First Look @iamsrk in Ra.One Poster

First Look Ra.One Poster

RA.One: the most awaited film of 2011

On Day One of 2011, we surveyed a cross-section of distributors, exhibitors and trade analysts to arrive at the film that according to them deserves the tag of the most eagerly awaited film of the year. Predictably, it is Shah Rukh Khan's RA.One, closely followed by Reema Kagti's suspense thriller with Aamir Khan.

The curiosity surrounding RA.One is attributed to Shah Rukh's absence from cinemas after My Name Is Khan in February last year and the fact that it's one of this year's Diwali releases. Analyst Komal Nahta of Film Information explains, "The film has kept Shah Rukh on his toes. It's his most ambitious project so far and one of the most expensive films made in Bollywood. Heavy special effects and constant comparison with Robot have heightened expectations."

Director Kagti's second film has become the talk of the town because Aamir, apart from playing the lead, is also co-producing it. Suniel Wadhwa, a distributor from the Central Province, believes that the actor's entry in the suspense thriller genre has added to the trade's eagerness for the release of the project. "He has a reputation of delivering bigger hits in successive years. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed," he adds.

Shah Rukh Khan
RA.One
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal
Plot: Touted to be a superhero fantasy, SRK plays a normal guy living in London with his family. A twist in the plot turns him into a superhero. Release: Diwali

Don 2
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta
Plot: According to SRK, the USP of the film is: "It is Don 2". Need we say more?
Release: To be announced

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/645193.aspx

After Presidential visit, SRK chalks out plans

Shah Rukh Khan had a special guest on the sets of his forthcoming movie Ra.One when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the star and his leading lady Kareena Kapoor for close to half an hour during his visit to India last week.

Shah Rukh also launched a first-of-its-kind health drink called Minus One brought out by XXX Energy Drinks Limited at a suburban hotel in Mumbai. The company plans to make the superstar its brand ambassador by March 2011 after being a principal sponsor for his team Kolkata Knight Riders for the third edition of IPL earlier this year.

The actor has initiated talks with Golmaal series director Rohit Shetty for making a comedy film. He has also taken a keen interest in finding a co-star for his next movie to be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The film is an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's last novel Two States.

Shah Rukh will be seen on television early next year hosting an adventure sports-based reality show called Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout on Imagine TV.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/After-Presidential-visit--SRK-chalks-out-plans/730327/

King Khan turns boss on the sets of Ra.One

Shah Rukh Khan is secretive about a lot of things about Ra.One . This, apparently, started ever since he learnt about the film's similarities of script and use of special effects with that of other films such as Toonpur Ka Superhero and Robot . SRK is so particular about not letting out the secrets that he attends to almost all the calls on the sets himself. Director Anubhav Sinha says he feels virtually jobless with so little responsibility on him. He claims to be having a gala time, though.

Anubhav was once, not even aware of what was happening on the sets. According to a source, when Shah Rukh was talking to Anubhav about the film, the director appeared to be totally clueless about the project. The source added: " Sinha's been coming on the sets, chilling out and seeing the work in progress, and says ' action' at times when he is told to. SRK, has been working on everything including the script and direction." Anubhav Sinha has in his kitty a long list of box office duds such as Dus , Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai , Cash and Tathastu .

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/125103/Cinema/king-khan-turns-boss-on-the-sets-of-ra.-one.html

'I'm not as big a star as Aamir or Salman'

King Khan says in Karan Johar's show that he would like to grow up to be like Salman and Aamir

AFTER fighting it out for years for the B-Town crown, Shah Rukh Khan has passed it on to two of his biggest rivals Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.

On the couch of Koffee With Karan (KWK), SRK, in one of his most mellow moods, has spoken candidly about friends, co-stars, films and much more.
 

SRK put to rest the Aamir-SRK war at KWK show saying that he can never be as big a star as the two other Khans.

But one striking note in this chat appears to be when Shah Rukh reveals that he needs to grow up as Salman and Aamir have.

