Watch Video: 3 Idiots Sweeps IIFA Awards

'3 Idiots' that created history by becoming one of the most successful films in Hindi cinema walked away with 11 trophies at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards that concluded in Colombo with a flourish early on June 6, being declared the Best Film, while the Best Director award went to Rajkumar Hirani and the Best Actress award to Kareena Kapoor for the same movie.

Kareena shared the award with Vidya Balan, who was honoured for perfectly portraying the role in 'Paa' of a single mother whose son is suffering from progeria.

Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood's affable Munnabhai, walked away with the Best Comic Actor trophy for his rib-tickling performance in 'All The Best', while Boman Irani received the Best Actor in A Negative Role honour for his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor in '3 Idiots'.

Sharman Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend in '3 Idiots', won the Best Supporting Actor award, while Divya Dutta received Best Supporting Actress honour for her performance in 'Delhi 6'.

In the special award category, well-known Hindi filmmaker J. Omprakash and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's maternal grandfather, who made films like 'Aap Ki Kasam' (1974) , 'Aasha' (1980) and 'Aas Paas' (1981), was honoured for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who made his mark in the international arena with British filmmaker Danny Boyle's multiple award winning rags-to-riches drama 'Slumdog Millionaire', was honoured for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema. And yesteryears glamour girl Zeenat Aman was honoured for Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema.

While Bollywood heart throb Salman Khan was given the Habitat for Humanity award, his not-so-good friend Vivek Oberoi, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasongs ever since he arrived for the IIFA awards, was honoured with the Panasonic Global Green award.

Pritam Chakraborty won the Best Music Director Award for composing lilting numbers for 'Love Aaj Kal' and Swanand Kirkire bagged the Best Lyrics Award for the super-hit movie '3 Idiots'.

In the playback singing category, the Best Female Playback Singer award went to Kavita Seth for crooning 'Ik tara' in 'Wake Up Sid' and the Best Male Playback Singer Award went to Shaan for the hit number 'Behti hawa sa thaa wo' in '3 Idiots'.

Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez, who made her Bollywood debut with 'Aladin', was declared Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female). Apart from Jacqueline, Mahi Gill, who played the modern age Paro in Anurag Kashap's new interpretation of 'Devdas' titled "Dev D", too bagged the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female) award.

'3 Idiots' fame Omi Vadiya, who had people rolling in the aisles with his antics in the super-hit movie, received the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Male) award along with Jackie Bhagnani - the young actor who made his debut with the not-so-successful movie 'Kal Kissne Dekha'.

Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra received the Best Story Award for penning the interesting tale of '3 Idiots'.

'3 Idiots' baggged the maximum technical awards. The film won the Best Sound Recording Award for Nihar Ranjan Samal and Sachin K. Sanghvi. The Best Sound Re-recording went to Anup Dev, the Best Song Recording Award went to Sachin K. Sanghvi, the Best Background Score Award went to Sanjay Wandrekar, Atul Raninga and Shantanu Moitra, while C.K. Muraleedharan received the Best Cinematography Award for '3 Idiots'.

Bosco Caesar won the Best Choreography Award for directing popular dance moves in 'Love Aaj Kal', the Best Costume Design Awrard went to Anahita Shroff and Dolly Ahluwalia for the same film, which had Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.

Sabu Cyril won the Best Art Direction Award and Charles Darby won Best Special Effects (Visual) Award for Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Aladin'.

For designing mindblowing action sequecnes in the crime thriller 'Kaminey', Shyam Kaushal was honoured with the Best Action Award and the Best Makeup Award went to the international make-up artists Christien Tinsley & Dominie Till for giving a progeria patient look to Amitabh in 'Paa'.

Sanju Declared The Best Comic Actor at IIFA

Colombo, June 6 (IANS) Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood's affable Munnabhai, walked away with the Best Comic Actor trophy for his rib-tickling performance in "All The Best", while Boman Irani received the Best Actor in Negative Role honour for his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor in "3 Idiots" at the International Indian Film Academy Awards here.

Sharman Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend in "3 Idiots", won the Best Supporting Actor Award, while Divya Dutta received Best Supporting Actress honour for her performance in "Delhi 6".

