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Shahrukh's lates picxx in king of bolywood books lunch

wow congrats everyone! part 18!
thanx alot sabeena and mariam di for the articles and pics 😉

Congratsss to all Srkians on part 18 😛 👏

hey Sabi dii thanxxxxxxxxxxxx so much for the captions of OSO

and thanx Marium dii also for pics and articles 😳 😳 😳

Originally posted by: Fashion_2005

Congratsss to all Srkians on part 18 😛 👏

thanx dii Congrates to you too😳

Originally posted by: Fashion_2005

OMG I love his expression there

I just love this pic😳

Age-old problem?

Shah Rukh Khan wants to work with younger, fresher actresses now. And no, he's not looking at Aishwarya Rai playing the lead role opposite him in Robot as the script demands a younger actress

Posted On Sunday, August 19, 2007
Mumbai Mirror Bureau

At 42, we've heard that Shah Rukh Khan is all set to get younger. He wants to work with younger, fresher actresses now, rather than the top stars he has been working with earlier.

This is showing in the casting of many of his latest films like Om Shanti Om (Deepika Padukone), Chak De (a gang of young girls), etc. In Shankar's Robot too, his heroine is not going to be Aishwarya Rai, as reported.

A source says, "It is certainly not going to be Aishwarya Rai as reported in the media. Shah Rukh is looking for an actress who can do a lot of action as the script demands it. The film's actress will definitely somebody younger and more energetic to suit the role."

Shah Rukh Khan's Robot is ready to roll even before the release of his film Om Shanti Om. To be produced by Shah Rukh's production house Red Chillies Entertainment, the preproduction of the film has already begun.

SRK has already hired the best technicians for his film. The film will be directed by Indian cinema's highest paid director, Shankar. AR Rahman will compose Robot's music while Saboo Cyril is the film's Art Director.

SRK is currently on the verge of finalising the film's lead actress.

Robot is also speculated to be one of the costliest films to be made in Indian cinema. So excited is SRK about the project that he has put all his other projects on hold. He will start shooting for the film after Om Shanti Om releases.
The film will also boast of never-seen-before special effects in Indian Cinema as Shah Rukh now has the best in-house special effects team.

"SRK has the best special effects team in the country and Robot is going to be a sci-fi film. The team will make sure that the film's special effects are world class and better than what one saw in Krrish and Dhoom 2," says an industry source.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&se ctid=30&contentid=200708192007081904130264092668a2f

Chak De, India' firms up the new brand of nationalism un-spooling in Bollywood.

The film makes that all-important point about people being different, yet same.

Shubhra Gupta

In the just released Yashraj film Chak De, India, newly-appointed hockey coach Kabir Khan asks his team for introductions. As each young woman steps up, she adds the name of her State to hers. Each is asked to fall out. And then one says, India. He asks her to say it again, louder. She does. The girls — State champions all, from Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, Manipur and so on — get it. India, they holler, in unison. And all of them are back, in the line-up.

Kabir Khan, played by Shah Rukh Khan, is a Muslim, and a hockey player who fell from grace when he missed an all-important goal in a world cup final. By coming back into the fray, and moulding a rag-tag bunch of squabblers into a world-class team, he wants to put the ignominy behind him. We hear the familiar shaming lines, as Kabir and his mother are forced to leave his mohalla: "Partition ke time yeh log kyon us taraf nahin chale gaye" ("why didn't these people, that is, Muslims, leave and go to Pakistan").

We see the word gaddaar (traitor) painted on his wall. We see Kabir and his mother leave because they can't bear it. We see them coming back, quietly triumphant, and entering their door, locked for the seven years they have been away. And one little boy wiping out that shameful word from the wall. Time for closure. Time for wounds to heal. Simplistic? Sure. Effective? Very.

Chak De, India is an important film in the Hindi film lexicon, because it firms up the new brand of nationalism kicked off in movies like Munnabhai MBBS, and its sequel Lagey Raho, Rang De Basanti, and less obviously, Dil Chahta Hai.

First off, in Chak De, a real-life Muslim plays one on screen, giving off a strong resonance. By dealing with the nasty comments and media coverage with dignity, and frontlining his intention, Kabir Khan shows the way forward.

By having a superstar junking statehood for nationhood, the film makes that all-important point about people being different, yet same. Being joint in purpose. Being one. Being Indian.

Where are you from? We have all faced this question. Or maybe asked it ourselves, of people we meet for the first time. This desire to put a person into a box, defined by "where she is from" has acquired a sharper edge with each successive year since 1947: you can see it rear its ugly head in each successive riot or troubled spot, globally and locally — if you are not from where I am, you do not belong. That sentiment stretches, with horrible ease, into the famous Bush-ism — if you are not with us, you are against us.

Bollywood has always fought against this sort of subversion in its own populist, sometimes simplistic manner. It's hard to look at region and religion in the world's biggest film industry: you are what you bring to the table.

