By Jilawatan

The 12th edition of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) concluded with the presentation of the Ficci-Frames Excellence awards.

The awards honoured excellence across four major entertainment verticals cinema, television, music and radio.

Starting with the film awards, Dabangg bagged two awards – one for best film of the year and the other for the best music of the year.

Shah Rukh Khan was adjudged the best actor for his role in My Name is Khan while Karan Johar took home the best director award for the same film. As anticipated, Vidya Balan took home the best actress award for Ishqiya.

The highlight of the awards ceremony was Ficci conferring the Excellence International honour to Hugh Jackman, the Australian actor best known as Wolverine in the X-Men series.

In the best debutant category (female), Sonakshi Sinha bagged the award for her performance in Dabangg, while Ranveer Singh collected the best debutant (male) award for his role in Band Baaja Baaraat. Maneesh Sharma won the best director debut trophy for the same film.

Aishwariya Rai Bachchan was honoured with the ‘Decade of Global Achievement’ award for her completing a decade in Hindi cinema.

In the Television category, Star Plus was given the most successful television channel of the year award while Sony’s popular reality show Indian Idol-5 was declared the most successful non-fiction show.

In the acting category, Sushant Singh Rajput from Pavitra Rishta bagged the best actor (male) award, while Rashmi Desai of Uttaran took home the best actor (female) award.

Radio Mirchi was declared the ‘Most Successful Radio Channel’ of the year.

Speaking on the occasion, Ficci Entertainment Committee chairman Yash Chopra said: “The entertainment industry in India is booming along with business excellence and we are happy to recognise such levels of talent in the respective fields. We take pride in honouring best performers for their contributions in their area of work.”

The event was a joint venture between Wizcraft International Entertainment and Ficci to honour talent for their contribution in the entertainment industry.

By Jilawatan

Bollywood flicks are popular not only inside the boundaries of the Indian sub continent but also across the world. Therefore, it is no wonder that the Hindi movie fans will be inquisitive about the actors and actresses of the tinsel town. There are times when the inquisitiveness reaches the limit of madness. There are certain elements in the industry that try to leverage profit from the popularity of the cine stars. The Bollywood actresses are the common victims of this vicious cycle. It is a common practise to super impose the faces of the heroines on the body of a naked model.

Pooja Bhatt was the first well known victim of this disgraceful practise. Naked pictures of the heroine appeared on the internet, and were the talk of the town. The agitated heroine and her father, famous director Mahesh Bhatt fought back against this shameful incident. However, the ugly trend hasn’t stopped and has picked momentum nowadays. In the recent past morphed pictures of Bollywood beauty Katrina Kaif and Sonakshi Sinha have appeared on the net. Sonakshi was fast to react and announced in her social networking site that the pictures were fake. This some what reduced the popularity of the circulating photos.

The latest victim of Bollywood is none other than the voluptuous south Indian beauty, Vidya Balan. Bikini clad sensuous photo shoots of the heroine has recently appeared on the “world wide web” and has become the hot property. The popularity garnered by the photos in a short span of time is unparallel. The photos show the diva appearing on the cover of the famous international men’s magazine, Maxim; wearing almost transparent black bikini. The fans of Vidya Balan were surprised as the heroine never appeared on such bold photo shoots.

An angry Vidya told that she has never participated in such a photo shoot and the pictures were morphed. The publishers of the magazine Maxim has also stated that they are in no way related with the photos. The photos are claimed to be on the cover of the 2011 annual issue of the magazine, which is not yet published.

The actress is shooting overseas at the moment and is devastated about the present development. She plans to take legal actions against the websites or culprits who are behind this act. It is rumoured that Sonakshi Sinha and Katrina Kaif are also planning to take legal actions against the culprits who morphed their pictures. Lets hope that the culprits are brought to the book and this malpractice gets terminated for ever

By Jilawatan

She took people back to the black and white era with her role in the period film “Parineeta”. Then came her fashion faux pas and a dip in the career graph. But a careful and confident Vidya Balan is on the rise again in Bollywood.

Though at 33 she is just six years old in the Hindi movie industry, her oeuvre is so impressive that there was a Vidya Balan retrospective at the Indian film fest in two Australian cities.

