From 22 to 26 September Shabana will be joining several eminent activists from world over to head for the UN headquarters in New York to plead for food for the entire globe. These activists include the Brazilian prime minister and a Nigerian actor. Assuming her adamant activist's stance Shabana asserts, "It's very simple, really. Food needs to be put on everyone's plate. In the UN General Assembly they had promised that by 2015 they'd remove hunger from the world. They haven't even achieved 50 percent of that target. So all of us from the worldover will have just one chant. Put food on everyone’s plate." Getting more serious Shabana says, "How can we think of making progress when everyone doesn't get enough to eat? In fact people are still dying of hunger. After I finish at the UN General Assembly I'm going to Yale for a panel discussion. Finally I'll be doing a panel discussion on the BBC on India’s 60 years of independence." Shabana spends more time outside the country than she does at home these days. "In any case my home is being renovated and is in a shambles. On my birthday on 18 September all my friends were huddled together in one room in one corner of our house."

Diwali (November 8), is just 50 days away, and Kollywood is getting ready to celebrate the festival of lights. This year, fireworks are expected at the Diwali box-office, as it is going to be the biggest ever clash in recent times. Take a look at the delicacies to be served in Tamil Nadu theatres this Diwali, which is the second biggest season, after Pongal, for the audiences. In alphabetic order of the stars, the likely releases are- Ajit’s Billa, Cheran’s Piravom Sandhipom Silambarasan’s Kaalai, Surya’s Vel, Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamizh Mahan and Vikram’s Bheema. In Hollywood or even Bollywood, the first copy of these films would have been ready by now, but in Kollywood, the post production work, release schedule, and financial haggling and settlement goes on till a few hours before the release! So nobody, not even God, can predict which film will make it to the screen on the promised day.

Neha Dhupia has undergone a makeover and has lost a lot of weight. Neha has been sticking to a strict diet routine and has been sweating it out at the gym. Well it seems, all the hard work has finally paid off, as Neha is looking better than ever. Compliment her on her new look and she grins and says, "It hasn’t come easy as I am a complete foodie. Sticking to a strict diet was the toughest thing. But then when I look at myself in the mirror now, I feel it was worth the trouble." That’s not all, she has other reasons to smile as well. Lately she has been working with acclaimed actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and Boman Irani, and has also made a foray into off-beat cinema, with a film like Mithiya, which is doing the rounds at the film festival circuit. Her next release is I M 24 and she is currently working on Shivam Nair’s Chala Murari Murder Karne.

Blessy's Kolkotta News shooting is now going on in Kochi. The film due for Onam was postponed to Ramzan. Now it looks like it is getting delayed further, as Blessy's shoot will go on till Sep 20.
The post production work will take a month. Dileep is planning to start his new film Romeo, written and produced by Rafi Mecartin and directed by Rajasenan. Gopika is the heroine. Kolkotta News has really shaped out well and according to producer Thambi Antony, he is planning to release it on November 8, Diwali day

Mammootty has a new heroine in Renji Panikkar's Rowdram, where he plays a cop for the 25 th time in his career. Mammootty is assistant police commissioner Narendran, and newcomer Manju plays his wife. Manju is a Mallu girl from Chennai, daughter of seafood exporter Benjamin. She has passed out of the prestigious Ethiraj College and is doing her fashion technology course in Chennai. Manju was introduced to director Ranji Panikkar, by a family friend. Rowdram is an action packed police story, based on a recent happening in Kerala politics. Ranji Panikkar is one of the best chroniclers of the coalition politics in the state. The others in the cast are Sai Kumar, Lalu Alex, Vijayraghavan, Rajan.P.Dev and others. Rowdram is produced by Marikkar films and is due for release on November 29.

Asin is the complete professional in Tamil cinema. Once she commits to a film, she is 100 percent loyal and devoted to it. Remember that the actress against all odds, agreed to do producer Mohan Natarajan's Hari directed Vel, with Surya as the hero. Natarajan, a big Asin fan himself managed to pull of a coup when he signed the hit Ghajani pair again to do Vel. Asin at that time was busy doing Aamir Khan's Hindi remake of Ghajani and Kamal Hassan's Dasavatharam, and had no dates to spare. However Asin went out of her way to accommodate Vel. And now, she has completed the entire talkie portion of the film under a month, crisscrossing across Chennai, Kutralam, Munnar, Tenkasi etc. All that remains is a dream song to be shot in Switzerland, and the film will be ready for release for Diwali. Asin has now moved over to Dasavatharam, which she will complete by the month end including the pending song in the film. After that she will go back to Ghajani Hindi remake, which she should be wrapping up by January end. Meanwhile the buzz is that Asin will be signing two mega projects in Tamil with two of the biggest stars in the industry. Both the films are under the wraps, and they will be Asin's big 2008 releases!

