By Jilawatan

Bollywood’s curvy lass Vidya Balan is learning Salsa, the sensuous Latin American dance form, for her upcoming film Dirty Picture, which is based on the life of Silk Smitha, yesteryear sex bomb of Tamil cinema.
According to buzz, Vidya is shooting for the movie and learning the sexy moves as well. She feels that Salsa will help her get Silk Smitha’s languid body language for the role. The Ekta Kapoor-produced film is being directed by Milan Luthria and stars Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and Tusshar Kapoor.

Vidya is surely going to set the screen on fire with Dirty Picture!

By Jilawatan

Come August and Hyderabad will be the destination of one of the most controversial and ‘dirty’ movie shootings of the year.

Major portions of “Dirty Picture,” a film loosely based on Southern siren, Silk Smitha’s life will be shot in Film City and Jubilee Hills area. Hyderabad Times caught up with director Milan Luthria of “Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai” fame, who was on a location scout in the city. “It’s natural that we shoot portions of the film here in Hyderabad, to capture the flavor of the South,” says the director.

Controversies galore: Silk Smitha’s life on celluloid could ruffle a lot of feathers, considering she was involved with bigwigs from Tollywood. “We are not making the film for controversies. Our movie explores how she became one of the most powerful women at a time when men ruled the roost,” explains Milan. Earlier, Silk Smitha’s boyfriend and filmmaker, Vinu Chakravarthy, lashed out at producer Ekta Kapoor for not taking his consent before making the film. “It’s ridiculous. We are just using her as a parameter to make a film on women of that era,” says Milan. The choice of Vidya Balan to play Smitha on screen too was criticized by Vinu. “Vidya is a fine actress. She has an innocent face, yet there is this underlining sexuality about her that no one else has. It fits the role. She was sexuality personified in her sarees in “Ishqiya,” he reasons.

The men in her life: With Nasseruddin Shah, Tushar Kapoor and Emraan Hashmi playing the three men in Vidya’s on screen life, one can’t help but probe who in particular are the characters based on. “No one as such. Our writer Rajat has written the characters in such a way that it does not represent anyone living or dead,” treads the director carefully. But with a movie based on a Southern siren’s life, how come none of the actors from the South are involved in the project? “Well, it was a conscious decision. If one actor brings in the Southern accent, then we would have to take all the actors from here itself,” says the director, who is now gearing up to shoot with Akshay Kumar for the sequel of last year’s hit, “Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai.”

“We wanted to take the story forward to the time when Shoaib already became a dreaded don. We decided to replace Emraan with Akshay, as the latter’s seriousness and larger-than-life persona on screen suits the character,” says the director.

Friends in the city: Milan has many Tollywood connections. “I assisted Mahesh Bhatt during “Criminal” and I’ve been friends with Nagarjuna since. Same with Chiranjeevi, who did “Gentleman.” How come he never cast them in his movies? “By the time I started making movies, they stopped doing Hindi films. But I’ve heard good things about their sons, Naga Chaitanya and Ram Charan Tej. The next time I’m in town, I’ll drop in and say hi to my old friends,” says Milan.

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.

By Jilawatan

As Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai sequel will roll soon, the hunt for the leading lady of the film, which stars Akshay Kumar in lead, is on. Top contenders likely to bag the role are Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan!

The sequel will show Akshay as a matured Dawood, the role essayed by Emraan Hashmi in the first part. As Dawood was allegedly linked with Mandakini, the makers are having trouble in finding the right actress to play her part in the film opposite Akki. It’s reported that Mandakini’s character needs a strong actress who can emote well on celluloid.

Now the speculations are rife that either Kareena or Vidya can be approached for the role. As per sources, Ekta Kapoor, the head of Balaji Motion Pictures, wants a top actress to play the lead. The production house is already working with Vidya in Dirty Picture and Kareena is quite close to Ekta and her brother Tusshar Kapoor.

By Jilawatan

,438 participants, 26 lakh votes… Erica Fernandes of St Andrews and Shane Luke of Wilson College are Clean & Clear Bombay Times Fresh Face 2010 winners.
It was hard to pick a winner, because all 16 finalists of the Clean & Clear Bombay Times Fresh Face 2010 were, well, fresh and charged with pulsating energy.