Mirroring the nation state

Since Independence, movies have reflected the state of the nation, from the 1940s and 1950s when the country was new, and there was optimism along with Nehruvian socialism, to the 1960s and 1970s when class and social divides became important markers, to the 1980s and 1990s when cultural chaos encompassed the breathless changes taking place in all sectors, and the present decade where things are still in the process of being rediscovered, and revamped, and a new identity forged.

This is very far removed from the sort of movies that Shri 420 and Awara were, where the fledgling nation was struggling to come to terms with itself, and its many disturbing, contradictory strands. Very different from Haqeeqat, India's first proper war movie, where Pakistan was the obvious, clear enemy, and from Border and Gadar, more than 30 years later, where it was the same. As well as the mid-1990s' Sarfarosh, where ISI was named, perhaps, for the first time, instead of that elusive, mysterious 'foreign hand'.

Manoj Kumar's Shaheed, and Purab aur Paschim defined patriotism/ nationalism in the 1960s: his take on how all-things-good-belonged-to-Bharat, and the bad things to the 'depraved West', found ready takers in that decade, and influenced the way we saw ourselves and the others for many more years.
Inventive, patriotic

It's only in the mid-1990s when the winds of liberalisation became both economic and social: the fact that you could go out and earn more money than your father and grandfather, and break free of the shackles of birth, caste, and class, at least notionally, was a powerful liberator.

Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai was, on the surface, a paean to male bonding and the ritual of hanging-out. But it also struck a blow for freedom to be yourself, by saying that having money didn't automatically brand you a smuggler, or a dacoit, like it used to. You didn't have to chest-thump, spout vile things about neighbours, fire bazookas, or wave flags, to be a good citizen.

In the most marvellously inventive script in recent times, Rajkumar Hirani gave us a sense of ourselves and a forgotten pride in who we could be. His Munnabhai MBBS and Lagey Raho, Munnabhai are both classics in the manner in which they gave us back the goodness of Gandhi and Gandhigiri, wrapped up in the importance of being Indian.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti reunited a lost me-mine-myself generation with their roots. Its gang of six find themselves, and discover what it is to be from this land, and its people. Despite its downbeat end, the message was very clear: it is good to be Indian.

It's a similar thing that Shimit Amin attempts in Chak De, India, albeit in a lower key. Its all-girls' team is pulled into shape by a man with full confidence in his mulk (country), and their collective ability to pull off a world cup win. So what if the Indian women's team hasn't done it in real life? "Chakla belan chalane wali hockey stick kya chalayegi? ("How can those who wield a rolling pin be of any use with a hockey stick?) This derisive question, from an indifferent sports official, is answered with utmost conviction, on screen.

The coach is free, from past stigma. The girls are free, to be themselves.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2007/08/17/stories/ 2007081750100400.htm

Joginder Tuteja, Bollywood Trade News Network

What's common between NO ENTRY and LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI? Well, apart from the fact that each of the two films have been highly successful, another factor that brings the two films on the same platform is the fact that both of them opened on an average note in the first half of Friday, only to reach 100% collections by the time first day came to an end.

For both the films, average collections were attributed to the fact that the prints reached late in certain territories hence creating confusion in the mind of cinegoers who were not aware about the eventual release of the film.

Last week's release CHAK DE INDIA didn't suffer due to late dispatch of prints. Instead it opened slow since a) YRF went extra careful in promotion of their film this time around and let the final product do the talking and b) the film suffered from extremely negative publicity and gossips throughout it's shoot and post production which made the audience wary about the quality of the film.

But then, as is the saying, audience is the final judge!

The film eventually saw a theatrical release and the opening was far more being stupendous. However, as the first show got over, SMSs started floating around the country. By the time the film crossed its first 3 shows, the word had spread all over that this Shimit Amin directed, Jaideep Sahni written and Shahrukh Khan enacted film had something special about it.

As people got into a weekend mode, the unthinkable happened and the film was running to a houseful response all over. All current booking counters showed a houseful board while tickets for Saturday and Sunday too were sold out pronto. In nutshell, a film that was now slated to be yet another success for Shahrukh Khan.

End of story? Not quite.

Typically the best of films see a fall over the weekdays (as expected) only to pick up again in the weekend to follow. It would have been natural for CHAK DE INDIA to follow the same route to. But did that happen? Not really. The film saw a dip in collections but far lower than what other films have shown in recent times. Also, the dip was observed only on Monday and the first half of Tuesday because as the day came to a close, the holiday mood was back again due to Wednesday being Independence Day.

Situation at the box office on Tuesday evening and entire Wednesday was same as observed over the weekend which meant that the film was simply relentless in accumulating great collections along with immense appreciation.

As things stand today, the film has shown a bumper second weekend with excellent collections on Friday/Saturday with Sunday looking phenomenal too. The film has already collected close to 20 crores from the first week and with hardly any major opposition in second week (MARIGOLD has opened to a disastrous response while BUDDHA MAR GAYA has it's own set of audience), it is widely expected that collections would be tremendous in second week too.

After the debacle of JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM, it's time for YASH RAJ FILMS to sing CHAK DE yet again!

WINNER TAKES ALL!

