Sonu Nigam heading to online to be closer with his fans

Saying that internet is the future of entertainment, popular Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam has entered into a partnership with media and software company Cinsay to bring the star closer to his fans and consumers in the United States.

‘The Internet is clearly the future of entertainment, and I am very excited to be collaborating and working with such a progressive team as Cinsay,’ said Sonu Nigam announcing the partnership in New York City Tuesday.

‘In addition to creating original content which will help my fans see me in different situations than they are used to, Cinsay and I are working together to create a line of apparel and merchandise which reflects my passion for performing. I hope fans around the world will enjoy these new designs.’

In conjunction with Sonu Nigam’s latest US concert tour Explosion 2009, the content-to-commerce partnership enables Cinsay to bring access to exclusive performance, rehearsal and behind-the-scenes video footage, music videos and branded consumer products, including new clothing and merchandise line, to fans in the US and elsewhere.

The concert tour takes him to Washington, DC, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Houston, Oakland, Denver and Orlando. The footage and the merchandise line will be available at http://www.cinsay.com/sonu.

The collaboration was facilitated by Music is Nirvana, a leading content aggregator of South Asian music and movies in the US.

As part of its joint venture with Cinsay, Music Is Nirvana will bring on board more South Asian talent to create music portals and merchandising opportunities.

‘The time has come for a huge explosion of Bollywood entertainment and merchandise to hit the US, thanks to the success of films like ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ and stars like Sonu already have tremendous fan bases throughout the world,’ Matthew Papish, president and chief executive Officer of Cinsay

‘We are pleased to be working with Sonu to help bring his talent and passion to existing fans, as well as an entirely new audience through Cinsay’s hugly popular enterprise software platform ‘content-to-commerce’ and vast digital network,’ he said.

‘We are very committed to promoting South Asian talent on various platforms across America. With our partnership with Cinsay, we are very excited to promote Sonu’s merchandise and content and plan to sign on more leading artists,’ said Nick Rajsakha, CEO of Music Is Nivana.(IANS)

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Arnold Schwarzenegger invites ‘detained’ Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan to dinner

The actor turned politician has offered to meet Shah Rukh Khan on September 20 in Washington in a bid to diffuse what has become a slight diplomatic row.

Khan, 43, who is considered to be one of the icons of Indian cinema, was held up for almost two hours after falling foul of US border officials in a New York airport at the weekend.

Officials from the US Embassy in Delhi were asked by the Indian government to explain why the film-star was held for so long.

The actor, who has featured on Time Magazine’s ’50 Most Influential People’ list, was said to have found his experience at Newark Airport ’embarrassing’.

However, it is not clear whether the actor will accept the invitation.

Khan has recently signed a £125 million deal with Fox-Searchlight in the US to distribute his latest movie.

Ironically named ‘My Name is Khan’, the film charts racial tensions in the US following the 9/11 terror attacks.

Arriving back home to his Mumbai home, the star explained how the experience four days earlier had affected him.

“I am scared of authorities and rules, so I try to follow the rules of the country I travel to,” he said.

“Whenever I am in America, I have to report at least two hours in advance while travelling within the country for security reasons – they ask me to take off my clothes and shoes, and I do that. “But I never experienced this kind of treatment.”

Khan denied that the detention drama was a publicity stunt for his forthcoming movie: “I don’t think that I need publicity.”

“If you want to give a tit-for-tat policy to American actors, then call me to frisk Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox whenever they are visiting India,” he added.(Telegraph)

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Steven Spielberg’s Bollywood-Hollywood Deal Finalized

Steven Spielberg has finalized the $825 million funding deal of the Bollywood-Hollywood pact he signed with India’s Reliance on Monday.

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group chairman, Anil Dhirubhai, funded $325 million in equity for the new DreamWorks Studios operated by principal partners Spielberg and Stacey Snider following more than a year of financial alliance.

The studios will make up to 21 movies over the next four years.

DreamWorks will keep the creative control over productions, while Walt Disney Company will handle distribution and marketing for the films internationally, except in India, where Reliance will remain the distributor.

The new deal was welcomed by acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, who said that the pact signaled India’s emergence as a rising force in Hollywood. He added that although Hollywood has the creative control in the productions of films in the deal, it would still showcase and stretch India’s global presence.

He argued that Indo-Americans would also like to see more Bollywood-Hollywood agreements, wherein Bollywood would have creative control over the films.(CNS)

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An interesting report on Shah Rukh Khan’s dentention in USA

Hello SunoMusic User’s,

Here is interesting piece on recent Shah Rukh’s tryst with American police reported by Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio’s famous  Talk Show Host – Mark Colvin

MARK COLVIN: Fans of one of India’s best-known Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan have taken to the streets after US airport officials detained the actor for more than an hour.

He’s known in India and Pakistan as the “King of Bollywood” or just by his initials SRK.

But at a New Jersey airport immigration officials just saw Shah Rukh Khan as a potential threat because his name came up on a computer watch list.

His fans have been protesting and burning the American flag. Some are accusing US airport officials of targeting him because he’s a Muslim.

Carly Laird prepared this report.

