Katrina has film with Salman, not Ranbir

Katrina believes that characters can actually change an actor's career graph.

She feels that every character she has done so far has been different. "I want to put pieces of all of them together and do good films." Recently, the actress was in Ahmedabad and she told reporters that she isn't doing any film with Ranbir Kapoor but she is surely doing a film with Salman Khan. 




Keywords: BOLYWOOD | SALMAN KHAN | RANABIR KAPOOR

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3:49 AM | 0 comments

'Bipasha Basu's dating Shahid Kapoor'

Bipasha Basu is glowing these days. Her good friends have been talking about the new mystery man in her life for weeks now, but the dusky actress has so far only admitted to dating "someone new", refusing to reveal his identity. The secret is out now. TOI has learnt that the screen siren has been dating Shahid Kapoor!

Says a source, "For over a month now, Bipasha has been talking about a very sweet guy in her life. She's been telling friends that he's an eligible young man and has been showering her with gifts and some much-needed attention. She's been gushing to her friends about how "sweet and affectionate" he is. Bips maintains that while they are not serious yet, he's been wooing her persistently and she's basking in the warmth of his adoration."

Considering they've never worked together, everyone's wondering how the two met. Apparently they were introduced by Shahid's trainer, Abbas. Shahid is as much of a fitness junkie as Bipasha — that was a common bonding subject the first time they met. "Obviously they are only just getting to know each other, so Bips doesn't want to jinx it by talking openly about Shahid," says the source.

Both Bipasha and Shahid have recently split from their long-time partners ( John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra, respectively) and don't want their budding romance to come under the spotlight. A couple of weeks ago, however, Shahid was spotted with hickeys on his neck during a shoot and people on the unit pulled his leg about it. He refused to comment on the mystery lady who 'marked' him, but was later spotted out and about with Bips. Adds the source, "On Saturday night, Shahid hosted a small party at his newly-renovated Andheri home. There were about 20 guests, and Bipasha was also present. Shahid had invited only a handful of his close friends, including Siddharth Anand, Karan Johar, Anushka Sharma, Sonam Kapoor, Ayesha Takia and husband Farhan Azmi, Ahmed Khan, so her presence there raised quite a few eyebrows."

When asked, Bipasha claims she hardly knows Shahid. His spokesperson on the other hand says, "They are friends, just as he is friends with other people in the industry. The news of them dating is untrue." Ho hum!

Keywoords: BOLLYWOOD | BIPASHA BASU | SHAID KAPOOR 

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Bollywood Inspired by Hollywood in Useing Techanalogy

a picture from Bollywood film ''Bheja Fry 2'' after special effects 

(Reuters Life!) - Don't look for an Indian "Avatar" anytime soon, but Bollywood, inspired by the success of blockbusters such as "Transformers," is starting to take special effects seriously.
Up until five years ago, producers were unwilling to embrace technology, preferring instead to spend millions on expensive outdoor shoots and sets.
That changed when India became a viable back-end destination for Hollywood films like "Tron" and "Avatar" amid a growing wave of outsourcing post-production special effects due to cost. The number of studios handling VFX -- visual effects that include mixes of live-action footage and computer-generated images -- mushroomed.
"Earlier, Bollywood looked at technology like VFX as a cost-saving mechanism, but now it is also about the experience of watching a film with that kind of technology," said Kamal Jain, chief financial officer at Eros International.
Eros will release "Ra One", an ambitious superhero film with star Shah Rukh Khan, later this year. The company is also making "Rana," a tri-lingual epic with another superstar, Rajnikanth.
Rajnikanth's last film, "Robot," had the flashiest Bollywood special effects to date, including a Matrix-like sequence, and such superstar backing of the trend means others are sure to follow.
"Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara" or You Won't Get This Life Again, which releases next week, has used VFX to recreate a sky-diving scene and a race between a car and a horse.
Another film, "Urumi" or Curling Blade, which depicts the arrival of explorer Vasco Da Gama in Kerala, used special effects to re-create Portugal in the 14th century.
Both films were processed at Reliance MediaWorks, part of the Anil Ambani ADAG group, which has a sprawling studio in a distant suburb of Mumbai. The studio, which earlier worked on back-end VFX for Hollywood, added a separate team to cater to the growing demands from Bollywood.
Starting from eleven in 2008, the studio has now grown to 51 and is constantly on the lookout for more talent.
"Revenue from VFX for Bollywood has doubled every year and we continue to see it growing," Neil Cunningham, Creative Head at the RMW digital lab, told Reuters.
BOOMING BUSINESS BUT NO BUDGET
The Indian animation and VFX industry is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 19 per cent, reaching 55.9 billion rupees by 2015, said consultancy KPMG.
But that business isn't translating into Indian "X-Men", because budgets aren't on a par with those in the West.
"The kind of budgets that a movie like "Avatar" needed were justified because the appetite for that kind of a film is huge. But Indian producers can't spend as much, because the audience isn't as huge," said Rajiv Raghunathan, RMW production head.
In addition, Indian audiences -- brought up on film staples of family dramas and corny romances -- have only recently started adapting their palates to VFX-heavy films.
Rajnikanth's "Robot" was India's most expensive film to date, with an estimated cost of $33.3 million. It earned more than $83 million, making it one of the biggest hits ever.
"Indian producers don't need to spend as much on special effects, because we have studios here who will give you the same quality for a lesser price," says Jain at Eros, whose company was one of the first to set up a VFX studio in India.
That studio, EyeQube, has handled special effects for Hollywood and also for in-house productions in Eros, and recently opened a London office.
"It wasn't always this easy. When we set out to make a VFX heavy film in 2005, the technology wasn't accessible, and people were very suspicious of it," says Bollywood producer Harry Baweja, whose futuristic film "Love Story 2050" was one of the first films to use special effects.
The film bombed in 2008, and Baweja says he knows of producers who were planning similar films, but shelved them.
But he said things were poised to change.
"Bollywood is well-known for its herd mentality. If one film like Ra One does well, you can be sure there will be producers lining up outside VFX studios, hoping to replicate its success."

key words: BOLLYWOOD| HOLLYWOOD | ENTERTAINEMENT | TECHANALOGY

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