Top star Katrina says no to helpers

With six back-to-back hits in her kitty in the last one year, Katrina Kaif is now the reigning queen of Bollywood. But success has not gone to her head and she still believes in doing her chores herself.
"Katrina has not got carried away by her success. She continues to be herself," said a source close to the actress.
The source said people were surprised to see the British-born actress carrying her own luggage at an airport even though her chaperones were with her.
“Sandhya, Katrina's secretary, was with her and though she insisted that she'd carry her luggage Katrina just did not allow her to do so! Katrina said, 'It is my luggage and I will carry it myself'.
“Katrina usually prefers to do her tasks on her own. Success has not spoilt her at all," added the source.
After wowing audiences in the recently released romantic comedy Singh Is Kinng opposite Akshay Kumar, Katrina has displaced top-rung actors, including Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra.
Her success story started with Namastey London and continued with Apne, Partner, Welcome, Race and now Singh Is Kinng.
"Katrina has learnt that success and failure are transitory and that one should not get carried away by them. She firmly believes in keeping her head placed on her shoulders," said the source.

After Rock On, Luke Kenny gets recognition as an actor

Luke Kenny's English looks stood as an obstacle in his acting career for almost a decade, but with his immaculate performance in the recent hit Rock On, the actor feels he has been able to draw the director's attention away from his appearance to his art.
It took almost a decade for any director to cast him in a mainstream role in any Bollywood film after his cameo in debut movie Bombay Boys.
"The doors of perception have opened for me post-Rock On. The filmmakers' view about my being an actor has changed. After Bombay Boys, all offers that I got were to portray a foreigner in a film because of my looks," Luke told IANS in an interview.
Set in Mumbai, Rock On has an urban feel and revolves around a group of four aspiring musicians who form a rock band called "Magic". Luke plays the character of keyboard player Rob Nancy in the film, which also has Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal and Purab Kohli.
"There was no concern over looks for Rob's role in Rock On. The filmmakers were very sure of what they were going for by taking me and this shows the whole change in their mindset. I am glad how even the audiences have accepted the change," Luke said.
Rock On received rave reviews and wide recognition from both critics and audiences and Luke says that the response to the film is beyond their imagination.
"It has been an absolutely fantastic experience. The film has taken a life of its own! It has been accepted by people from all age groups and has reached a universal audience. Our basic aim was to reach people, but we never imagined it will reach such a large number of people."
Luke thinks that his role in the movie is very similar to his real life.
"When I heard the script, I noticed there were a couple of instances in Rob's character that had some shadows of my own life. The things that happened to Rob happened to me too as both of us are very close to music, no matter what happens in life," said Luke, who became India's first male video jockey on channel [V] in 1995.
He started his career as a solo dancer in 1989 after getting inspired by Michael Jackson and won awards. Later he joined Arshad Warsi's dance team as a chorus dancer and assistant choreographer and worked there from 1990 to 1992.
During 1993-1995, he worked as a disc jockey with Audiophile, a DJ consolidation company, hopping up to three venues in a night.
Luke says that he has been versatile throughout his life and would like to go on the same way. "I am an artiste at the end of the day and one should not restrict oneself to a particular field. I have followed the same jargon all my life. There is nothing definite for me that I would be doing though I wish now that it is a film," he maintained.
Luke also writes a weekly music column - If I May Say So - in the Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times supplement HT Café that appears every Friday.
"Music has always been with me since the beginning whether it be dancing on stage, playing a disc jockey or a video jockey. I also had a band in college called Greek with two of my friends who were brothers Adam and Eddy. I was the lead vocalist.
"We played original songs but gradually the little bit of disillusionment settled in like in the film. May be now we revive our band some day," said the actor.
Luke also revealed that he is penning a few scripts now that he has hit the nail with Rock On.
"I am working on some scripts now that I have a bit of exposure. I can't talk much about it right now, but at the end of the day, they will be good stories irrespective of the genre they belong to."

Big B promotes The Last Lear

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan gestures during a news conference to promote his new film The Last Lear in Mumbai.

Sanjay Dutt can shoot abroad till Nov 15: apex court

The Supreme Court on Friday granted Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt - convicted in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts - an additional one-and-a-half months to complete film shoots abroad.

A bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam asked Dutt to complete his ongoing film shooting in South Africa by Nov 15 and submit his passport to the Central Bureau of Investigation by Nov 30.

Convicted by an anti-terror court of Mumbai for possessing illegal firearms ahead of the 1993 serial terror blasts there, Dutt had been granted permission by the apex court to go abroad for film shooting April 10.

The apex court had earlier granted him bail, pending his plea challenging his conviction that entails a six-year jail term. At that time, the apex court had ordered confiscation of his passport as one of the conditions for his release.

Dutt, however, had approached the apex court March 13, seeking permission to go to Malaysia, Thailand and the US to shoot for "Blue" and "Chatur Singh Two Star".

The bench had granted him permission, stipulating that he should complete his shooting by Sep 30. This has now been extended to Nov 15.

The bench allowed Dutt to stay abroad for the extended period on an application filed by senior Counsel Fali S Nariman on his behalf. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam too did not oppose his plea.

Teenager Hansika handles 15 kids

Here's something on Hansika that very few people might be aware of - that the young actress has heart of gold!Hansika celebrated her 17th birthday last month and on this occasion she has taken up the responsibility of the education and general welfare of 15 orphaned children. Now that's truly an extraordinary thing to do, right at this age!Apart from this generous initiative, Hansika has much more to celebrate these days. Her first film in Tollywood called DESAMUDURU for which the actress received 3 prestigious awards (including the Filmfare for South Indian Films) has just completed 275 days and is still pulling enthusiasts to the theatres! Not just that, her second film KANTRI opposite Junior NTR is also doing great business & has successfully completed 100 days!That's already a lot of achievement for her age....Kudos to you, Hansika!

Why Shilpa say like that

Bipasha Basu is upset with Shilpa Shetty for her comments in “Bigg Boss” while talking to the housemates.Shilpa, who is anchoring the show, referred to Sambhavna Seth as Beep-asha. Shilpa was referring to the fact that everything that was being said by Sambhavna had to be beeped out as she was using a lot of foul language akin to what Nethra Raghuraman used in “Khatron Ke Khiladi”, another reality show on Colors channel.The comment, though made tongue-in-cheek, did not go down well with Bipasha who felt that Shilpa need not have used her name as a reference to talk about someone else's problem.