Priyanka Chopra unveils first look of Purple Pebble Pictures’ Kaay Re Rascalaa

After commercial success, rave reviews from critics and three national awards for the Marathi comedy-drama, Ventilator relea sed last year, Priyanka Chopra’s production house, Purple Pebble Pictures is set to showcase their next offering, Kaay Re Rascalaa!

Directed by I. Giridharan Swamy, Kaay Re Rascalaa marks the debut of actors Gaurav Ghatnekar and Bhagyashree Mote. The cast also includes Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Supriya Pathare and Akshay Kothari. After an emotionally charged Ventilator, Kaay Re Rascalaa promises to be a light hearted, rib-tickling comedy.

The global superstar, who had stepped into production with her Purple Pebble Pictures production house, took to Twitter to share the fun poster of Kaay Re Rascalaa – a family entertainer with a tinge of south flavour

Much hype has followed the announcement of this second Marathi movie and the muhurat held for it in January 2017, given the celebrated success of its antecedent. With no face on the poster, it makes for an intriguing first look, wildly trending on social media sites and spurring curiosity and excitement amongst cine goers. Directed by

Duo Rohan-Rohan has lent their music to the movie. The film is bankrolled by Priyanka Chopra and her mother, Dr. Madhu Chopra. Kunickaa Sadanand is the Associate Producer, while Dr. Satyasheel Biradar and Sangeeta Manjrekar are the co-producers of the film. Kaay Re Rascalaa is set to release on 14^th July, 2017.

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Suneel Darshan unravels the musical journey of Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha

With music being the soul of Suneel Darshan’s Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha (EHTEDT), the challenging task for the filmmaker of the romantic mystery was to create an album justifying the movie theme.

While it took the veteran filmmaker almost five months to finalise the songs of his film, it’s the journey and his association with the music maestro Nadeem (of Nadeem-Shravan fame) that has been a memorable journey.

Suneel Darshan recollects, “When I decided to make EHTEDT and collaborate with Nadeem on the project, I wanted to lock the film’s music and songs before going into the stage of pre-production. After sending him the script and situations, I set up an appointment with Nadeem in Dubai and when I was there, he was ready with his plethora of compositions. He had a variety of songs for each situation. He sang the songs to me and I selected the ones I liked.”

“Once the music and songs fell in place, we came back to India with the rough format of 5 songs. Then we employed music arrangers here and they set up the musical arrangements and the tunes were recorded. The basic strength of Nadeem’s melody had to be retained and at the same time I had to take the music forward to 2017. So we blended it in such a way that we had strong melodies and contemporary orchestration happening,” he adds.

Suneel has previously worked with Nadeem in several musical hits including Ek Rishta: The Bond of Love, Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya, Andaaz, Barsaat, Dosti, Mere Jeevan Sathi and EHTEDT mark their seventh project together.  “The lingering ability of the title track was so strong that after I finished shooting the movie, I came back and recorded one more version of the song, which was more of the Coke Studio kind of a format,” he recollects.

Shraddha Kapoor Shoots For Last Schedule Of Haseena Parkar In Pune

Shraddha Kapoor, who will be next seen playing the lead role in Apoorva Lakhia’s upcoming film ‘Haseena Parkar’, which is based on the life of dreaded don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar, is shooting for the last schedule of the film in Pune.

A source attached to the film said, “Shraddha spent Tuesday canning her portions, which include a court sequence at Deccan College and a theatre in the vicinity that were cordoned off for the shoot. The college has been converted into a court for the shoot. When Shraddha was informed that the shoot is happening in Pune, she was excited to travel by road as she has fond memories of the city. As a child, she would often travel to the city by road to visit her late maternal grandparents who lived there.” We also have learned that the film will be wrapped up in the coming couple of days.

Directed by Apoorva Lakhia, ‘Haseena Parkar’, which stars Shraddha’s brother Siddhanth Kapoor as Dawood Ibrahim, is being presented by Swiss Entertainment and has been produced by Nahid Khan.

Rana Duggubati's look from Telugu film

Rana Daggubati's new look from his upcoming Telugu political drama titled 'Nene Raju, Nene Mantri' in which he plays a politician.

Directed by Teja, the film also stars Kajal Aggarwal, Catherine Tresa, Navdeep and Ashutosh Rana. The film marks the first-time collaboration between Rana and Teja, and it is being produced by Suresh Babu.

Tumhari Sulu has completed half its shoot in Mumbai

Noted ad filmmaker Suresh Triveni, whose TV commercial has just won a Gold at a recent advertising award, has been thoroughly enjoying his maiden journey as a feature filmmaker. So much so that he dedicated the film's clapper board to his "awesome team". The part of the clapper board usually reserved for the makers was credited to the entire team instead, implying that 'Tumhari Sulu' would be a product of real team work.

Triveni has gone one step further to ensure that the behind-the-scenes team comprising the light men, camera attendants, spot boys, interns etc are acknowledged on his and the producers' social media. "The guys behind the camera are the unsung heroes. Putting up their pictures regularly on our social media accounts is a small way of acknowledging and appreciating their immense contribution to our film," smiles Triveni.