(Sound of protest)

CARLY LAIRD: There was outrage on the streets of New Delhi over the weekend as the news broke that one of India’s biggest Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan had been detained in the United States.

INDIAN NEWS READER: Shah Rukh Khan has suffered deep humiliation at the hands of agents at a United States airport; in fact at the Newark airport in New Jersey. Shah Rukh Khan was detained at the Newark airport for two whole hours while he was in transit…

CARLY LAIRD: US officials confirmed they had questioned the actor but said it was a normal procedure for anyone requesting permission into the country.

They also said the claims he’d been held for two hours were wrong; that it was only for 66 minutes and even that delay was because his baggage had not arrived on the same flight as he did.

Nevertheless Shah Rukh Khan told CNN he was not impressed with the way he was treated.

SHAH RUKH KHAN: It wasn’t pleasant or nice but I also do respect the fact that it’s meant to be a procedure which needs to be followed if you want to enter America.

I understand a country has to be really careful, specifically you know with the things that have happened. But if it takes so long – and it’s not that I don’t have time and I’m anyone important – but I always got the feeling that it would be quite disturbing for people who don’t have access to resources that maybe I have.

And they kept telling me that you know it’s because your name is common and I was too polite to ask common to what?

And although he didn’t mention the incident when he appeared at the South Asian Carnival in Texas overnight, it was on the minds of some of his fans.

FAN: I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s crazy because he’s such a big star and how could you mistake him for someone else? It’s kind of racist at the same time too.

FAN 2: What is the difference between Americans and Asian people? I think we are the same people. We are the same. I mean we eat food, we drink same water, and we have to respect each other.

FAN 3: I feel that the Americans do not respect the religion of the Indians and I don’t think that they respect the people. I really feel terrible about it. I’m very scandalised. And I’m an American.

CARLY LAIRD: Another Bollywood star, Priyanka Chopra, agrees.

PRIYANKA CHOPRA: It’s something that I feel terrible about. Shah Rukh Khan is probably one of the greatest, most famous known Indian celebrities ever in this generation. And without a reason I think it is unfortunate. It’s shocking and it’s very disgraceful.

CARLY LAIRD: There was similar uproar in India only a few weeks ago when the former president Abdul Kalam was frisked before boarding a flight to the US.

The Indian Information Minister Ambika Soni says the Government is considering introducing similar measures to India’s airports and searching visiting Americans.

AMBIKA SONI: Somebody will be again and again causing hurt to us as a nation then I think our Government should put in some kind of reciprocal arrangements.

CARLY LAIRD: The US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer issued a statement saying that Shah Rukh Khan was always welcome in the US and many Americans love his films.

But the Bollywood actor thinks the US needs to be more welcoming.

SHAH RUKH KHAN: I mean I think this procedural thing needs to be finetuned and if it’s a country as advanced as America is, and with respect to the security issues they have, I think they need to just fine tune it so that it’s better for normal people to come across.

Everybody loves coming to America, everybody loves what America has to offer but I think it needs to offer a little more warmth and speed in its processes.

CARLY LAIRD: One of the reasons he was visiting the United States was to promote his new film called My Name is Khan. The film looks at issues surrounding racial profiling.

MARK COLVIN: Carly Laird.

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From Hollywood Babylon To ‘Bollywood Hero’

The Oscar-winning surprise hit Slumdog Millionaire was directed by a Brit, sure, but it was shot and set in Mumbai, India — and with its exuberant score and its tense plotting, it turned many Americans on to the flash and dazzle of Bollywood-style movies.

Hoping to capitalize on the resulting interest, television’s Independent Film Channel is premiering a three-night miniseries event called Bollywood Hero. Saturday Night Live veteran Chris Kattan, playing a fictionalized version of himself in the title role, leaves Hollywood for the Hindi-language movie capital because he’s offered his first chance to be a leading man.

Kattan says he jumped at the opportunity to do Bollywood Hero because Indian movies make him remember why he wanted to be a film actor.

“I had that dream of wanting to be in the movies that we used to make,” Kattan says. “You know, those great MGM musicals and those great action films, when movies were an escape and really, really, pure entertainment. Bollywood makes those kinds of films.”

In what might be a nod to his own frustrations, Kattan plays an actor who wants to break out of comedic roles, but who can’t get anyone in Hollywood to take him seriously. In the first installment, in fact, Kattan’s L.A. agent tells him he’s lucky to be getting cast as “the second male alien lead on a budding cable network TV show.” So when Kattan meets an Indian director and gets offered a role as a leading man in a Bollywood production called Peculiar Dancing Boy, he takes it.

A Movie Town Richer (And More Beloved) Than Hollywood

Kattan-the-character is surprised when he arrives in India and discovers a sophisticated industry; his director (Ali Fazal) takes him on a tour of a Bollywood studio, and Kattan is amazed at its size. Then the director mentions, gloatingly, that when Steven Spielberg needed financing for his latest deal, he came to India.

“This is in fact accurate,” says Temple University Professor Priya Joshi, who’s working on a book about Indian cinema. She says $500 million of Indian money was just poured into a DreamWorks joint venture.

