Filmmaker Karan Johar might be best pals with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, but that did not stop KJo, as he is fondly known, from gushing about SRK's arch rival Salman Khan in a press conference related to Johar's upcoming film Student Of The Year.
It seems that Salman recently declared that Student Of The Year would be a bigger hit than Ek Tha Tiger and an elated Karan said, "I was very, very touched by what Salman said. He is one of the nicest guys in the film industry and has a large heart. He is also one of the actors who doesn't have a competitive streak and is always ready to support new and fresh talent. His support means a lot to me and my film team!" We can't help but wonder what the King Khan has to say about this now...dost dost na raha..?
Student Of The Year, which is directed by Johar, stars newcomers Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.
Director Karan Johar, who is known to make larger-than-life and long films, has made his shortest one till date in Student Of The Year.
The duration of the film will be a little over 120 minutes, while each of his previous four films have been over three hours long.
Johar was recently quoted saying that this was the shortest film of his career and that after the editing, it should be around 135-140 minutes at maximum.
The filmmaker has directed Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and My Name Is Khan so far, out of which the last one was the shortest. Johar is trying to follow the current trend of making shorter films in the industry.
A source was quoted saying that most of his productions, which have not been directed by him, have been of shorter duration as well, so he has done the same for his film as well.
The source adds that Student Of The Year hasn't been designed as a saga which requires an extended story to told and considering the film doesn't have any superstars, it would be difficult to hold the audience for three hours.
Student of the Year, starring Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra, is set to release on October 19.
Alia Bhatt, the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt will be making her Bollywood debut with Karan Johar's Student Of The Year and it seems that Alia has already found a mentor in KJo, as he is fondly called.
Buzz has it that Johar has been rooting for Alia and has also asked her to audition for the role of the female lead in the film adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's best-seller 2 States, which is supposed to star Arjun Kapoor in the male lead. It also seems that Bhatt did appear for a look test and that the makers are yet to take a call as they are auditioning other actresses also.
2 States is the story of a Punjabi boy and a Tamil girl, who meet in college and fall in love but have to overcome cultural clashes between the two families, who are as different as chalk and cheese from each other.
The previous season of the popular reality show India's Got Talent marked the television debut of the legendary Bollywood actor Dharmendra who was one of the co-judges alongside Sonali Bendre and Kirron Kher. However, this year there is going to be a big change in the judging panel. There will not be three, but four eminent personalities judging the show. Kirron Kher is going to stay on, but the viewers will not get to see Sonali and Dharmendra on the show.
A source close to the actor was quoted saying that his contract was for just one season and that he will be busy with his film projects in the coming year.
Buzz is that director-producer and the current judge of a popular dance reality show, Karan Johar, will replace Dharmendra on the show. Also, rumour has it that Farah Khan and Malaika Arora Khan may also feature on the judging panel for the next season of the popular show.
The coming season of India's Got Talent will be hosted by Manish Paul and Cyrus Sahukar.
Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan were romantically paired opposite each others in movies like Yaadein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon, and now it seems that filmmaker Karan Johar is planning to bring them back for a big project, which will be directed by Karan Malhotra.
It seems that Karan Johar and Kareena are close friends and when Johar approached Kareena for the film, she readily agreed to be a part of the project. Johar is planning to rope in Hrithik as the male lead as their romantic pairing has been much appreciated in the aforementioned films.
Kareena Kapoor will be next seen in Madhur Bhandarkar's magnum opus Heroine, which revolves around the success and eventual downfall of an actress whereas Hrithik will be seen reprising his role as masked super-hero Krrish Mehra in Rakesh Roshan's Krrish 3.
Former Maharashtra chief minister and Union minister for science and technology, Vilasrao Deshmukh passed away on Tuesday, after succumbing to liver cancer. He breathed his last at the Global Health City hospital in Chennai. Bollywood celebs took to Twitter today to offer their condolences and here’s what they said.
Akshay Kumar: ''The man who had Mumbai's Shanghai dream is no more. RIP Vilasrao Deshmukh ji, a visionary and the father of my dear friend @Riteishd. May God give you strength.''
Bipasha Basu: ''RIP Vilasrao Deshmukh Sir!Strength To you @Riteishd and family!Extremely sad news!''
Dia Mirza: This is just so sad... My heart goes out to the entire Deshmukh family...#RIPVilasraoDeshmukhji
Madhuri Dixit: ''Sorry to hear that Vilasrao Deshmukh has passed away. Our condolences go out to his family.''
Karan Johar: ''RIP VILASRAO SIR....thoughts and prayers with the family....love u riteish.....all the strength....and all the courage....''
Farah Khan: Ritesh my deepest condolences..
Shabana Azmi: ''Vilasrao Deshmukh no more.Too young to die.as CM he gave Nivara a lot of support for our slum rehabilitation project Condolences 2 d family''
Ayesha Takia: ''Sad sad day,RIP Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh.''
Raveena Tandon: ''Rest In Peace Vilasrao Deshmukh.Condolences to the bereaved family,@Riteishd &@geneliad ,words cannot express the shock nd grief we feeling.''
Shreyas Talpade: ''RIP Vilasraoji. May God give strength to the family to overcome this grief.''
Sherlyn Chopra: May Mr.Deshmukh's soul rest in peace..Heartfelt condolences to the Deshmukh family...Hard to believe that Vilasrao Sir is no more with us...
Kamal R Khan: Deshmukh ji. He was one of the best n honest politician in India. We will always miss you sir. You will be alive in our hearts.
Ken Ghosh: ''Prayers for Vilasrao Deshmukh strength to the family @Riteishd@geneliad''
Kumar S.Taurani: ''So sorry @geneliad Heartfelt condolences to the deshmukh family, may Vilasraoji's soul rest in peace. May god give strength to the family.''