The venue for the finale, on Thursday evening, was the historic Bandra Fort. And the judges for this premier, contest were Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi, who had a blast of the past themselves, for the thrilling finale with its teenage tempo took the Bollywood actors back to their own student days. Friends and family of the finalists sat and lustily cheered the eight boys and eight girls who competed fiercely for the titles.

And the finalists pulled out all stops to get there, from Sheila ki Jawani, Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, Desi Girl jhatkas and contemporary ballet, showing no stage fright while delivering some high-octane performances. The boys looked dashing in clothes designed by Troy Costa while Nishka Lulla had the girls dressed in short flattering ensembles. The show itself was slickly choreographed by Marc Robinson who was also one of the judges with the actors.

DJ Akhtar played hip hop music and Emcee Sachin kept the evening flowing as the Performance Round was followed by the Clean & Clear Confidence Round. Erica Fernandes of St Andrews College stole everyone’s hearts by crooning When You Say Nothing At All to be declared the girl winner of Fresh Face 2010. And Shane Luke, Wilson College’s football champ who wore his hair long, slipped off his tee on the ramp and dribbled a football before getting down to do push-ups, was declared the boy winner of the title.
Ashrita Shetty of Patkar College, slim and tall and a belly dancer like Shakira, was the first girl runner-up. And Behram Toddywalla of PGIM College, who sang for those who have loved and lost and gained brownie points for how he would arrange an impromptu candle light-dinner with Vidya Balan, took away the first boy runner-up title.

Saurabh Pandey, a budding photographer and also a ramp enthusiast from KC College, walked with a killer attitude and got Emraan Hashmi cheering for him. “I like your attitude, dude,” said Emraan to Saurabh and announced him as the second boy runner-up. Naina Bhandary of Mithibai College, a Priyanka Chopra fan who grooved to Desi Girl in a sheer white saree, was awarded the second girl runner-up title. Another highlight of this event was the concert by Indian Ocean who rocked the evening with their huge hit Arrey Ruk Jaa Re Bandey that had the crowd go wild.

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

Next week, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai celebrates a 100-day run in true 1970s style, and the cast and crew will be felicitated with trophies. Director Milan Luthria is excited about the gala, more so when he remembers that one dark night, during a shoot at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, when everything was going wrong, he almost felt that he wouldn’t complete the film. He saw it through and turned up at the theatre, first day, first show, with his pregnant wife and ‘boss’ Mahesh Bhatt to be greeted by a full house. “The first ceetie (whistle) came from Boss,” he chuckles.

Prod him about the sequel and he says it will happen, not to rake in a quick buck but to build the franchise, which means that time and effort is being lavished on the script.

Buzz is that Emraan Hashmi is out of Part 2?
“The casting will be decided only after we’ve locked the script, depending on whether we’re going back or forward in time,” he says, adding that he’s planning another film with Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi that will flag off after Dirty Picture.

The Vidya Balan-starrer is inspired by the ‘soft porn’ actor from down south, Silk Smitha. Producer Ekta Kapoor and writer Rajat Aroraa had approached Luthria with the screenplay, asking for his opinion. He took them by surprise saying he wanted to direct the film.

Dirty Picture traces the highs and lows in the journey of the sex symbol. And Luthria says that while there’s plenty of sex and sleaze, it’s also a heartbreaking story. “This woman was an object of lust who made millions of people happy. But what about her own happiness? Sex sells but that’s not the only reason I’m making Dirty Picture,” he argues. Quiz him on his choice of Vidya Balan and he smiles, “I needed a powerhouse actor and one woman people find desirable. Also, there’s the shock value.

Would you be asking me this question if it hadn’t been Vidya?”
He admits that she had reservations earlier but not because she was afraid of skin show. “It’s a difficult role to play since one needs to put on weight, bold lines, daring scenes, have a shocking attitude and lot of depth,” he reasons, saying that after reading the script, Balan shed her inhibitions. The film will go on the floors on February 1, 2011 and wind up in March.