Interview : Sonam Kapoor

Sonam Kapoor shines...and why not, after all diamond is her best friend. The actors tells our correspondent that she will endorse anything that glorifies women. After pen and beauty products, now you are endorsing diamond jewellery for Anant?I always believe in quality product. Anant's single line diamond jewellery too is a quality product and celebrates the infinity of women...how the roles played by a woman everyday is infinite. The jewellery line glorifies women...the kind of product I would like to endorse. Besides, it's an initiative of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), so it's for a good cause; to boost and sustain growth of diamond jewellery in India.
Have you tried any of the jewellery by Anant?Of course I have! I don't endorse any product that I have not tried for myself.
Do you like diamonds?I love them.
So diamond is your best friend like it is to other women?Yes of course...they are shiny and beautiful...just like me (bursts into laughter).
Why do you think they say 'Diamond is a woman's best friend'?Diamonds will always hold a special place in a woman's heart. Today's woman plays a daughter, a sister, a friend, a lover, a wife, a mother, a professional with ease and panache. What better way to celebrate her than with diamonds. What accessories do you like to wear the most?Solitaires...diamonds, and watches...I think they are the most easily available, wearable and can make you look good in whatever you wear.
What is your favourite piece of accessory?It's a pair of solitaire earrings. I have worn it so many times that I have lost count now.
What are the five accessories that you can't do without?Hmmm...earrings, watches, my bag, shoes and a hairband or something like that to keep my hair away from my face.
Speaking about products, you seem to be on an endorsement spree now-a-days. Is there a definite reason for this?No...nothing planned. I endorse Mont Blanc, L'Oreal and Anant...I think they are the best products in their respective spheres. So it's a huge privilege for me to get these offers.
Generally speaking, don't you think too many endorsements mars the weight of a star? For example, not many people like seeing Amitabh Bachchan endorsing Navratna oil, or Shah rukh endorsing Dermi Cool powder.That depends who the star is. Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan are untouchables! I don't think their star powers will dilute if they are selling the products you mentioned. In fact, the products will get a better endorsement if they do the ads. Each star has the right to make his or her own choices.
Priyanka Chopra recently said if Madhubala would have been alive today, even she would have gone for product endorsements, keeping in mind today's fast changing life of a star. Do you agree?May be...changes are only constant in life, and for a star as well. But then, I will repeat every star has to make their own choices...it depends on their views. My father (Anil Kapoor) has never done an Ad; except the recent Mont Blanc one. I am my father's daughter, but I endorse products while he does not prefer doing ads.
You are said to be spotting an ultra-chic image for AISHA and from your tweets it seems you are really excited with your role. Can you tell something more about the film and your character?As you know it is based on Jane Austin's novel 'Emma'. This is an exciting character with lots of conflicts, something that has never been portrayed by any Indian actress so far. So it's absolute fun to do something that no one has ever tried. The shooting is almost over.
You are on social networking sites. Do you think these can act as a publicity tool for a star?Social networking sites are my ways of connecting with the audience...they give you a platform to connect with your fans. If you call these 'publicity tools', so is TV, newspapers, blogs and Internet.
What sort of life partner are you looking for and when are you planning to settle down?I will settle down when I find a life partner and I don't know what sort of life partner to look for; because I believe you never find things that you look for.

Burqa clad Katrina reaches Ajmer 'dana dan'!

Almost a month after her visit to the famous Ajmer shrine, for the success of her film, AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI, Katrina Kaif was back at the same venue! This time she was accompanied by good friend Salman Khan's sister, Alvira Khan.
The two landed at the Kishangarh airstrip last Friday, on a chartered plane and just like last time Katrina had her fans waiting for her and was surrounded by them.
At the 'dargah' (even at the airstrip!), despite wearing a black 'burqa' and veil to hide her identity. Katrina was in Ajmer to pray for the success of her latest release, DE DANA DAN.
Bollywood's numero-uno actress untied the wish thread ('mannat ka dhaga') of her last visit, as her APKGK is a run away success, and tied a new thread at the holy doors of the 'dargah'.
This was Katrina's third visit to the shrine and seeing the kind of start her latest film, DE DANA DAN, has taken it appears that her wish has already been granted. After the 'ziyarat' (obeisance) Katrina and Alvira left by the same chartered plane. Here's wishing Katrina more success and happiness in her career and personal life as well.