Shahid Kapur has planned a birthday surprise for girlfriend Kareena Kapoor. He is presently in Toronto shooting for Aziz Mirza’s Lucky Charm with Vidya Balan, but is all set to return to Mumbai before schedule so that he can be a part of Kareena’s birthday celebrations. "Shahid plans to be present with Kareena and will be spending the entire day with her. Later in the evening, there will be a bash arranged by him with Bebo’s sister Karisma at the latter’s her newly-purchased seafacing apartment on Carter Road," reveals a co- actor. Our unit source informs us that, "Shahid has decided to reach Mumbai on September 20, a day before Kareena’s 27th birthday and is currently working towards completing his portions faster. Though Shahid will come back, the rest of the unit including Vidya Balan will remain in Toronto and return only during the first week of October." The co-actor also informs, "Shahid has been shopping almost everyday for his girlfriend. Kareena is a gizmo freak and Shahid has purchased a lot of them for her."

Yashraj films Chak De India has become the biggest hit of the year. The film which has completed five weeks has collected 32 crores from the domestic circuit, while it has gathered another seven crores from the international circuit. The film has also become Shahrukh's biggest collected film till date and with the tax exemption that the film has got this week have also resulted another boost in its collections. The film which was released in selected centers in the state had a good opening. It continues in major centres in Kerala in its sixth week. It was the only movie that registered hundred percent during Onam days. Chak De India is also looking to make its entry in textbooks of Business schools as a case study. Chak De team, especially SRK, and the director Shimit Amin have felt extremely proud to make such an inspirational film, as they didn’t expect that this non- formula film would have such kind of effect on the youth and inspire people in such a way. The film is another show card for SRK's crowd pulling capacity, as the film is still rated as an average hit in suburbs. The stated collections are contributed mainly by the multiplexes and the big cities where the film has become a rage and is running like anything.

Theepetty Chandran, the Mammootty starrer directed by Padmakumar in the scripts of T A Raasaq will start rolling from this November. The movie will have Mammootty in the title role of an Autodriver, who have an awful past. He is a regular visitor of every bar in Kozhikkode, and even as he serves his first peg, he changes into a different man. The film also has Innocent, Siddhiqure, Jagathy Sreekumar and Mamukoya. Manoj Pillai wields the camera for this film which is produced by Howli Pottoor.

Viji Thampi's latest film with Suresh Gopi titled Star Singer offer big specialties in the number of crew working behind it. The film which proposes to present 45 newcomers with Suresh Gopi , who will be selected after screen tests which are to be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Apart from this, the film will have five young scenarists, who will work in unison for the film. Joseph, Harikumar, Sreenath, Indrajith and Riyaz are the debutants who will launch into filmdom with Star Singer. The music department of the film will also have something new to offer. There will be five songs in the film, for which the makers have roped in five lyricists and five music directors, to work for the songs. The five lyricists who will pen each of the five songs are Gireesh Puthencherry, Shibu Chakravarthy, Yusuf Ali Kechery, Vayalar Sharath Chandra Varma and Kanesh Punoor, while the five music directors are Ouseppachan, M. Jayachandran, Alex Paul, Mohan Sithara and Deepak Dev, who are going to set music to five songs. The film is based on the growing rage of reality shows that have become chart busters in the ratings of the mini screen.

After the tremor took place in Indonesia, don't know whether the regions of Tamil Nadu sea side shook, or not but, the kodambakkam area underwent a trauma and knocked their socks off. The reason is, Prakashraj had left to Bali Islands which is near Sumatra Island to take the shooting of his 'Vellithirai' movie. Prithviraj, Gopika, director Viji and also Lakshmi Rai had also traveled along with him to that place. The dangerous earth tremor took place only when they were returning back to the hotel where they were staying after the days shoot. They were not able to drive the car too, because of the vibration which took place heavily and many had immediately stopped their vehicles here and there. After which the traffic was cleared without making much delay and then only Prakashraj, Gopika and others have returned back to their Hotel. From Tamil Nadu they have tried contacting the movie's shooting crew at once they heard the news that the earthquake had hit Indonesia. But, they were unable to reach any of their mobile phones. Because of this, there was tension and agitation for few hours in the Kollywood. And only when Prakashraj contacted Chennai from Indonesia and explained their situation over there, the tension was cooled and the confusion came to an end

Kolkata, Hrithik Roshan, the newly-appointed brand ambassador of Kolkata-based hosiery manufacturer Rupa & Co Ltd, Monday launched its new range of briefs and vests, called MacroMan M Series, and said that he can identity with the brand on a personal level. "I am excited to be associated with this collection. I can identify with the brand on a personal level, as it is everything that I am. When it comes to selecting my innerwear brand, I am very choosy and would settle for nothing less than brands which are attractive, stylish yet comfortable," said Hrithik at the launch function. "The letter 'M' to me signifies macho, mischievous and definitely male. The 'MacroMan M Series' is a brand which is all of them and certainly gives a good boost to my male ego when I wear it," added Hrithik.P.R. Agarwala, chairman Rupa & Co Ltd, said he foresaw the brand becoming a "truly global Indian brand".