Why can't women play a 'man's sport' and win hands down? Why can't a disgraced coach be the one to make it happen? And why can't a movie have no songs and no leading lady? It's time to break all moulds 'IT IS MIND BLOWING HOW PEOPLE HAVE REACTED TO THE FILM. THIS IS THE FIRST FILM ON HOCKEY AND IT'S AN AMAZING PIECE OF WORK. THE ACTORS HAVE WORKED REALLY HARD ON THEIR FITNESS AND LEARNING THE GAME. IT SHOWS DURING THE MATCH SEQUENCES. ON THE PERSONAL FRONT, IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH ADITYA CHOPRA, SHIMIT AMIN, JAIDEEP SAHNI, AND ABOVE ALL, SHAH RUKH KHAN. FIVE MINUTES WITH SHAH RUKH AND YOU CAN'T STOP ADMIRING AND LOVING HIM'

- MIR RANJAN NEGI Former goalkeeper, Indian hockey team Udita Jhunjhunwala

A FTER A flag hoisting ceremony in a building society on August 15, as residents mingled in the compound, a man in his mid-30s remarked: "The best thing about Chak De India is that it has got this cricket-crazy nation talking about another sport, and that too hockey So what ." has cinegoers across the country applauding and cheering as the Indian women's hockey team raises the World Cup? An upsurge of patriotism? Or was it the movie's basic tenet - team over self - that clicked with the masses? Maybe the greatest triumph of Chak De India was that the actors and production unit bravely broke Bollywood's box office rules. THE SPIRIT IS THE STAR Shah Rukh Khan plays Kabir Khan, a disgraced hockey player who returns to the field after seven years with a different goal in mind - to coach the Indian women's hockey team to excellence. Shah Rukh doesn't romance anyone. He sings no songs with his arms thrown wide open. He goes to Australia with his team but does not have a confrontation outside the Sydney Opera House. In fact, Shah Rukh stays on the sidelines and lets the team steal the thunder. And it does.

Film trade analyst Komal Nahata credits writer Jaideep Sahni's screenplay and script for much of the film's success. "The spirit of patriotism and the emotions you feel are greater than the need to understand hockey. It's about loving your country, about team spirit and the coach's spirit."

It's a film that dares to break rules and yet, works. On this, Nahata says, "Cinema rules change every Friday and many of them broke on August 10. It was a brave at tempt with exceptional screenplay ."

The New York Times reviewer writes, "Mr Khan (Shah Rukh), to his credit, lets his co-stars' youthful charisma carry the movie. He also laudably portrays a man who vigorously and unabashedly advocates the advancement of women. In fact, the film's greatest merit is its commentary on sexism in India. As it should, Chak De India gives the women, in the closing credits, the last word." GAME POINT There are several Hollywood movies to prove that films on sporting comebacks can be great hits.

In India, Lagaan and Iqbal are two of the recent sports movies that have triumphed at the box office. Director Shimit Amin agrees. "I have seen many Hollywood sports films and knew this could work, especially because the script was so good."

A small newspaper report, tucked away on an inside page, about the Indian women's hockey team winning a competition inspired Sahni to write the story "But . promoting a sports film is very different, especially when you don't have several stars, songs and dances and the flash," adds Amin.

"There is superficiality in our culture. We tend to judge the book by its cover," he says. "But if you really want to tell a story, you must simply go ahead. We had great faith that the film would be liked. Sports movies are inspiring, both in the making and the watching," says Amin.

ALL WORK AND ALL PLAY Sixteen mostly unfamiliar faces make up the rag-tag team of players. Together, they are the stars of the film. And credit for that goes to casting director Abhimanyu Ray. Though established actresses were considered initially, "we felt that would imbalance the team and set expectations", says Ray "The film is about Kabir's return . and the team's success. It's not about any individual. Having unknown faces helps," he adds. Yet, the audience feels attached to Haryanvi Komal, the short-tempered Balbir who uses her stick as weapon and the linguistically-challenged Sui Mui.

The brief for the casting was to find athletic actors. The audition included hockey training sessions. "We had to see how fit they are. If they were good actors but not athletic, it didn't work for the film," says Ray The crew also met hockey players . across the country Many were shy or only . interested in hockey not films. After testing , almost 1,000 girls, 16 made the grade. Amin says casting was the toughest part. "There is so much hockey in this film and we needed people who could commit the time for a three-and-a-half-month training camp."

But then, would the film have gained such accolades and attention without Shah Rukh Khan? It seems not. "One star is necessary, but I can only see Shah Rukh or Aamir Khan in this role," says Nahata. Amin feels that Khan added to the film and fit the character like a glove. "Shah Rukh does draw audiences, but you do not see the Shah Rukh you would expect. Instead, you see more of the Shah Rukh you glimpsed in Swades."

So what's the winning recipe? After Rang De Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry and now Chak De India, breaking the mould seems to be it.

uditaj@gmail.com

BOX OFFICE BONANZA Chak De India's earnings in its first week Rs20 crore and Rs 20 crore was the film's production cost

print edition of Hindustan Times