'Dancing will always come first'
After Rowdy Rathore, director, dancer and actor Prabhu Deva is hot property in Bollywood. He's occasionally been referred to as India's answer to Michael Jackson but he dismisses such comparisons. In fact, he holds him in such high regard that for Prabhu, meeting Michael Jackson in Mumbai in 1995 was a dream come true.
Prabhu Deva has gone far beyond simply flaunting his moves on the screen, however. He has launched the Prabhu Deva Dance Academy in Singapore. He had plans for another school in India, but his busy schedule hasn't allowed it yet. "I hardly get the time to visit the Singapore school. So, I don't want to start one here unless I am able to devote time to it," he explains.
What's next? Apparently, a music album's in the pipeline. "It'll be called Bore Da," says Prabhu, who has recorded one song. He wants the album to have five songs but still hasn't had time to record them.
Doing Bollywood projects doesn't mean Prabhu Deva will ignore Tamil or Telugu cinema. "Whenever there is work here, I'll be back," he says. After working as a director, choreographer, actor and even a singer, will he try his hand at being a producer? "Never," says Deva, firmly. And even though he's focussing on directing for the time being, he says his priorities are clear: "Dancing and choreographing will always come first."
Katrina: Bollywood's best item girl?
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif's supposed relationship has long been the talk of the town — tinsel town, in particular.
But despite the fact that there have been rumours of some bad blood between them, the stars are prepared to set the wagging tongues at rest and prove that they are nothing but the best of friends.
This has already been proved when Katrina agreed to do a brief item number for Salman's mega-hit, 'Bodyguard'.
And now that they are looking forward to a flick which is touted to be the year's biggest hit — Ek Tha Tiger — Salman can't seem to stop singing
Katrina's praises.
Recently, Katrina was asked whether she was okay with being labelled one of Bollywood's 'item girls'.
After all, other than her song in Bodyguard, she has been raising eyebrows — and provoking nods of approval — with her daring and energetic act in Agneepath's item number, Chikni Chameli. But when asked about the tag which came with the success, Salman immediately rushed to the his leading lady's defence.
"It's a favour that she (Katrina) does for her friends," he explains. "Karan Johar is her friend, so she did that song in his film. And it wasn't Hrithik's hard work or Sanjay Dutt's charm that won the film accolades — it was all because of Katrina," he adds.
"Yeh toh inka badappan hai, itna bada dil hai inka (this is her maturity, she has such a large heart) that she agrees — who does it these days! Even for 'Bodyguard', we requested her to do a small number and she made it a hit," Salman continues.
Faced by such wholesome praise, Katrina couldn't help but get embarrassed. In fact, she muttered, "You're going to get me in trouble, Salman."
A world of deceit
Honest and diligent police inspector, Amar, lives a middle-class lifestyle in Mumbai. In his attempt to arrest the bandit Sher Singh, he and his colleague, inspector Dayal, are attacked. Amar survives but Dayal's legs are crushed in the encounter and he is bound to a wheelchair. Amar subsequently tries to arrest a local politician, but is reprimanded for this and decides to resign.
After this, Sher Singh hijacks a bus and Dayal's granddaughter, Seema, is among the hostages. Dayal asks Amar for help, and he does so, along with Qasam Ali and Karan — an ex-convict and a drug-dealer respectively. Differences crop up between the three and Amar soon realises that his two friends have hatched a plan to help Sher Singh's men escape jail. Will he able to stop them? Tune in to Loha on Zee Cinema at 9 pm on July 19. The movie stars Dharmendra.
A trip to the theatres
Bol Bachchan may be raking in the moolah at the box office, but the film's director Rohit Shetty and actor Abhishek Bachchan wanted to witness this success for themselves — they recently visited a few theatres in Mumbai to gauge the audience's reaction to their newly-released comic caper.
While they were there, they even spent some time interacting with the audience at the various theatres. As per the sources, Rohit Shetty and Abhishek were overwhelmed with the tremendous response they got from the audience, as all the shows were running house full. The audiences couldn't believe this surprise visit of the stars and were seen absolutely thrilled by it.
'Manish is a good director'
Harsh Rajput, one of the actor's of the Manish Manikpuri-directed film Aalaap, is riding high on the role he got to play in the film. "I am playing one of the lead characters called Brijesh, an upper middle class boy from Chhattisgarh. He is an aimless boy, in the company of two other boys who are also spoilt alcoholics like him," explains the actor.
Considering that this was the first time he had visited Chhattisgarh — where the film was shot — he admits that the entire experience was a wonderful one. And he has nothing but praises for debutant director Manish. "Manish is a very good director, you can hardly make out that Aalaap is his first movie. He is never confused; he just knows what he wants. He has very clear about things around him," he insists.
His relations with his other co-stars were amiable as well. "We were like friends working together. And there are veterans as well like Abhimanyu Singh, Murali Sharma, Vijay Raaz and Rituparna Sengupta. You see, when you are work with such senior artistes, you evolve as a better actor as you are already going through a learning period. A little creative input from them beautifies the scene. It has been a big learning process for me," beams Harsh.