A source present on KWK, which airs today on Star World, said, "For years Shah Rukh and Aamir have been passing snide remarks about each being King and Ace of the box office and masses.
 
Shah Rukh and Aamir are two of the most popular Khans and adored by thousands of fans, so the fight for the
ultimate title has always been quite an issue with these two stars, as they have always managed to topple each other at some point of time or the other. They have even sarcastically claimed their number one spot at

media events."

While both have had equally big hits with 3 Idiots and My Name Is Khan, in recent times their rivalry hit an all-time high when both the stars were reported to sign on projects with international directors with the basic storyline of the city of Mumbai.

Shah Rukh is to do a project with Danny Boyle, who is scheduled to adapt Suketu Mehta's Maximum City. Aamir Khan with director Paul Schrader, is to adapt Extreme City for producer Anubhav Sinha, which will be based in Dharavi, a slum in the city.

However Shah Rukh in KWK has put to rest the Aamir-SRK war when he tells show host Karan Johar, "I am not and can never be as big a star and actor like Salman or Aamir. I would like to grow up to be like them one day."

 This was quite a revelation considering SRK is known to be an actor who considers himself the superstar of B-Town and has never made any bones about being the No 1.

Apart from humbly giving up his throne, there's another reason for SRK's statement, the source said. "The fact is Aamir and Salman are senior to SRK in terms of having entered the industry before him.
 
So, that's also SRK's tongue-in-cheek way of saying he is younger to them in experience and still has a lot to learn."

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2011/jan/010111-Salman-Karan-Johar-Aamir-SRK-war-KWK-show.htm

SRK rehearsing his dance moves for Ra.One

In a few hours from now, we would be bidding 2010 Goodbye and welcoming 2011. The year 2011 promises to be a big year for Bollywood with a lot of big films slated for release. However, one of the most awaited films of 2011 is none other than Ra.One starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal.

Ever since this sci-fi film was announced, it has generated tremendous buzz. Director Anubhav Sinha and his team have been working round the clock to ensure that they have a high quality product. SRK in fact recently shot for a couple of songs for the film in Mumbai along with his co-star Kareena Kapoor. Director Anubhav Sinha posted this pic of the superstar rehearsing his dance steps on Twitter. Says Anubhav excitedly, "I know, I know... what you want. Here is the man himself, rehearsing for the song... Exclusively for my twitter friends..."

Anubhav is also planning to reveal the first look of G.One (the character played by SRK) in a few days from now. With such tremendous buzz surrounding Ra.One, one can surely expect the film to take a bumper opening when it releases in the latter half of 2011.

Source:  http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2010/12/31/6975/

Europe's loverboy Shah Rukh

She saw the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer period film Veer Zaara in 2004 and her whole life changed. No, she is not your regular Bollywood movie fan but a sensitive painter and sculptor — German artist Anna Mandel — whose recent works are inspired by popular Hindi cinema. Her paintings titled 'Bollywood: Light in the Dark' were recently exhibited at the 'Shah Rukh Khan and Global Bollywood' conference hosted by the University of Vienna, focusing on the growing popularity of Hindi cinema around the world.

Ever since the first Hindi film was dubbed and telecast at primetime in 2004 by RTL II, a privately-owned commercial German television channel, the craze for all things Bollywood among Europeans has only been increasing. Before that, only a handful — mostly club-hoppers — were familiar with some Bollywood music, courtesy DJs who fused bhangra rhythms on turntables at dance clubs in the more cosmopolitan cities like Berlin.

Smitten by the romantic Khan

When television beamed filmmaker Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ( KKKG) into about two million homes in the heart of Europe, 73 per cent of the viewers were young women like Anna. While her paintings were full of movement and colour before, after her exposure to Bollywood a kind of white took over her canvas, giving her art a very special "light", full of "emotions" and "voices".