In the special award category, well-known Hindi filmmaker J. Omprakash and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's maternal grandfather, who made films like "Aap Ki Kasam" (1974) , "Aasha" (1980) and "Aas Paas" (1981), was honoured for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who made his mark in the international arena with British filmmaker Danny Boyle's multiple award winning rags-to-riches drama "Slumdog Millionaire", was honoured for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema.

Bollywood heart throb Slaman Khan was given the Habitat for Humanity Award.

Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra received the Best Story Award for penning the interesting tale of "3 Idiots".

Bollywood Top 10 Celebrities in 2008 Google Searches

Google Zeitgeist 2008 has been released and this includes the list of top 10 bollywood celebrities that the Indian people are searching through google. Google is the world’s most popluar and widely used search engines. The top 10 rankings are infact an indication of the popularity of these Indian celebrities among the internet using community in India.To generalize, this could be taken as the list of favourite bollywood celebrities among the rich and upper middle class society in India.

Top 10 Bollywood celebrities:

Here goes the list:

• katrina kaif
• Aishwarya rai
• Salman khan
• Hrithik roshan
• Kareena kapoor
• Shahid kapur
• Deepika padukone
• Shahrukh khan
• Mallika sherawat
• Genelia d souza

Katrina Kaif was the undisputed No.1 and her name infact figures at No.3 in the ‘Fast Rising Searches’ category and at No.10 in the ‘Most Popular Searches’ category. In fact she is the only human to feature in the Top 10 ‘Most Popular Searches’ category which otherwise features keywords as diverse as orkut, gmail, Yahoo, Google, youtube, Yahoomail, indian railways, rediff, and cricket.

Aishwarya rai continues to remain popular among the Indian cyber crowd. This aging beauty is already a legendry Indian lady and bollywood celebrity. Salman khan is another aging male celebrity who continues to attract the cyber ladies and men in India. Shah rukh khan , surprisingly figures at a low No.8.

Though Kareena Kapoor has gained popularity in 2008 for all known reasons, Saif Ali khan fails to enter the top 10 list.But Kareena’s ex boy friend shahid kapur figures at No.6. Deepika Padukone is still no match for Aishwarya Rai. The young lady who was compared with Aishwarya rai, during her bollywood entry has a long way to go before she could get as attractive as Aishwarya. Infact, she may never experience the kind of popularity that Aishwarya enjoys.

Mallika sherawat, the glam doll of bollywood is at No.9. The Indian sex queen seem to have lost a bit of her search popularity.However, the biggest surprise among the top 10 is Genelia d souza.

Though she is only ranked No.10, She is making great progress as a searchable bollywood celebrity. Genelia d souza has been around for a few years now in Kollywood and tollywood.However, this charming young lady seem to be gaining considerable momentum in her popularity, ever since she entered bollywood recently.

Congragulations to the top 10 cyber queens and kings from bollywood

Akshay Khanna is no Hurry to Get Married

shay Khanna, bollywood actor, is one of the most eligible bachelors in Hindi (bollywood) film industry.However Akshay Khanna is still not in the mood to get married.

Akshay Khanna has acted well in his latest bollywood flick, “Mere Baap Pehele Aap”.Though he sounded to be a non-believer in the custom of marriage, he did not completely rule out getting married.

“I have decided not to get married,” he joked recently, but then, keeping the hopes of Akshay lovers alive, he said, “as of now, I have not decided on marriage. I don’t see myself getting married soon. Frankly, I am not in love with the very concept of getting married. But, that’s for now. Maybe that would change with time. For marriage, meeting the right person is very important and that has not happened with me so far, nor am I looking forward to that either. When it has to happen, it will happen.”

Latin Pop Singer Shakira Entered in Bollywood

Bollywood seems to be attracting musicians from abroad.

Samantha Fox did it in Rock Dancer in 1995. Kylie Minogue did it in Blue. Akon will be seen soon in Ra.One and now you can add one more name to the list of Western artists making appearances in Bollywood. The latest is the Waka Waka sexy singer Shakira who is all ready to shake her famous hips in B-Town.

Shakira is no stranger to India. She had performed live in Mumbai and other cities back in 2007. She also has repeatedly expressed her desire to be a part of Bollywood.