'Tumhari Sulu' also marks the interesting first-time pairing of Vidya Balan and acclaimed theatre actor, Manav Kaul.

Vidya, who is known to be the life of a set and has an impeccable sense of humour in real life, did everything possible to put an otherwise shy Manav at ease. She was quick to break the ice and began pranking Manav including teasing him from time to time about how he was thoroughly enjoying his single status. In no time, Manav warmed up to Vidya and their terrific screen chemistry became the talk of the set. The joke between them was about Manav's "khidki" being ever "open", naughtily suggesting his availability to women.

Vidya gave Manav a big surprise by making a special black t-shirt reading "Khidki Always Open". Manav was in splits and wore the T-shirt immediately after giving Vidya a tight hug. Taking the message on the T-shirt quite literally, she made him the pose from the window of her make-up van. This is one 'khidki' Manav may never want to close!!!!

DHRUV BALI TO MAKE HIS DEBUT IN VIJIT SHARMA’S MIRROR GAME

Dhruv Bali, the key player against the Professor played by Parvin Dabas in Vijit Sharma’s Mirror Game turns the tables around on his professor as a student, Ronnie. He has finally made his trip to India from Hollywood for his debut film, Mirror Game a psychological thriller/ murder mystery, directed by Vijit Sharma.  It has been noted that he could not make this trip earlier and join in the promotions along with senior actors like Parvin Dabas and Pooja Batra due to prior engagements in Hollywood.

Extremely thrilled with the buzz around his debut film, he said, “Being in Mumbai, one feels the buzz and euphoria around the release. I am excited  and curious to see how the audience will react to this film and the character portrayed by me. Hope our hard work pays off.”

He recently had a co-star role in the hit American TV show Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders in which he worked with the famous Hollywood actor Gary Sinise. He has worked with famous artists like singer songwriter Zayn Malik and Miley Cyrus. Dhruv has done various commercials for Samsung, Cisco, Kingfisher, Comcast, and Experian etc. He has also acted in various short films and webseries like Black, White & Violet, Void ans German series Private Detective and Sobe :role to name a few.

Dhruv won the hearts of his viewers in his theatrical hit play “Pain is Temporary” and the music video “Light” by Faculty. Pain is temporary is a very touching portrayal of the life and the struggles that the character goes through. Dhruv has done complete justice to the role. He has acted so well that it brings tears watching his performance. Pain is temporary is likely to be made into a Hollywood movie starring Dhruv in the lead. It was the Youtube video of this play that got him the role of Ronnie Bhanot in Mirror Game.

Dhruv Bali went to Penn State University, and University of San Francisco in USA to study Economics and Theatre and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He then moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream to be an actor. He is a trained professional actor/model and has been trained under various acting coaches known for their work such as Doug Warhit and Ivana Chubbuck.

When asked about his most memorable assignment, Dhruv went on to say, “I was compared to Zayn Malik, the former member of the British boy-band One Direction and we both shared the stage where we went Zoolander.’’ This event known as the One Direction Day which lasted for one whole day was aired live and was viewed by 1,726,926 viewers on YouTube. This event featured guest appearances by famous personalities such as Robbie Williams, Simon Cowell, Celine Dion to name a few.

Dhruv Bali is also a fitness freak. He maintains a 3 hour workout schedule at the gym every day after work and that is what keeps him going. Hardcore sessions in the gym help him stay dedicated and focused after long days of work.

Esha Gupta appeals to Narendra Modi to ban tobbaco

Esha inagurated the No tobbaco day campaign hosted by the CPA  last week. When the memebers of CPA shared that there are more than 2,500 lives lost due to cancer everyday and more than 300 crore rupees lost in treating and fighting the cancer

She appealed to the Prime minister to ban the sale of Tobbaco in our country. She shared that it will be for the greater good of the common man, their families and people around them at large.

She concluded by saying - If they can ban beef why not Tobbaco to save lives?

Juhi Chawla & Divya Dutta awarded for Chalk n Duster

Juhi Chawla won the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy award for best actress female for her stellar performance in the film Chalk N Duster. 

"I am really honoured to be among versatile film personalities with whom I have worked all these years. Chalk N Duster is very close to me. The subject of the film was very interesting. I am very pleased to receive this award, it is a very big honour. I had won two years back for Gulaab Gang, and both these performances have been my personal favourite. I am so glad that I received the award for these two films. I cannot thank enough," Juhi said while receiving the award.

Earlier this year, Divya Dutta too won the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation award for best actor in a negative role for the film. 

“This is my first ever Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation award and that too for a negative role in Chalk and Duster. It is just overwhelming,” says Divya, who earned loads of critical acclaim for her performance in Veer Zaara, Delhi-6, Heroine and Bh aag Milkha Bhaag, among others.

Released in 2016 Chalk n Duster narrates the story of commercialisation of the Indian private education system, the changing student-teacher relationship and issues faced by them.