From playing a foul mouthed, manipulative vengeful woman in ” Ishqiya” to the mother of a progeria patient to a grieving sister in ” No One Killed Jessica”, Vidya has been proving her versatility with her nuanced handling of different characters.

Her much-talked-about forthcoming releases – director Milan Luthria’s “The Dirty Picture”, based on the life of Silk Smitha, south Indian cinema’s sex symbol, and Sujoy Ghosh’s thriller “Kahani” in which she plays a six-month pregnant woman – are expected to take her creativity to another level.

Applauding her work and choice of roles, director Sudhir Mishra said: “She is very brave and very gutsy. Hats off to Vidya. She will last longer. It will pay her off very well. She will be remembered as another kind of actress and remembered more than a lot of people. She should continue doing this kind of roles. She should do what she can do well. She should retain that uniqueness.”

Director Anurag Kashyap feels what Vidya is doing is pathbreaking. “I think she is showing the way for everyone else. Vidya’s fan following has increased 50-fold after the kind of work she started doing. We need her,” he added.

This Iyer girl from Palakkad in Kerala grew up in Mumbai. She did her graduation in sociology from St. Xavier’s College.

After award-winning debut with the period drama “Parineeta” (2005), she charmed her fans in a modern avatar in “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”. Her small but impressive role in ” Guru” too earned her accolades.

But after a meteoric rise to fame, her career took a dip post “Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love” and it seemed as if lady luck had deserted her completely. She was in the news for all the wrong reasons — from her choice of roles to co-stars to her looks in movies like “Heyy Babyy” and “Kismet Konnection” — she was criticised for everything.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan insists a wedding to rumoured boyfriend Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, is not on the cards. She says cheekily, “I’ve no time to get married, I’m too busy making dirty pictures.” The Dirty Picture in question is Vidya’s role as south porn actor, Silk Smitha.

Given the usually demure actor’s new racy act, has she researched any porn films to prepare for the role? “Not yet, though I think porn is more of a guy thing,” she responds. “But a friend of mine recently lent me a few world movies to watch and I was completely traumatised by this film called Caligula (1979 movie on Roman emperor Caligula featuring explicit sex and violence scenes). It’s not really porn, but it freaked me out.”

Speaking of occupational hazards, Vidya was apparently asked to pile on the pounds to convincingly play the south siren. “We were wondering if I should put on weight for the role, but luckily we decided against it. It will be my interpretation, not an impersonation,” she says.

Too bad, given she could have launched the anti-size zero look… “Oh I’ve always loved my womanly curves,” Vidya laughs. “I’ve never been skinny. Though that doesn’t mean I can eat as I please. In fact, when I was shooting for Kahaani in Kolkata, I complained to my director Sujoy (Ghosh) that I couldn’t eat like a pregnant woman despite playing one.”

Vidya recalls a time when her weight was literally giving her sleepless nights. “I’ve had a sleeping problem since I was in school, I couldn’t fall asleep before 4 am. Then about two years ago, I started putting on weight and everyone started writing about it,” she recalls, adding, “I set my diet straight but to no avail. Then my doctor asked me how many hours I was sleeping, which were about three-four. She explained how it wasn’t enough and that’s the reason I was gaining weight despite working out.”

Vidya, who is the brand ambassador for Sleep Awareness Month, admits that her sleep disorder had changed her personality. “I was edgy, suffered from low energy and was constantly restless,” she says. “It took a great deal of time to correct my sleep cycle, given half my life of abuse, but now my eyes start shutting earlier than I’d like them to.”

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan has always been linked to her heroes. But once all her films release, the link ups too fade away. She has never declared her love for anyone openly. Or is it that Vidya is unable to keep them hooked to her?

This time Vidya got linked to her producer buddy. And now she smartly evades accepting being even friendly to Siddarth Roy Kapoor. “I wish my life was really happening and as colourful as painted by the media. To tell you frankly, my life is very dull. I am a plain Jane who is purely professional. Yet all work makes this Jane cheerful,” says Vidya.

Then what kind of relationship she shares with Siddarth Roy Kapoor? As the clichéd goes, is he ‘just a good friend’ or much more than that? “He is the producer of my latest released film ‘No One Killed Jessica’ and that’s all I know,” retorts the actress.

