Andhranews

Having made a mark with Chandan Arora’s Main Meri Patni Aur Woh, this bewitching Bengali beauty is all set to make an impact in Bollywood with her forthcoming video album directed by Ujwal Chatterjee. “It is based on one of Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali songs Amar Parano Jahan,” says Rituparna. The song has been translated into Hindi by Javed Akhtar and is now called Hamare Wade Ko Par Lagayein Tum Aaye Ho.

“The video also stars Ashmit, who plays an artist, sketching an image on a canvas and I appear as the dream girl in his life. I am glad that Rabindranath Tagore’s songs have been translated into Hindi as this way we’ll be able to reach many people. The music has been composed by Mohan Mahadevan and Sirshay Ray is the cameraman,” she tells us.

Rituparna adds, “We have shot the song in Paltan in Satara. The album has been titled Selected Songs of Tagore and has been rendered by Indrajit Dasgupta and features 10 songs. Every year I have my dance performances based on Tagore songs with my troupe Bhavana Aaj O Kaal. When the director came to me with this, I was ecstatic to work on a Tagore project.”

Rituparna is presently shooting for Manish Gupta’s Saab Chai Paani with Om Puri and Sonu Sood. As for Bhupendra Gupta’s Unns, she says, “It’s a musical, a tender love story starring Sanjay Kapoor, Sudhanshu Pandey and Juhi Babbar. I play a model who’s soft-spoken, sensitive and vulnerable and has an extra marital affair. Juhi plays my close friend in the film.” Her next venture on the big screen is an English film titled Hidden which according to her is “a suspense drama with romantic interludes”. The actress confesses, “I’ve never performed in such a film before. It has lots of love, affection and is a good combination of emotions. The film has many British actors.”

Bollywood glam girl Shilpa Shetty, who describes herself as a “law-abiding citizen”, says that she would never “endorse vulgarity”. Shilpa, against whom a Madurai-based lawyer filed an obscenity case over a still from the Kannada film Auto Shankar, asserts, “It (the photo) is not vulgar. I am an actor and entertainer and I won’t endorse vulgarity. I always do everything in a dignified manner. Tell me, have I done anything that other actresses have not done? With God’s grace, work is going fine. But this is definitely affecting our reputation.”

The star is not too happy with the media hype either. “I don’t like the way the media is focusing on such inane issues. They are making a mountain out of a molehill,” she points out.However, Shilpa says she has total confidence in the judicial system and has even written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal. “It’s not that the chief justice is going to write a reply to me. But I have full faith in the judiciary and I am sure something positive will come out of it. The case is in court. Legal proceedings take time in our country,” she says.

Upbeat about her latest release Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar with Salman Khan, the actress says, “It’s a commercial film and has got a great script. I think the audiences are going to like it.” She also defends Salman, who was upset with the makers for delaying the film. “In Salman’s defence, I will say that he is one guy who has pushed this film till here. He has put in lots of energy and effort into this project and he is the most affected due to the delay in release,” said Shilpa.

The svelte actress, known as much for her willowy frame as for her ability to shake a leg, says she does not worry about the future. “It has been almost 13 years and I never needed to think about my future in advance. I never thought I would last so long in the industry. The work kept coming my way. I have done a variety of roles. In my forthcoming films, the audience will see me in a completely new role. I am doing Apne and Metro. Both are commercial films and I am playing different roles in them,” she says.

Singer Sonu Nigam’s new song is a special attempt to invoke the feeling of patriotism. The song is dedicated not only to the common man, but also those who lost their loved ones in the recent serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.

Says Sonu, “The words are — Yeh rashtra prem ki bhawna bas matr ek hai kamna, Hriday seep aas ka moti, Tam ghan jan man main ho jyoti, Arz kiya yeh Bharat ke rakh pravati ho, Rashtra prem ki bhawna. The music for this particular song has been composed by Deepak Pandit.”

Sonu reveals that this is not the first time that he has penned a song. “I had been writing songs for quite some time now. In fact, some of the songs that I had sung earlier in Hindi were written by me though I never asked for any kind of credit. But a song like this comes only once in a while and I would say it’s miraculous,” says Sonu.