THE 18TH EDITION OF IIFA WEEKEND & AWARDS TO TAKE PLACE IN NEW YORK

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) announced the 18^th Edition of the most spectacular celebration of Indian Cinema worldwide that will be hosted in the city of New York, from 13^th – 15^th July 2017 this year! The NEXA IIFA Awards Powered by VIVO is among the most coveted and highly anticipated award celebration that honors the very best of Indian Cinema with the highest level of achievement seen through the glamorous IIFA statuette.  

To reveal some of the exciting details about the upcoming NEXA IIFA AWARDS POWERED BY VIVO, Bollywood’s superstar Salman Khan was joined by leading ladies Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt at the official IIFA press conference in Mumbai today at Taj Lands End. Additionally, encapsulating IIFA’s aim to build bridges across cinemas, businesses, communities and nations, creating everyone’s dream: “One People. One World” a LIVE Video Conference with 5 Cities globally- New York, London, Dubai, Chicago and Houston was also held post the press conference. 

Commenting on the occasion, Salman Khan says, be “It always feels great to be a part of the IIFA Movement and I look forward to the 2017 IIFA Awards.”   

Katrina Kaif added saying, “I’m really excited and looking forward to performing at the IIFA Awards this year. It is such a great platform that not only showcases the celebration of cinema globally, but also it’s a great opportunity for us to reach out to our fans worldwide. I am excited that this year, it is happening in one of my favorite cities – New York!”

Speaking about her debut performance at IIFA, Alia Bhatt shares, “I am very excited to be a part of IIFA 2017, as this is going to be my debut at the IIFA Awards after 5 years in the industry. I am super excited that IIFA is being held in the beautiful city of New York. IIFA is all about togetherness and the celebration of the Indian cinema globally and I eagerly look forward to this celebration”. 

IIFA Rocks has always been a star-studded affair with a mélange of glitz, glamour and star power. It is a celebrated global event that has been growing each year. This year, IIFA Rocks will celebrate 25 years of A. R. Rahman in the industry. The show is set to feature a never seen before medley of musicians that includes Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri. IIFA Rocks will be hosted by the charismatic duo Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul.

The highly anticipated NEXA IIFA Awards Powered by VIVO will witness stunning performances from Bollywood megastars such as Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Shahid Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon, to name a few. The host for NEXA IIFA Awards Powered by Vivo is the talented Karan Johar.

The International Indian Film Academy recently announced the list of winners in the Technical categories of India’s most prominent awards celebration. Leading films Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Pink, Fan, Sultan, Kapoor & Sons, Mirzya and Sultan took home the prestigious IIFA Statuette as they were awarded for their excellence in the technical field.

The popular category nominations are available for the global audience to participate in the voting process. The IIFA Global Voting went LIVE on 20th May 2017 and will be open till 18th June 2017.  The final winners of the IIFA Awards are revealed on the night of the Awards ceremony. The results are surrounded by secrecy and the credibility of the voting process is one of the key parameters of this prestigious award.

Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd, known for pioneering many extravagant and mesmerizing events in India and across the world, conceptualized IIFA 17 years ago, by the creative genius of the trio of masterminds - Andre Timmins, Viraf Sarkari and Sabbas Joseph. The vision was to celebrate Indian cinema outside India; and IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) the flagship brand is the accomplishment of that dream. IIFA is dedicated to building bridges across cinema, businesses, communities and nations, creating everyone’s dream: “One People. One World”. The journey over these past 17 years has seen the brand evolve from a one night affair to a weekend, which celebrates and hosts various events and activities related to cinema, business, culture, music and fashion. Hosting a variety of events during the weekend IIFA helps bring together a global community of people from all walks of life. 

Speaking on the occasion, Wiz Viraf Sarkari Director- Wizcraft International, the producers and creators of the IIFA movement, says, “It is amazing to see the excitement growing as we move closer to the biggest IIFA ever. For the first time in the Big Apple, IIFA will be a truly memorable experience for the audience with a mix of music, dance, culture and cinema. Capturing the very best of India with the use of world class production and a lineup of some of the most sought after Bollywood celebrities, IIFA promises to be a great show at the spectacular MetLife Stadium. We are grateful for all the support and cannot wait for fans to see the Bollywood extravaganza come to life in July!”

Amin Surani's Critically Acclaimed film Chalk & Duster soon on YouTube..

After making much waves in the National & International market. Chalk & Duster is now being released on youtube by the producers Surani Pictures.

The film's antagonist Divya Dutta won Dada Saheb Phalke award for her outstanding performance in Chalk & Duster. The film has garnered much appreciation from within the industry and from international audience hence the makers have decided to release the film on multiple digital platforms.

Amin Surani says, "We spoke to our actors & team and thought that this film needs to be seen by the masses as it carries a social message and it is the we believe in therefore we have decided to release this film on Youtube."  

Our sources have also confirmed that the actors of the film have also been in the loop about this conversation and have come to support the decision of Surani Pictures.