Is SRK part of Roshan's Krrish sequel?

Rakesh Roshan hasn't even finalised his script for the sequel to the hit movie Krrish. But speculation is rife. That Bollywood super- actor Shah Rukh Khan will be cast as the villain in the Krrish sequel. The rumours have added interest to. An already over- hyped sequel.

A new addition to the buzz is that Hrithik 'Krrish' Roshan won't be paired with Priyanka Chopra in Krrish 2. The actor will be paired with Deepika Padukone instead.

The Roshans plan to start Krrish 2' s shooting in September 2010. The movie is expected to be bigger than the Roshan's earlier films.

Amitabh Bachchan makes Vidya Balan blush

It is learnt that since the time, Amitabh Bachchan had said that Vidya Balan reminded him of his favourite actress Waheeda Rehman, the actress just can’t stop blushing. The senior Bachchan had said in a recent interview that Vidya “has the grace and beauty of Waheeda Rehman”.He had further added that Vidya’s Indianness reminded him of the star with whom he worked in his earlier films like Trishul, Kabhie Kabhie and Adalat. A pal of Vidya’s reveals to us that Vidya is extremely delighted by the superstar’s compliments.

“What more she could ask for. She is deeply humbled and at the same time dumbfounded.” The pal tells us. Vidya has stated in this regard. “It was very kind of him (Amitabh Bachchan) to say something like that. Waheedaji was known for her beauty and grace and being compared to her is like receiving a great award.

Amitji has been generous with his compliments. I’m speechless.”She further adds, “I got the opportunity to work with him and Abhishek and it has been a great experience. I sincerely wish I get more roles like this in the future.”

The reason why Kareena Kapoor's films flop

A year ago this question would never have made it to any Bollywood producer's thought process, but the time has come to think about it - just how bankable is Kareena Kapoor?
Like Akshay Kumar, Kareena has doled out flop after flop from mid 2007 all the way to the end of 2009. Sample these films - Tashan, Golmaal Returns, Kambakkht Ishq, Mai aur Mrs Khanna, Kurbaan - they all bombed at the box office.

Some might say Golmaal and KIshq made decent money, but what about the ROI? Making the money back doesn't mean the film is a hit, it simply means it flopped. What's more, the films where she 'guest appeared' in, 'Halla Bol', 'Luck by Chance' and 'Billu' all nosedived as well. To add to it, no one even watched 'Roadside Romeo', the animated film that she provided her voice for.

So what is going wrong? Are these bad films? To some extent, yes. 'Golmaal 2' and 'KIshq' were atrocious, one would have to be a lunatic to assume those would be hits with today's sophisticated junta. 'Mai aur Mrs Khanna' was terrible as well, with its flimsy script and half-baked premise. But what about the 'Saifeena' moniker?

Bollywood promotes the Saif-Kareena jodi like its the best thing since sliced bread. Remember the vomitous 'Tashan'? That film was made to only cash in on the new buzz of the 'hot' Saif-Kareena jodi. 'Roadside Romeo' had the duo for the same reason. The same goes for the recent dud 'Kurbaan'. And what happened? It turns out only a few people are interested in watching 'Saifeena' on screen, the rest need a decent entertainment product for the hundreds of Rupees they pay for at multiplexes. 'Tashan' was unwatchable, and 'Romeo' was underwhelming. 'Kurbaan' was not so bad, but it was shoddy and had too many plotholes to make for a serious drama pitched in as a film with a lot of attention to detail. Even the excellent soundtrack of 'Kurbaan' couldn't pull in audiences. Is marketing to blame here? Hell no! 'Saifeena' films are given humongous promotions.

'Tashan' posters were everywhere, and you can't possibly forget the bare-back poster from 'Kurbaan' which made its way to every nook and corner of the country. The MNS even helped with the film's promotion by creating a big fuss over the alleged 'nudity' in it. Remember the bikini scene in 'Tashan'? Did it help sell tickets? Not by a long shot. End result? These films were just not good enough. 'Jab we met' was extremely entertaining, will '3 Idiots' follow suit? Or will it bomb due to the Kareena curse? In any case we can expect 'Saifeena' on Twitter anytime soon; Priyanka Chopra began Tweeting to promote 'Kaminey'; Shahid, Genelia and director Ken Ghosh recently became Tweet-happy (hint: Chance pe Dance).