But this is the very first time she got linked up with a producer. Whom would she love to be linked up with if she is not friendly with Siddarth, as the beauty claims? This time Vidya tries to laugh it out saying, “Oh, I would love to be linked with Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) but no one did so! Also while working with Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi during ‘Ishqiya’ no one ever thought of linking me up with them. So it is nice. When the right time comes and I decide to mingle with the opposite sex, I shall let you guys know.”

That was diplomatically correct. Being in the industry for so long and having known all the workaround everywhere, Vidya has even learnt how to tackle the sensitive and controversial issues. “I was just fourteen when I had this crush on my sister’s friend. I would keep waiting for him to come and meet my sister. But one fine day I was damn depressed as he disclosed the fact that he was in love with her. My dreams of this mushy love were shattered altogether,” says Vidya trying to sideline the issue.

Talking about relationship Vidya turns philosophical and says, “We need to value people a lot irrespective of the way a person is related to us. One needs to learn to love and respect that person. Giving and sharing bring you closer to your beloved. Lesser expectations take your relationship to greater heights,” trying to steer clear from the Siddharth Kapoor question. But the actress doesn’t forget to send her message across to her alleged boyfriend as she turns the ambassador for the Earth Hour. She says, “If Siddarth Roy Kapoor follows my advice and keeps the lights off for one hour on the Earth Hour Day then probably I would like to declare my friendship to him.” Well, at least she accepts some interaction with him.

Taking the opportunity we immediately quiz her if there’s any special way she would like to make an appeal to Kapoor to which Vidya replies, “My appeal to him would be as normal as I am making an appeal to each one of you right now,” giving us a hint that she might not want to declare her friendship with Siddarth openly.

Having said that, Vidya lets us in on her growing up years. Reminiscing her childhood memories, she says, “I remember right from my childhood days I would not be allowed by my mom to keep the lights and fans on if no one would be there in the room. I am into this practice of not letting the AC, lights and fans switched on unnecessarily. While many of my friends don’t bother much, I don’t believe in wasting electricity.” Talking about being in the dark, Vidya suddenly turns romantic and says, “Without lights I obviously turn nostalgic and romantic.”

Will then she prefer being with Sid, we quiz? Vidya laughs aloud and replies with a straight “no”.

By Jilawatan

Bollywood is considered to be a superstitious lot, not willing to take risks especially when it comes to trying to ensure the success of their films at the box-office.

Apart from auspicious mahurat dates and naming of films, even casting of actors considered lucky mascots for the makers is increasingly the norm. So, what happens when both the leading actor, as well as, the film-maker have their own ‘lucky’ stars. Well, they simply cast both! And according to the buzz that’s what happened in Anees Bazmee’s Thank You. The film that stars Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor and Bobby Deol also has a surprise cameo by actor Vidya Balan, apart from an item number by Mallika Sherawat.

Apparently, while Bazmee considered it was lucky to include Mallika as she she had made a cameo in his earlier hit Welcome, Vidya is considered to be lucky for Akki and reportedly that is what helped the director zero in on her for a vital role opposite Akshay. A source reveals, “Akshay and Vidya have had two superhits together Bhool Bhulaiya and Heyy Babyy and hopefully the combination will click again. So the makers agreed immediately and cast Vidya.” In fact according to another insider, the length of her character was considerably increased and even a song was thrown in after Vidya agreed to come on board. The source adds, “Vidya’s also of course a talented actor, so it was like a win-win situation for the film. So things fell into place, even though Anees already had his own lucky actor Mallika in the film.”

But Sherawat and Balan are not the only ones. Rani Mukerji and Kajol too have been considered film-maker Karan Johar’s lucky charms, although he has gone on record claiming Shah Rukh Khan to be the luckiest mascot. In fact, according to Bolly-lore, if Kajol tripped while shooting for a film, then the film was bound to be a super hit.

Actor Salman Khan is the lucky boy for the Barjatyas, while Katrina Kaif’s been proven lucky for Akshay. Anushka Sharma’s now being considered lucky for her film-makers too. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali swears by his heroine Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, while actor Sridevi was apparently the lucky mascot for the Chopras. Actor Madhuri Dixit was considered to be lucky for Indra Kumar, but then so was a particular tree in Ooty that he featured in all his films, while Urmila Matondkar was both the muse and the mascot for Ram Gopal Varma.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan, besides being a natural beauty, is also known for her associations with social causes. After having endorsed many leading products, Vidya has now been signed as brand ambassador of WWF’s ‘World Earth Hour 2011′, something which Abhishek Bachchan did last year. This year, the World Earth Hour is scheduled to take place on Saturday March 26 between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm.

