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

Akshay Kumar is ready to bring us some more laughs in his next starrer Thank You and now the buzz is none other than Vidya Balan is set to make a cameo as Akki’s wifey! The actress will appear in a few flashback scenes and we bet fans are excited to hear this little piece of news!

Thank You stars plenty of A-listers, including Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Irrfan Khan, Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley. The romantic comedy tells the story of a young tennis player, played by Sonam, who falls in love with a playboy, portrayed by Akshay. Bobby, Irrfan, and Suniel are all hardworking men who head off for work each morning. However, Bobby is often distracted by pretty women! By night these three men are ready to take on the town at the hottest parties.
Things get messy as all these men are married! As the wives are clueless the boys get in no trouble – that is until Akshay Kumar steps into town. He charms all the ladies and soon exposes the men and ruin their lives. This movie’s trailer is packed with laughs, drama, music, and fun so we can only imagine what Thank You has in store for its full release on April 8. Are you excited about Vidya’s cameo?

By Jilawatan

2010 saw the Bollywood lose out Rs. 3 billion at the box-office in spite of the most hyped mega budget films with super stars in them. But 2011 kick started the year in a good way with Rani Mukherji and Vidya Balan and so far the films released have raked in good moolah for the industry and is showing good signs of profit with a mixed bag of releases so far.
‘No One Killed Jessica’: The hard hitting film on the murder of Jessica Lal was the first film to release this year on Jan 7th. Rani Mukherji was back in the big screen as the journalist hurling abuse and standing up for justice along with Viday Balan as Sabrina Lal. The film collected Rs. 389 so far and is still going quite strong at the theatres after two weeks.
‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ and ‘Turning 30!!!’: Two films of different genre released on 14th Jan and both did well in the box office. While the first flick brought Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol on-screen again in a full out commercial laugh riot movie with emotion, drama, romance and thrill. On the other hand ‘Turning 30’ dealt with the real life crisis of women who turns 30 and how they deal with it, Gul Panag did justice to the role in the light-hearted yet a thoughtful flick. “YPD’ collected Rs. 350 over the week and ‘Turning 30’ also didn’t do bad as it has collected Rs. 50 million.
‘Dhobi Ghat’: The Aamir Khan venture released on 21st and has opened to the box-office collection of Rs.9.3 million. The film is different from any film that has released so far this year, it is the directorial debut of Kiran Rao and is heart wrenching in the way it has showed Mumbai. The city has become the character of a film and according to the critics she has done a commendable job.

One just hopes that as the month ends with the release of another comedy film ‘Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji’ featuring Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, the trend of profit continues. Also it follows throughout the year and Bollywood sees the face of profit in 2011 again with the long list of powerful releases.

By Jilawatan

Anees Bazmee is super busy shooting his next comedy Thank You starring Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Celina Jaitly and Sonam Kapoor. The crew shot extensively in Canada recently. As expected, it’ll be a comic film from Bazmee.

Buzz up!
If the aforementioned star cast wasn’t enough, director Anees Bazmee has now decided to add one more star to this already star studded film. Our sources reported that Vidya Balan recently shot for the film in Mumbai. Vidya however will be seen only in a cameo role as Akshay Kumar’s wife in Thank You. When we spoke to Anees Bazmee, he refused to comment on this.

With so much star power, Thank You definitely is one film to look forward to.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan is known to have been linked with almost all her co-stars which have also embarrassed her on several occasions. But now it is affecting her professionally as well.

When she was linked with John in Salaam-e-Ishq Bipasha forbid John from working with her, and now when again John was offered a role opposite her John has turned down the offer. Worst comes when after John when Bobby Deol was approached and even he refused to sign on the dotted line.

So are the Bollywood’s wives and girlfriends insecure of Vidya or these actors themselves are scared of her stealing their thunder on screen?

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan is no stranger to link-ups and is often linked with her co-stars. But such rumours have left her embarrassed on more occasions than one. Take the case of Shahid Kapur. Tongues started wagging during the shooting of Kismet Konnection but post the film’s release, Shahid not only refused to acknowledge their relationship, he even started giving Vidya a wide berth, leaving her red-faced.

And now, the same treatment is being meted out to her by John Abraham.

Her chemistry with John during the filming of Salaam-E-Ishq was so good that his girlfriend, Bipasha Basu, forbid John from ever working with Vidya again.

And it now turns out that diktat still holds.

A li’l birdie told us that John was again offered a film with Vidya but he backed out at the last minute, apparently because he does want trouble in his paradise.

And what’s worse for Vidya, after John, the film’s director approached Bobby Deol, but even he refused to sign on the dotted line.

We wonder if that is because Bollywood’s wives and girlfriends can’t bear their men working with her or because the actors themselves are scared of Vidya stealing their thunder on screen, now that she has established herself with films such as Paa and Ishqiya.

By Jilawatan

One has been constantly hearing that John Abraham is not keen to do a movie with Vidya Balan.

One filmmaker recently confirmed this. He says, “When I told John, I have Vidya signed for my film he made an excuse and got out.” But what’s more surprising is that when the same filmmaker asked Bobby Deol to step into the project, Bobby too reportedly wasn’t too keen on working with Vidya. If there is any truth to this, then Bobby must have his head examined. Vidya, post Paa and Ishqiya, is more happening than a lot of heroes in Bollywood. However, one would like to give John and Bobby the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they wanted to get out of the project itself and since they couldn’t find a excuse they made Vidya their excuse. Either way guys, Vidya is super-talented.

By Jilawatan

One has been constantly hearing that John Abraham is not keen to do a movie with Vidya Balan.

One filmmaker recently confirmed this. He says, “When I told John, I have Vidya signed for my film he made an excuse and got out.” But what’s more surprising is that when the same filmmaker asked Bobby Deol to step into the project, Bobby too reportedly wasn’t too keen on working with Vidya. If there is any truth to this, then Bobby must have his head examined. Vidya, post Paa and Ishqiya, is more happening than a lot of heroes in Bollywood. However, one would like to give John and Bobby the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they wanted to get out of the project itself and since they couldn’t find a excuse they made Vidya their excuse. Either way guys, Vidya is super-talented.

There is no doubt about that.

Salman Khan has played Prem in Rajshri’s three major films and perfected the role to play their family oriented romantic guy. After that it was Shahid Kapoor who played the same character in Vivah. Well this time in their forthcoming film, Sonu Sood plays this most loved character Prem. Apparently Sonu was not their first choice to play Prem. It is learnt that Bobby Deol was offered to play Prem before Sonu Sood.

According to an industry insider Bobby Deol and Vidya Balan were the original choice to play Prem and Chandani for Ek Vivaah Aisa Bhi . The duo had gone through the narration too. Apparently Vidya Balan who was not eager to do the same role which was quite similar to her earlier screen image, went through the narration because of her co star Bobby Deol. Unfortunately, Bobby wasn’t so comfortable doing family drama and turned down the offer. After trying some other actors, the makers zeroed in on Sonu Sood.

Apparently Vidya Balan who was keen to change her screen image decided to opt out as she was not at all keen to pair opposite Sonu Sood. Interestingly Eesha who was also in their wish list managed to get Chandani’s role and that’s how Sonu and Eesha Koppikhar became Rajshri’s new pair Prem and Chandani.

Interestingly Rajshri films always had big stars in all their films. It seems this time though they don’t have the star power, they are confident about the story. Let’s hope Sonu and Eesha’s magic will make it at box office.