Akshay may replace SRK in 'Joker'
Akshay Kumar will now reportedly enact the role that
Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to do in
Shirish Kunder’s
Joker.
When Kunder, husband of
Farah Khan, approached SRK with the idea of doing a sci-fi futuristic film, the King Khan was extremely excited with the concept. However recently when SRK saw the final draft of the film, he was not too happy with it.
However, as SRK did not want to let his friend Farah down, he requested Kunder to re-work the script. But Kunder already has a reputation for being extremely headstrong, and was upset with the request made by SRK. Kunder did not want to change the script and he supposedly had a showdown with SRK over the issue.
Kunder has now approached Akshay for the role, who may replace SRK in the film, as he has agreed to work on the film. He has also earlier starred in Kunder’s debut film
Jaaneman.
However SRK and Farah’s film
Om Shanti Om will be soon releasing and to avoid any bad publicity, SRK recently claimed that he had not declined to do Kunder’s film, but as he took pretty long to revert back to Kunder, things were being misconstrued by the media. However, he did not confirm that he was doing the film either.
Incidentally SRK has made a special appearance with Akshay in
Heyy Babyy.
Shocking truth of Chak De
Yash Raj Films has done it again. Just when everyone was going gung-ho about how YRF have broken tradition and come out with a non-romantic sports based movie,
Chak De India, few people have found its obvious resemblance to 2004 hollywood release
Miracle.
In what is probably the highpoint of
Chak De India,
Shah Rukh Khan delivers an inspirational speech to his team. Telling them that this is their time, he concludes with the now-famous dialogue, "Yeh sarttar minute, tumse Khuda bhi nahin cheen sakta (Even God will not be able to take these 70 minutes from you)."
"You were meant to be here tonight... This is your time,"
Kurt Russell, who plays the coach of the US hockey team in
Miracle, tells his players at a similar moment just before a crucial match.
Miracle is based on a true-life story of US hockey coach
Herb Brooks. It is the tale of a ragtag college hockey team taking on the mighty USSR in the 1980 Olympic games. Strangely enough,
Chak De India is also based on the life of
Mir Ranjan Negi, a hockey coach who led the Indian women's team to victory in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Despite drawing upon two different incidents,
Miracle and
Chak De India do have quite a few things in common. For instance, both the actors coach an underdog team and have to overcome their respective politicking federations. The similarities do not end there. At one point Khan insists on having the players say that they play for the country and not individual states. Russell's first aim is to get his players rise above their college team identities. Like Kabir Khan, who reprimands his team for not identifying with the country, Russell punishes his team till one of them, on the verge of collapse, yells back, "I play for the United States of America."
Yash Raj is quite known for intelligently repackaging Hollywood scripts. Despite its stupendous success, their 2000 release,
Mohabbatein was written off as a song-n-dance version of the
Robin Williams-starrer
Dead Poets' Society.
However the sad part about
Chak De India is that it comes at a time when two of the most popular hits of the year are under fire for being 'inspired'.
Bheja Fry is a scene-by scene copy of the French film
Le Diner De Cons (The Dinner Game). And although the original film's makers haven't seemingly noticed the remake,
Partner hasn't been so lucky.
Sony Pictures has sued
K Sera Sera and
Eros for lifting the plot of their film
Hitch.
Chak De India however, has one advantage. It is a sports film. And at a very basic level, all sports films thrive on a basic premise – underdogs overcoming all hurdles to win the most important game of their lives.
Chak De too tells a similar story. And they have Negi's tale to back up their argument.
But somehow the nagging feeling doesn't leave. Replacing ice hockey with hockey and college-level boys with state-level girls simply isn't enough. Agreed, India doesn't have a tradition of sports films. But turning to the West for inspiration is not the answer.
Another Hollywood project for Aishwarya
The gorgeous Bollywood superstar
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is reportedly all set to star in another Hollywood project.
Reports are that Ash is set to star with actor
Steve Martin in
The Pink Panther sequel.
Actors
Andy Garcia, John Cleese and
Alfred Molina have also joined the crew of Columbia Pictures/MGM's
The Pink Panther 2.
Ash will star as a detective along with
Spiderman 2 villain Molina and Garcia, who join forces with bumbling French police detective Jacques Clouseau, to be played by Martin, to catch the thief who has been stealing artifacts around the world.
Cleese will play Clouseau's superior chief inspector Charles Dreyfus in the movie, according to reports.
Agent Cody Banks director
Harald Zwart will be directing the film, which was penned by
Scott Neustadter, Mike Weber, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and
Steve Martin.
The film will be produced by Robert Simonds and Ira Shuman will be executive producer.
The sequel, which was announced in March 2006, is scheduled for a release on February 13, 2009.
Saif grows moustache for Tashan
Saif Ali Khan has once again experimented with his looks.
First we saw the talented actor sporting a cropped haircut and stubble for his role of uncouth Langda Tyagi in
Omkara. Now, Saif has grown a moustache and a mane for Yashraj Films presentation
Tashan.
The movie, directed by
Vijay Krishna Acharya, has all of the actors in very stylish avatars.
Anil Kapoor will be seen sporting a heavy, handlebar moustache.
Akshay Kumar will have very short haircut and designer stubble.
Kareena Kapoor has worked out to lose weight to slip into sexy costumes for the film.
Reports have it that
Aditya Chopra, the producer, has given strict instructions to the stars to limit their public appearances because he wants their looks to create curiosity for the film.
However, Saif has already done a commercial in his new look with sister
Soha Ali Khan.
Apparently,
Tashan is based on a very unconventional theme. The entire crew of the film has been extremely secretive about the film’s story and plot.
The film was recently being shot in Laddakh. Now, another schedule has begun in Rajasthan.