No doubt, Meera Jasmine is one among the talented artists in southern cinema. But her erratic ways and irresponsible behavior have caused big problems to the Malayalam film industry in recent days. Her indiscipline and delays forced the leading commercial star of Malayalam cinema, Dileep to keep away from the Onam race. By coming 25 days late for the shoot of Blessy's Kolkata News, the film originally slated for Onam, she has caused a financial loss to the producer.It may be recalled that Blessy is the director who introduced Meera to Lohith Das that paved the way for a zooming career for her! For Kolkata News, it was Meera was who came forward and expressed her desire to do the film.It is Blessy's style of film making where before a film's actual shoot starts, the entire cast and crew assemble to hear the complete script and also do rehearsals. Without any questions, veterans like Mammootty and Mohanlal have attended Blessy's camp in the past. But Meera Jasmine refused to attend the rehearsal and said 'emotions will come only if the camera rolls on!' Added to that she had attended the shoot of Kolkata News after the delay of two weeks in Kolkata city!! The delay and indisciplined manner of the actress threw the entire schedule into disarray and the film scheduled for release for Onam was postponed. Now some indoor scenes that were planned in Kolkata are being shot in an apartment near Kochi. Yesterday when the actress was in the shoot, she suddenly retired to her caravan, and cancelled the shoot for the rest of the day as she was not in the right mood.This irritated her hero Dileep and forced him to compel the director to do something to control the actress. For the first time Dileep did not have an Onam release, due to Meera!Now the Malayalam film directors have planned to curb Meera Jasmine's waywardness, and will lodge a complaint against the actress in the Malayalam film producer's council.

Aarthi Agarwal, Tollywood.s one time .numero uno. actress is fighting for her life at Apollo hospital in Hyderabad. She is in critical condition after being admitted yesterday morning (Feb 16) and a marathon operation is being conducted on her for a severe head injury. Her family members say that the actress fell down the staircase in her house yesterday night and woke up in the morning and later fell into a coma. But many in the Telugu industry point out that Aarthi has suicidal tendencies as she had tried to commit suicide after consuming a heavy dose of sleeping pills a year back! Aarthi a New Jersey born Gujju girl was alleged to be in love with a young hero in Telugu cinema and was the number one heroine nearly two years back. But her career nosedived and she was relegated to an .item girl. and even tried her luck in Tamil which backfired. Now Aarthi is playing heroine in comedian Sunil.s Andala Ramudu.

Though he has written off the debacle, Tusshar Kapoor attributes the non-performance of Aggar at the box office to poor publicity. "Normally, the poor publicity of a film is attributed to the stars who don't give dates for the publicity. But I was more than willing to give out dates for the publicity. Those dates went perpetually to waste. Though I liked the script and Anant Mahadevanji has done justice to it, the promotion wasn't aggressive enough. And for no fault of mine. I did the promotion of Aggar on my own as much as possible. But the release came during the holy month of Ramzan and Ganesh Chaturthi and the India-Pakistan match. No one had time for Aggar." But Tusshar is upbeat. "I've Priyadarshan's Dhol coming up this week. And that should compensate for the debacle of Aggar. I had a ball working with Priyan and my co-stars Kunal Khemu, Sharman Joshi and Rajpal Yadav. I can't say I'm tired of doing these boys' comedies. That's what is working at the box office."

It's not even a week since the first look of 'Dard-E-Disco' was out and the song, especially due to 'perfect-six-abs' of Shah Rukh Khan, is already the talk of the town. Composed by Vishal-Shekhar and written by Javed Akhtar, 'Dard E Disco' is a 'jump-on-the-dance-floor' number which has a Persian touch to it even as overall feel of the song stays on to be Western.
"I am thrilled with the kind of reactions the song is fetching. As the teaser suggests, this is my way of re-introducing Shah Rukh Khan", quips Farah Khan, director of this year's most awaited film Om Shanti Om. Re-introduction it certainly is, considering the fact that after 'Kaal Dhamaal' [Kaal] where he danced in designer sleeveless vests with Malaika Arora, Shah Rukh Khan has shed his inhibitions further and gone the Monty route, even if it is only half the way!
"Well, full credit to Shah Rukh for attempting something like this which showcases him in an altogether different 'avtaar'", talks Farah fondly for her superstar friend, "The idea was to give him a much leaner look, while refraining from making it all look artificial."

Esha Deol has finally done it! With Darling, she has proved that there is more to her than a va-va-voom body and an impressive lineage. Playing the unconventional role of a ghost, Esha has silenced her critics and sceptics alike. With huge films like Dhoom-3, No Entry-II and Yavarum Nalam, a bilingual opposite Kollywood chocolate boy Madhavan, in her kitty, Esha is riding high.