For Marlene Zach, 26, an office assistant in Vienna, a chance exposure to Bollywood overnight splashed her almost black-and-white life with a thousand splendid colours. "Shah Rukh Khan has done so much for me. Today, I can do anything for him." Marlene is so taken in with the romantic Khan that she has his gigantic cut-out from Om Shanti Om placed beside her bed.

Nicole Feigl, mother-of-two and an office assistant in a medical clinic, has also joined the ranks of obsessed fans. It was like she had been "struck by lightning" when she caught KKKG on television by accident when she was aimlessly changing channels one evening. "Everything I saw onscreen seemed familiar to me. Nothing was strange, as if I had lived it all in India in a previous life. I like Shah Rukh Khan because I feel I know him and I can trust him," says Nicole.

The KKKG saga was followed by the screening of Kal Ho Na Ho, Main Hoon Na and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. And the viewership soon jumped to six million households on Friday evenings. A survey found that a significant chunk of the viewers were aged between 12 and 29. The audiences, it seems, cannot have enough of the colour, dance, music, tears and laughter that Bollywood has introduced into their lives.

Touching the European heart

According to Anna, Hindi cinema is ideal for European audiences with "our dried up eyes" and "obdurate hearts desiring to open". Some Europeans see their continent as a spiritual wasteland despite all its material success. People find little romance and no thrill in looking up to political institutions for salvation. Present-day life is reduced to a head and a body. The heart is left to collect dust and souls have been put to sleep. Thoughts allow little time to nurse feelings. Anything that is unable to make profit or cannot be encashed is of no consequence and a waste of time. Europeans often wonder whether logic, strict rationality and far too much philosophising have prevented their existence from being spontaneous and more colourful.

For the past few centuries, the emphasis here has been on the material needs of the population and less on the spiritual. To wonder, to imagine and even to laugh beyond the tick of the clock arouses impatience, even suspicion. In the brochure accompanying her exhibition, Anna poetically pens her reasons for liking Bollywood films, including facts such as the characters crying unashamedly in a sort of cathartic way.

She finds lamentation on the Bollywood screen as a way to retrieve and release pain. The dancing is happiness, the enthusiasm is unlimited, humility is unpretentious and the streaming of emotions is without fear or shame. Moreover, she finds that there is compassion. Anna points out that no matter how magnificent European actors are, they are opaque; characters in Indian cinema allow light to pass through them.

"The sheer grace of the women on screen! Have you ever seen European or American actors laugh in the same way? With such a gleaming smile? Or weep?" Anna asks.

Gender-specific adoration?

Anna Neun, 30, admires Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for the way he portrays love on screen. "Like this fanatic, crazy lover to whom nothing matters except love. You don't find this kind of lover here in Austria. Austrian men are not like this," says this student of Vienna University.

Nicole admits that many more women are fans of Bollywood as compared to men. "Generally men find the melodrama, singing, dancing and crying, stupid. But this is because they are expected to be macho. Secretly, men know that women like men who are tender, who are able to express their emotions and also cry. That makes men anxious over the kind of roles (an actor like) Shah Rukh Khan plays on screen and as society demands that they be tough, they look down on the actor," she says.

"I don't know about India, but in Europe sometimes there is an absence of romance. And the kind of dedicated, gentle lover that Khan plays on screen makes him the lover that every woman longs for," says Prof Elke Mader, Vice Dean, Social and Cultural Anthropology Department, University of Vienna.

Academics warn against reducing Europe's passion for Bollywood as a marriage between the 'feeling' Indian subcontinent and the 'thinking' continent of Europe. But that is what it seems to be. Perhaps Europeans enjoy Bollywood precisely because here is one experience where they don't need to intellectualise — a piece of advice meted out by the great Khan himself.

In a 2007 interview to a weekly magazine, Khan says, "I don't think we should intellectualise entertainment. See the fun of it... I also have a sense of humour, which says take it easy and have some fun. I strongly believe films are for entertainment and messages are for the post office."

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2010/12/31/stories/2010123150170400.htm