Bollywood famous musician Salim & Sulaiman who are currently enjoying fame and adulation for their composition for the World Cup opening ceremony will be composing the track for Shakira. And if the buzz is correct we will see Shakira shake those adored hips for a cabaret song.

According to the song will be shot on South African Playboy queen & model Candice Boucher for the film featuring the IPL owner and entrepreneur Sachin Joshi. The film is expected to be recorded in the next couple of months.The lyrics would be in English with a smattering of simple Hindi.

The film will be shot in Germany, Prague, Morocco and China. Percept Pictures are looking to release the film in the summer of 2011.

Salim has confirmed the news. 'It would be a very sensuous, cabaret kind of a song,' the website reported him as saying.

Salim-Sulaiman to Perform at FIFA World Cup

Indian music composers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant, who collaborated with South African singers Loyiso Bala and Eric Wainaina to record the anthem for FIFA World Cup 2010, will perform at the opening and closing ceremonies of the football event.

"It’s definitely an honour to get the opportunity to perform at such a huge platform. In fact, besides this anthem, we are also going to sing our song 'Shukran allah' from 'Kurbaan' with Loyiso and Eric. Music knows no boundaries," said a delighted Salim.

Later the duo will also perform for the fund raising concert for Nelson Mandela Foundation, a trust that is actively working towards providing medical assistance for corrective surgery of cleft lip and palate.

The opening ceremony of the football World Cup will be held June 10 at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Indo-Asian News Service

"Kites" May Open Global Skies for Indian Movies

Set for simultaneous release Friday on over 2, 000 screens worldwide, including 200 in North America, "Kites", starring Hrithik Roshan and Mexican star Barbara Mori, may well open the global movie market to Indian films.

"If 'Kites' does even five percent well of what we have thought, well, we have opened the door, not for me and my film, but for many young filmmakers in India, " producer Rakesh Roshan - and Hritik's father - told in an phone interview from New York.

"They have good ideas, but they are not as good as producers because they are scared that 'No, no, this will not work', " he said. "So once you have a bigger territory globally and have an audience to see it, then you can take a chance to make a film like that. "

Shot completely on location in Las Vegas, Sante Fe and Los Angeles, a re-worked English language version of "Kites", presented by A-list Hollywood director Brett Ratner, will open in several major markets for the Memorial Day holiday weekend beginning May 28.

Ratner, who offered to re-edit the English version of the film to attune it "to US sensibilities" after watching the print after a casual dinner conversation at his house in Los Angeles, "made the film a little crispier, a littler racier and a little faster", said Roshan.

He said it was all his idea to cast Barbara Mori, "a very good actor, a very fine looking girl, a very stunning looking girl" after watching "My Brother's Wife", a Mexican film that he "loved very intensely".

So director Anurag Basu and Rakesh Roshan went to Los Angeles to meet her. "She was very excited about the script and the screenplay. And then she was there in the film, " said Roshan, who thinks she's par excellence.

Casting Barbara was no gimmick for Rakesh Roshan. He would not comment on "those films" where foreign actresses were just one of the characters. "But here my leading lady is the main protagonist of the film. Getting some girls and some character actors in one reel or two scenes will not really make a difference. "

He also dismissed the controversy about some explicit footage in the English version of the film in Indian media. "No, there is nothing. When I told them there is no topless scene, they printed one photograph of a backless scene, " Roshan said. "A backless and a topless scene are two different visions absolutely. "

So how did he think of "Kites"? To make a film to release globally "I thought the best story to pick up is a love story. And when kites fly they don't know who is holding the string - an Indian, an American or a Mexican".

The Mexican kite girl and the Indian boy "don't speak each other's language and still they fall in love and we show that language is no barrier. Love has no language".

Roshan thinks "Kites" will do well among non-Indian audiences too. "My gut feeling is that whenever you go out in a different path and make a film and make it honestly and put your heart and soul in it, audiences do accept it. "

With many Bollywood films tackling unusual subjects, Roshan thinks Indian audiences have "grown up". "What has happened till now is that most of the filmmakers underestimated the audience. They feel, 'No, they will not understand'. But I feel today's generation is far ahead than what we think. "

Roshan, who has for once handed over the directorial reins of a film starring his son to another director, said: "It just happened on the spur of the moment. "

He liked Basu's "Gangster" and wanted him to make a film with Hrithik.