For starters, Earth Hour 2011 aims to show the actions that people, businesses and governments world-wide are taking to reduce their environmental impact. Thereby establishing and encouraging others to join an interconnected global community engaged in dialogue and resource sharing that generates real solutions to environmental challenges. The highlight of Earth Hour 2011 will see the world’s most iconic landmarks go dark for one designated hour, as hundreds of millions of people transcend race, religion, culture, society, generation and geography, switching off their lights in a global celebration of their commitment to protect the one thing that unites us all – the planet.

With Vidya coming on board with the ‘World Earth Hour 2011′, it only gets brighter by the day!

By Jilawatan

Vidya Blan, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi will return as lead stars in a sequel to Ishqiya, Shemaroo and Vishal Bhardwaj announced on March 18.

According to the Mumbai Mirror, Abhishek Chaubey is being retained as the film’s director and is giving final touches to the script.

There is a talk of adding a couple of more actors to the lead cast.

Vishal Bahrdwaj will score the music, while Gulzar will pen the lyrics.

Filming is scheduled to begin mid 2011.

According to unconfirmed reports, the sequel is set in Mumbai, with Vidya Balan playing a bold urban woman willing to break social norms.

The original film, released in 2010, was set in the rustic region of Gorakhpur in UP. It revolved around three romantic personalities played by Warsi, Balan and Shah.

Balan played a potty mouthed scheming widow, two-timing an uncle and nephew duo of small-time crooks from Bhopal, played by Shah and Warsi.

Stellar performance by the three stars made the film a huge success; it was screened at prestigious international film festivals including the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.

By Jilawatan

Sometime ago media came abuzz with the story of Vidya Balan’s affair with UTV head Siddharth Roy Kapoor, rather we also got to know that it was the reason why Vidya stopped chasing after Shahrukh Khan, whom she loved dearly once, anyway but now putting an end to the story, Siddharth’s brother Aditya Roy Kapoor told us that there is no truth behind this rumour.

Aditya, the younger brother of Siddharth dismissed the reports of his brother and Vidya’s affair, he said – “Well, I have no idea about that.”

Though he didn’t say that his brother wouldn’t like to be paired, but the girl is not Vidya Balan, “He hasn’t chosen anyone as yet,” Aditya added.

Poor Vidya!

By Jilawatan

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, who essays the role of Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture, says that portraying the southern seductress will not be a difficult job for her.

“I don’t think it is difficult to portray a real-life character like Silk Smitha. People know her through her work,

However, the actress said it would be challenging to portray characters of prominent personalities.

“It would be challenging if I play a character based on Indira Gandhi as people know her mannerisms and you can’t go wrong for a person of this stature who was a Prime Minister. She continues to be a prominent person. Even in that case to play Amitabh Bachchan would be challenging,” she said.

“With Silk Smitha it is going to be more of my personal interpretation than her impersonation,” she added.

Portraying real-life characters is not a new thing for the Ishiqiya girl, who played Sabrina Lal in her previous film No One Killed Jessica.

In Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture, a biopic based on the life and death of Silk Smitha, Vidya would be seen in a complete different avatar, alongside Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah.

The film is an ode to the life of the southern sexy siren Vijaylakshmi, better known as Silk Smitha, and her journey to stardom followed by her sudden demise, the actress said.

Vijaylakshmi reached iconic status as a sex symbol in Tamil cinema. Appearing in over 200 films, the young actor was neck deep in controversies and eventually died at the age of 33. It is suspected that she committed suicide.

“On my part I would do research on her. I have seen her songs and films on south Indian channels. She spelt sex,” the 33-year-old Vidya said.

Shooting for the film begins next month.

Vidya, who went de-glam wearing loose and ill-fitting shirts in No One Killed Jessica, would now be seen in an alluring avatar in The Dirty Picture.

However, the actress says she is least bothered about being glamorous or non-glamorous.

“I don’t see or define a role as glamorous and non-glamorous. I am getting to play a completely different person and that is what is exciting for me. Glamorous and non-glamorous does not matter to me. The script is the queen. I feel even the saree is extremely glamorous and sexy,” she said.