Siddharth: ''Deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. Praying they find the strength to face this terrible loss…''
Ranvir Shorey: ''RIP Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh. Heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.''
Celina Jaitly: ''Heartfelt Condolences dear @Riteishd and the entire Deshmukh family..prayers and strength to you.''
Sophie Choudhary: ''R.I.P Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh. Heartfelt condolences to @Riteishd & the entire family. I pray God gives them strength to bear this grt loss''
Jiah Khan: ''RIP Mr Deshmukh..my sincere condolences to @Riteishd and his family..''
After tackling the issue of terrorism in Kurbaan, Karan Johar and Rensil D'Silva, who are teaming up once more for another project, will make a film that will have a social message for youngsters, claim sources.
It seems that the upcoming flick will be somewhere along the lines of Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti, but will have more of humour and comedy sequences. The movie, which is untitled as of now, will star actors Sanjay Dutt, Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut and Neha Dhupia.
The film is expected to go on floors in October. Meanwhile, Karan Johar is busy with hs directorial venture Student Of The Year, which stars newcomers Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, apart from Kayoze Irani, the son of veteran actor Boman Irani.
We had reported a few weeks back that filmmaker Karan Johar had shown the door to director Tarun Mansukhani after the former discovered that the latter had been approaching other producers for Dostana sequel, which was supposed to be a Dharma product.
However, sources claim that during the launch event of Karan Johar’s upcoming film Student Of The Year, Karan and Tarun were seen chatting amicably over coffee. Not only this, when Karan was asked about this, he reportedly responded by saying that ‘all is well’ between the two.
It was reported back then that Tarun was getting impatient about Karan not having time for the sequel to Dostana as he was busy with other projects, which had compelled Tarun to approach other producers for the movie, thus causing a rift between them.
Dostana, which starred Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra, was a rom-com about two young men, who pretend to be gay and end up falling in love with the same girl, who is also their roommate.
Karan Johar is known for his opulent affairs, right from his mega multi starrer affairs like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. However his newest film Student of the Year takes the cake. Apparently, the budget of his campus flick is much higher than Karan's debut film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, despite the fact that it starred Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.
"Student of the Year has been budgeted on par with many biggies which are being made with established stars today", informs a source, "Even though the film stars three newcomers, Karan hasn't spared any expenses. Many around him felt that he was going overboard since the film doesn't star his regular lead Shah Rukh Khan. Still, Karan went ahead."
The story was pretty much a deja vu of KKHH days when for the first time in Bollywood, everything from clothes, accessories, bags, shoes and other props with hitherto alien names (in Bollywood parlance) like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace were procured from the UK.
"Even though Yashji (Johar) used to wonder where the spent was made, Karan could be found hand picking things from all over the globe. The story was repeated for SOTY as well as Karan hasn't made any discounts when it comes to mounting the film on a lavish scale", the source adds.
In fact some sources are even pegging the film's budget to be on par with the likes of 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham' to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna though that seems a rather far fetched.
Though Karan refused to comment on the crores spent on the film, he did say, "If you want to create stars, you have to invest. You can't cut corners just because they are not known yet. Next generation of Bollywood stars do deserve a platform."
Way to go Karan!
Producer-director Karan Johar, who is launching three new actors with his forthcoming film Student Of The Year, says that is as emotional about the project as the actor's parents.
At the launch of the theatrical trailer of the film, Johar said, "The film feels different from any other film that I have directed as I have worked with movie stars who don't need hand-holding. With these three newcomers, it was a journey like nurturing and parenting them."
Karan Johar is launching with Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Alia Bhatt, David Dhawan's son Varun Dhawan and model Siddharth Malhotra for the film.
"I am sure their parents are going through the same emotions that I am going through right now. It's a very special feeling. This is something that I felt I needed to do. It's a very satisfying emotion," he further added.
Student Of The Year is set to release on October 19.
Buzz has it that director Tarun Mansukhani, who had helmed Dostana and was supposed to direct the sequel as well, has been asked to leave Dharma Productions by head honcho Karan Johar. The reason- Johar reportedly found out that Tarun had been approaching other producers for Dostana sequel as he was getting impatient to start work on the project.
Sources claim that the sequel to the film had been on the backburner since the past many years and Tarun was allegedly not happy with the way Johar was promoting new talent like Shakun Batra, Karan Malhotra and Ayan Mukerji instead of focusing on the sequel, which made him approach other producers.
Dharma sources claim that with this development, they are not yet sure about whether KJo will go ahead with the sequel project without Tarun or shelve. Dostana, which starred Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra, was a rom-com about two young men, who pretend to be gay due to certain circumstances and end up falling for their female roommate.
Karan Johar, is busy winding up his directorial next Student Of the Year and the filmmaker will wrap up the film today.
Karan took to Twitter to announce the latest development on the film, writing, "Have just 1 day left to complete STUDENT OF THE YEAR....its been an 11 month shoot journey...with lots of fun and debut dynamics!!!"
He also stated that the first trailer of the movie will be out in August, this year. "The first trailer of STUDENT OF THE YEAR will be out on the 2nd of August.....," KJo further added.
SOTY will mark the debut of Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, son of director David Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Boman Irani's son Kayoze Irani.
The film is co-produced by Shah Rukh Khan and is slated to hit the theaters on October 19, 2012.
Producer-director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was reported to have not attended an event for his sister Bela Bhansali Sehgal's film Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi as his alleged rival Karan Johar was present. However, the filmmaker has clarified that he wasn't supposed to attend the event.
Bhansali was quoted saying that he was in Ahmedabad to hunt locations for Ram Leela and that he was never scheduled to go for that particular event.
Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, starring Boman Irani and Farah Khan, is set to release on August 24.