Basu thought Rakesh Roshan was joking when he asked him to direct the movie "because I have nothing to prove. The only thing is we have to make a good film for Hrithik. It's my banner. So either I direct it or you direct it. "

And does he see Hrithik crossing over to Hollywood? "I haven't made this film to launch him in Hollywood. I have made the film to show the global world how good an actor he is, " Roshan said.

"And if a good character or a good role comes to him by a good director.... doing an Indian film or doing a Hollywood film is one and the same thing. "

The Best Comic Actor Declared at IIFA is Sanjoy Dutta

Colombo, June 6 (IANS) Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood's affable Munnabhai, walked away with the Best Comic Actor trophy for his rib-tickling performance in "All The Best", while Boman Irani received the Best Actor in Negative Role honour for his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor in "3 Idiots" at the International Indian Film Academy Awards here.

Sharman Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend in "3 Idiots", won the Best Supporting Actor Award, while Divya Dutta received Best Supporting Actress honour for her performance in "Delhi 6".

In the special award category, well-known Hindi filmmaker J. Omprakash and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's maternal grandfather, who made films like "Aap Ki Kasam" (1974) , "Aasha" (1980) and "Aas Paas" (1981), was honoured for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who made his mark in the international arena with British filmmaker Danny Boyle's multiple award winning rags-to-riches drama "Slumdog Millionaire", was honoured for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema.

Bollywood heart throb Slaman Khan was given the Habitat for Humanity Award.

Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra received the Best Story Award for penning the interesting tale of "3 Idiots".

Bollywood Superstar Katrina Tired of Gymming!

Guess what? Looks like Katrina Kaif has had enough of kasratbaazi while shooting for Tees Maar Khan, says Rapchik Rajni as she sashays her way into my study. What now, I wonder and she says that the adakaara has stopped working out every day at the gym, lately.

Kyun? Kyunki, she was tired of the strict diet and exercise regime she had to follow because her character in the Farah Khan movie demanded a certain kinda look. But now that the shoot has wrapped up, Kat, who hates doing regular workout, has cut down her visits to the gym to just twice a week, Rajni informs.

According to her, Kat's mantra for her gorgeous looks is to follow a proper diet and the right kind of lifestyle, and not going overboard with exercising. Chalo, good for her.

Salman Khan and Sanjoy Datta Hand-to-hand Combat

Salman Khan in Dabangg and Sanjay Dutt in Knock Out, both actors will be seen in hand-to-hand combat with their adversaries in the climax of their films

Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt are racing towards the release of their action dramas at around the same time. While in Abhinav Kashyap's Dabangg Salman does some of the most intense action scenes of his life, Sanjay Dutt has pulled out all stops in Knock Out with action scenes that are bone-breaking real.

Interestingly, the climax of both Dabangg and Knock Out show Salman and Sanjay locked in a hand-to-hand combat with their adversary.

While in Dabangg, Khan fights Sonu Sood, in Knock Out Dutt is locked in a photo-finish fight with the British choreographer Joey Ansah who directed stunts for Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum. Initially Ansah was only supposed to direct the climax.

Bash like Bourne
Says a source, "Sanju Baba wanted the fight to be as hard-hitting and real as the one between Matt Damon and Joey Ansah in The Bourne Ultimatum. So he suggested to director Mani Shankar that the adversary fighter in the climax should be Ansah himself."

Almost 18 kilos lighter, Dutt has done the most intricate wrist-supported somersault-in-the-air seen in Indian cinema in Knock Out. Ansah has also smashed empty bottles on Dutt's head.

Breaking bottles
Says the director, "Sanju insisted on letting Joey Ansah break bottles on his head. We had ordered special bottles made of brittle glass from Los Angeles but still it was very painful."

So whose hand-to-hand combat would have that optimum impact? Salman's or Sanju's? Wait and watch.

FACT Abhishek Bachchan too has a bloodied hand-to-hand combat with Southern star Vikram in Mani Ratnam's Raavan.