Ben Kingsley woos Bollywood star for Taj dream

British actor Ben Kingsley, whose portrayal of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in 1982 won him an Oscar, has his sights set on another Indian story and a Bollywood heroine.
Kingsley is trying to raise finances to make a film titled "Taj" about Shah Jahan, the Mogul emperor and his quest to build. The Taj Mahal in memory of his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child.

Kingsley said he is hoping Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the former Miss World and wife of Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, will play the role of Mumtaz Mahal. "My wife (Brazilian actress Daniela Barbosa de Carneiro) is going to be in the film. She will play Shah Jahan's first wife, Kandhari Begum," Kingsley told Reuters Television. "We are hoping very much ... Aishwarya approves this script and loves it." But Kingsley, 65, said the project was not yet set in stone as he still has to secure finances for the film's production. "I have to attract investors to make this film possible.

At the moment, it's not fully financed by any means," he said. "I know there is a great interest in the project and I am very much hoping, although my windows of opportunity is quite small... we do have the script and it's beautiful."The film would be produced by Kingsley's production company, SBK Pictures, and shot around the area of the Taj Mahal that was built in Agra in northern India between 1632 and 1653. The film is expected to be released in 2011. Kingsley is in India's western Panaji to attend the International Film Festival of India 2009.

` amisha patel :: sizzles in blUe saree `

Amisha Patel Sizzles in Blue Saree at Shilpa Shetty's Wedding Reception at Mumbai’s Grand Hyatt.

` wOrld's longest :: infOrmative `

1 World's longest solar eclipse of the century (6min 32sec)
The solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 was the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting as much as 6 minutes and 39 seconds in some places. It caused tourist interest in eastern China, Nepal and India. In some parts of the continent, the moon completely blocked out the sun for more than six-and-a-half minutes. The eclipse - the longest since July 1991 - was visible in India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China. There won't be a longer eclipse than that day for another 123 years (June 13, 2132)

2 World's longest burning lightbulb (107 years)
The world's longest lightbulb, a low-watt firehouse bulb, has been burning continuously since 1901. Long after his retirement, ex-firefighter Tom Bramell still likes to visit Station No. 6 for old times' sake, whistling in amazement at all the changes. But one thing remains exactly the same. The sturdy little object hangs from the ceiling in the firehouse's engine bay, emitting its familiar faint orange glow. At 107 years and counting, the low-watt wonder with the curlicue carbon filament has been named the planet's longest continuously burning bulb by both Guinness World Records and Ripley's Believe It Or Not.The Livermore lightbulb has never been turned off, which many suspect is the secret to its longevity. Livermore's bulb has burned for nearly a million hours.


3 World's longest speech (124 hours)
Frenchman Lluis Colet broke the world record for the longest speech after rambling nonstop for 124 hours about Spanish painter Salvador Dali, Catalan culture and other topics. The 62-year-old Catalan and local government worker spoke for five straight days and four nights to set the record in the southern French town of Perpignan. Three notaries were on hand to recognize the feat which allowed Colet to enter in the Guinness Book of Records. The previous record was held by an Indian man who delivered a 120-hour speech.

4 World's longest living marriage (85 years)
Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, of North Carolina, have been married for 85 years as of May 13, 2009. Zelmyra is 101 years old and Herbert turned 104 on June 10th, 2009. They have shared the same home in the Brownsville community of New Bern for 50 years.

5 World's longest serving bartender (77 years)
Angelo Cammarata is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's longest-serving bartender. He's been pouring for most of his 77 years at Cammarata's Café, the West View watering hole. But now, the place he still helps his sons John and Frank run, has been sold, and the Cammaratas will be out of there within weeks, when the new owners are approved by the state. "Camm," as people call him, started serving beer at his father's North Side grocery the moment Prohibition ended, at midnight on April 7, 1933. The memory is as clear to him as the strike of the library clock that signaled it was time to start opening bottles of Fort Pitt. His immigrant father built a bar on that site in 1935, and Angelo kept working there, taking a break to serve in the Navy in World War II. In 1971 he sold the bar to his sons. In September 2009, the Café was sold and Camm, 95, decided it was time to retire.