Ask him if he had written the number specially for the blast victims and Sonu says, “To be very honest, I had written this song a month ago, but by the time I got to recording it, the bomb blasts were the first thing that came to my mind. I thought that I should dedicate this song to those who have lost their loved ones. It was also an attempt to light the fire of patriotism among Indians. Here I wish to clarify that there’s no profit to be made from this song whatsoever.”

Sonu Nigam hopes that the songs will touch the hearts of every patriotic citizen, especially children. “If you listen to the song it will remind you of your school days when you used to say your prayers and the national anthem in the assembly. This is one of the reasons why we are making it a point to see to it that it reaches the children,” he says. Sonu also clarifies that he has not said goodbye to his singing career.

“I think what I had said was misunderstood. I said I was going to quit saying yes to every song. I would prefer to sing 10 quality songs in a year, rather that croon to 10,000 that do not make any sense at all. I would like that even if I am not there tomorrow, the songs that I have sung are fondly heard and remembered,” he says.

Gwyneth Paltrow is considering surgery to help fix her post-baby figure. The Oscar-winning actress gave birth to her second child, son Moses, four months ago, but is worried about the effect motherhood has had on her figure. Gwyneth told an old friend, “My stomach is rippling, my breasts don’t feel good. I’ve been trying to workout. I want to do something about it.”

The Shallow Hal star went on to discuss surgery with her American friend, herself a mother, who was visiting London. Gwyneth’s pal recommended post-pregnancy surgery that helped her to lose 24 inches from all over her body. Gwyneth asked, “Can you get that in New York?”

Her friend replied, “Sure. And you wouldn’t get hassled about it in New York.” Gwyneth, wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is a vegetarian, teetotaler, and eats a strict macrobiotic diet. She also loves yoga and tries to do it as much as possible. While she lunched with her friends at a pub in North London the actress nibbled on salad and drank water. The Shakespeare in Love actress has not worked since she became pregnant with her now two-year-old daughter Apple.

Kate Moss has enraged best friend Jade Jagger after taking advantage of The Rolling Stones’ hospitality. Mick Jagger’s daughter Jade invited Kate to the band’s gig in Amsterdam and to stay at the Intercontinental Hotel as their guest. But the model partied so hard that she had to be helped to her room, and then checked out the next day, leaving an unpaid bill of £5,000.

A friend of Jade’s said, “Jade felt bad that her best pal ran up a £5,000 bill and then forgot to pay it. She was quite embarrassed and was furious at the time. Kate did volunteer to pick up the entire tab, but only when she had got back to Britain. Kate is not the Stone’s favourite person right now. She was invited as their guest and while they were expecting to pick up the cost of the room, they were not impressed at the amount she ran up on drinks.”
The 32-year-old model, who earns around £12 million year, was invited to party with The Stone’s after their Amsterdam performance of their “Bigger Bang” tour.

Jennifer Lopez allegedly quit the Dallas movie because she didn’t want to work with John Travolta. The Latin actress was set to play J.R. Ewing’s troubled wife Sue Ellen in the adaptation of the popular TV drama, but turned her back on the project last week. J.Lo’s representative, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, confirmed her departure, but refused to give a reason for her surprise decision.

It has now been claimed that Lopez hated the script and wasn’t happy that Travolta had been handed the role of her on-screen husband. A source told America’s New York Post newspaper, “The script is really bad. And John Travolta? If it had been a man’s man like Ed Harris or Tommy Lee Jones, but you don’t just go from doing Hairspray to Dallas.”

Since the movie was announced it has been beset with problems. Original director Robert Luketic quit the project earlier this year due to “creative differences” and was replaced by Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha. Throughout her career J.Lo has famously starred in a number of box office movie flops, including Jersey Girl and Gigli, both of which starred her former fiancé Ben Affleck.

Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake have reportedly splashed out $24 million on a Hawaiian holiday home. The couple were pictured frolicking in the sea while on holiday in Kailua last week and it seems the pair had such a good time that they have decided to invest in a property.

According to gossip website Popsugar.com, Justin and Cameron, who is a keen surfer, have spent the whopping sum on a beachfront estate. However, the buyer’s agent Joan Graham, of Coldwell Banker, is refusing to confirm the couple have the bought the holiday home because she is bound by a strict confidentiality agreement.