CHAT WITH SUPERSTAR SALMAN KHAN ON JAI HO

Salman Khan's much awaited Jai Ho releases on 24th january. I met up with superstar Salman Khan and newcomer Daisy Shah before the release of JAI HO - catch the excerpts of my chat with him.. 

                           

 

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE AWKWARD HUG

Well its happened as they planned it. An awkward little hug diverts attention from their really BIG controversies… of course there is nothing THERE IS NOTHING spontaneous in the great MILAN of the Khans. Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan hugging each other at Baba Siddiqui’s party after 5 years is definitely the photo op of the decade! But the event was orchestrated to a T. The two Khan’s entered the party almost at the same time(which itself is NOT happening unless totally planned by the army of overpaid PR machinery they are surrounded by!!). Salman’s Dad Salim Khan holds a long conversation with Shah Rukh and Sohail is all over him. And then Salman moves up seemingly spontaneously and the warring khans hug awkwardly, like they have been trained to do. Of course it’s the biggest PLANNED event of the decade!! After all what better than to give the media a bigger tamasha to talk about. Shah Rukh Khan wanted to divert the attention from Ibram Khan his surrogate son and Salman Khan has his own issues of Hit and Run to deal with. This staged spectacle is the biggest con on the increasingly invasive media. And Hello the two madams who they fought over, well one is a yummy mummy and the other is safely enconsed in the arms of another, so it must seem damn stupid to fight when the reasons are gone. And hey if a little hug takes care of the BIG controversies …. As we said….

ACTRESS MOBBED

Despite her ‘friends with benefits’ equation with Salman Khan and a dream debut opposite him this Katrina Kaif look-a-like has not managed to make any headway in Bollywood. While she is still invited to perform at award shows, courtesy her ‘connections’, Zarine Khan has to depend totally on her mentor and his buddy’s for role handouts. The good thing is she seems to be in demand in the small town circuit for special appearances which the girl reportedly has to depend on to fund her rather expensive needs. This time the actress had a scary experience which left her shaking to her well-manicured toenails. In Bhopal to cut the ribbon of a store the actress arrived at the scheduled 2 pm time and was supposed to leave by 3.15 flight back to Mumbai. But once the launch was over which actually took just fifteen minutes the crowds gathered at the store refused to move calling out the actress’s name again and again.

When Zarine refused to go out to make an appearance (as that was not part of the deal) the crowd of men (some local strongmen) got miffed and the cheers changed to catcalls and wolf whistles and unmentionable expletives. The ruckus got so bad that the nervous security guards of the shop could just about prevent the insistent men from barging into the store. Even worse with just about half an hour to make it to the airport the actress became very nervous and had an exchange of words with the owners for putting her in this scary predicament and insisted they call the cops. But the owners (apparently not wanting to involve the cops who they said would take money) offered the poor girl cold drinks and requested her to smile and pose at the men standing outside. The tamasha continued for some more time till the actress finally agreed to come out and as directed, Zarine greeted everyone and requested them to clear the way so that she could leave to catch her flight but was only allowed to go to her waiting car after she said a few dialogues and shook hands. Surrounded by an excited group of men screaming out her name the actress when finally in the car started shivering and howling. She missed her flight but apparently she is more pissed at reports that the organisers were in cahoots with the men and the tamasha was staged to get more publicity. 

Very Jhagdamental!

Huge jhagda on the sets of Salman Khan's film Mental. In Lavasa the shooting of Mental has STOPPED with allegations of bias and favoritism towards Bollywood artistes. A very important scene of Mental was interrupted when the men artistes from Hyderabad raised a ruckus. 

 

The controversy started when thirty fighters from Hyderabad and Chennai were called for the action sequences. But during the shoot the south group realized to their SHOCK that not only were they in lesser than stipulated numbers as compared to Bollywood artistes ( three from south for every seven from bollywood) but they were also getting only FIFTY PERCENT of what Bollywood artistes were getting paid ! 

The south group got pissed as even Salman and Sohail made it clear that no changes would be made to the ratio. The disgruntled fighters called up FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) officials in Mumbai, but only to be told that their argument held no water.

Well they dug in their heels, and refused to participate in the shoot and with neither party willing to budge despite repeated entreaties from Salman and Sohail. According to a source from the film unit: "The entire sequence has come to a standstill after this jhagda over equal remuneration and representation.