6 World's longest point in professional tennis (29 minutes)
This year, 2009, marks the 25th anniversary of a historic tennis match. At a Virginia Slims tournament in 1984, Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner exchanged 643 shots. It remains the longest single rally in the history of professional tennis. The 6-hour-31-minute marathon was itself the longest match in tennis history for nearly 20 years and remains the longest match completed on a single day. The rally that put Nelson-Dunbar and Hepner in the record books came at set point for Hepner, who was ahead in the second-set tie breaker, which lasted 1:47 on its own. The 13-11 tiebreaker lasted 1 hour 47 minutes - the longest in the history of professional tennis - and had one point that lasted 29 minutes, with the ball crossing the net 643 times. Nelson finally won the game.

7 World's longest movie (87 hours)
Directed by John Henry Timmis IV, "The Cure for Insomnia" is officially the world's longest movie, according to Guinness World Records, as of its release in 1987. Running 5220 minutes (87 hours) in length, the movie has no plot, instead consisting of artist L. D. Groban reading his lengthy poem of the same name over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos.

8 World's longest running soap opera (72 years)
The world's longest running soap opera, Guiding Light, has been on for 72 years following the lives of four families in America. Starting out as a radio play in 1937 before graduating to CBS daytime TV in 1952, it was funded by Procter & Gamble, which employed Irna Phillips, the "mother of the genre", to write it. In the mid-60s, it was one of the first soaps to feature African-American actors in regular roles. Its fictional "anywhere America" location moved around until 1966, when it settled in a town called Springfield. Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart and Mickey Rourke all started out on the show. The show won dozens of awards in its seven-decade span and ran up more than 15,700 episodes, each ending in a cliffhanger.

9 World's longest reigning monarch (63 years)
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, is the world's longest-reigning monarch. He ascended to the throne following the death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, on June 9, 1946, and was formally crowned on May 5, 1950. Thailand abolished absolute monarchy in the 1930s, so the king wields little power although he recently appealed for unity amid Thailand's four-year-long political crisis. He remains a deeply revered figure and enjoys immense popularity.

10 World's longest blackout (66 days)
In 1998 Auckland had a blackout power crisis for five weeks. Almost all of downtown Auckland in New Zealand was supplied electricity by Mercury Energy via four power cables, two of them 40-year-old oil-filled cables that were past their replacement date. One of the cables failed on January 20, possibly due to the unusually hot and dry conditions, another on February 9. Due to the increased load from the failure of the first cables, the remaining two failed on February 19 and 20, leaving about 20 city blocks (except parts of a few streets) without power during 66 days. 7500 businesses and residents were affected. Estimated loss due to the power failure was $156 million USD.

11 World's longest engagement (67 years)
Next time your fiancée starts to bug you about the wedding date you can comfort her by telling her about Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez, who hold the record for the world's longest engagemant and quite possibly, the world's coldest feet. Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez were engaged in Mexico in 1902 ,but kept putting the wedding off over and over again. After 67 years, in June 1969, Octavio Guillen must have run out of excuses and the world's longest engagement ended with their vows. They were both 15 years old when they were engaged and 82 years old on their wedding day.

12 World's longest movie kiss (3min 5sec)
In 1941, a kiss made movie history. Jayne Wyman and Regis Toomey kissed for three minutes and five seconds during the film You're In The Army Now. This actually took up 1/25th of the film's total running time. This comedy film is about two vacuum-cleaner salesmen who are accidentally inducted into the army and the hijinks that follow.

` megan fOx walking arOund santa mOnica `

Hollywood beauty Megan Fox will not be killed off in the third installment of the superhit franchise 'Transformers', instead a "great part" is being written for her by director Michael Bay.
"She's got a great part in 'Transformers 3'," the helmet said on Fox, who had courted controversy by comparing him to Hitler, reported Ace Showbiz.
Asked if he plan to kill her off in the third 'Transformers' movie, Bay who is currently working on the script said, "No, no, no. She gets enough of that already."
Beside Fox, Shia LaBeouf is also set to return to 'Transformers 3' as Sam Witwicky.
Meanwhile, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who have been involved in the writing of the first two movies, will not be returning to the script duties for next instalment.
Serving as the follow-up to 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', the forthcoming film will be produced by Bay and Steven Spielberg.

` stUnning ads by WWF :: save earth `