evans and Robert Downey with box-office earnings of her second 2016 movie, "Hail Caesar."Johansson's movies grossed a leading $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office this year, compared with $1.15 billion for "Captain America: Civil War."

Released in May and featuring a conflict between Marvel comic book heroes like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Widow and Ant Man, Walt Disney Co's "Captain America" was the biggest earner worldwide in 2016, according to data from Boxofficemojo.com.

Australian actress Margot Robbie, who enjoyed a break-out year, placed fourth with $1.1 billion thanks to roles in two Warner Bros movies "Suicide Squad" and "The Legend of Tarzan."

The Forbes list was dominated by superhero and comic book movies, including "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Deadpool..."

Britain's Felicity Jones entered the Forbes list for the first time, with roles in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," thriller "Inferno" and magical children's story "A Monster Calls." Jones came in ninth place with $805 million.Forbes made its calculations based on global ticket sales from the films of top Hollywood actors, but it did not count animated movies such as Disney's "Finding Dory," the second biggest release of 2016 with $1.02 billion.