But Indian cinema brings more to the table than money. It’s a moviemaking style that’s extremely popular around the world. Every year, more people buy tickets for Indian films than American movies.

Most American audiences are traditionally cool about foreign movies. But IFC executive Debbie DeMontro, who greenlit Bollywood Hero, thinks Americans will enjoy the series because it mixes a little West with its East.

“You are telling it through the eyes of an American character who American audiences are very familiar with,” DeMontro says. “I think it’s a really nice mix of an American story and an introduction to a different type of cinema.”

Even the big glitzy dance numbers mix East and West. In real life, Kattan struggled to learn how to do Indian dance — and that found its way into the plot of Bollywood Hero. When he finally gets the choreography down, he sets out to impress a Bollywood starlet, played by real-life Indian cinema goddess Neha Dhupia. He asks her to dance — and suddenly the two of them are decked out in bejeweled costumes, surrounded by a dozen dancers. That wouldn’t be out of place in a Bollywood hit, but here the music has a distinctly Western disco flavor.

oshi says she expects we’ll see more Indian-influenced movies in the U.S. But she worries, at the same time, that Americans are missing part of what makes Indian movies great.

“Some of us Western viewers, perhaps most, look at [Indian] cinema and say it’s the cinema of energy, it’s a cinema that’s very dynamic, it’s a cinema of song and dance,” she says.

But the lyrics are worth paying attention to as well, she says. They’re often written by respected poets, and they take on issues like class, poverty and politics — even topics as touchy as domestic terrorism.

“The songs and dances are a way of bringing to that frame certain political concerns that couldn’t be talked about otherwise,” Joshi says.

And that, unfortunately, is one part of Indian-style of moviemaking that Joshi thinks Bollywood Hero is missing.(NPR)

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A.R. Rahman’s six-year old son enters the music world

Famous Bollywood music director Oscar winner A. R. Rahman’s (Slumdog Millionaire) six-year-old son Alim has sung a complete song in upcoming Hollywood romantic comedy “Couples Retreat”.

Directed by Emmy nominated Peter Billingsly (The Sacred Fire), and releasing on October nine, it is about four couples who go to a tropical island for vacation.

Shot in Tahiti and USA, it stars MTV Award winner Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), Golden Globe winner Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Golden Globe nominated Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Satellite Award winner Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), etc.

Music maestro A. R. Rahman himself provides the music for this film. Alim wants to be a playback singer when he grows up and his parents are very proud of his debut performance.(Indian Express)

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Hollywood spoofing Bollywood causes concern among Indo-Americans

Hollywood is spoofing Bollywood in “Bollywood Hero”, a three-night musical mini-series of  Independent Film Channel (IFC) airing on August 6-7-8.

Indo-Americans are concerned. Acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that we were hoping that spoof stayed on Bollywood and did not spill out and become mockumentary on India’s culture, heritage, and traditions. Zed, who is chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, refused to comment any further till he watched the series.(Little About)

Story revolves around Chris Kattan, who after rejections in Hollywood accepts leading role in Bollywood film “Peculiar Dancing Boy”, where dancing is essential part, and goes through language barriers, complex dance moves, cultural clashes, unfamiliar challenges, fish out of water feeling, etc. Attempting to ride the wave of Bollywood global attention created by Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire”, this series is reportedly shot in/around Mumbai (India) and broad Los Angeles (USA) area.

Besides Kattan it stars Maya Rudolph (Idiocracy), Julian Sands (Ocean’s 13), Neha Dhupia (Singh is Kinng), Pooja Kumar (The Kiss), Ali Fazal (The Other End of the Line), Rachna Shah (The Last Monk), etc., while MTV Award winner Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Teen Choice Awards winner Jennifer Coolidge (A Cinderella Story), and Venice Film Festival Award winner David Alan Grier (An American Carol) make guest appearances. Executive producers are Chris Kattan, Belisa Balaban (Tabloid Wars), and Ted Skillman (Thin).

Some of the Slumdog’s crew collaborated on “Bollywood Hero”, including line producer Tabrez Noorani, first Assistant Director Raj Acharya. Longinus Fernandes, who choreographed renowned ‘Jai Ho’ dance sequence in Slumdog, created various dance numbers for this series, while Slumdog’s costume designer Riyaz Ali Merchant also designed its costumes.

Launched in 1994 and headquartered in New York (USA), IFC claims to be “the first and only network dedicated to independent film and related programming, 24 hours a day, uncut and uncensored”, which operates under the mantra ‘always, uncut’. It is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, which in turn is subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation; a leading telecommunications, media and entertainment company with corporate in Bethpage (New York); whose chairman is Charles F. Dolan.

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The new face of Bollywood: Deepika Padukone says CNN

She’s only 23, but Deepika Padukone is already living a life millions would envy.

The model-turned-actress was spotted in a music video and then cast in one of the biggest grossing films in Bollywood history. She still only has three movies under her belt, but star status has already been bestowed upon her.

With no family connections to the film industry and not being from Mumbai, Padukone traveled a route to movie stardom millions could only dream of.

After deciding to become a model at the age of 16, she was picked out of a music video by acclaimed director Farah Khan and cast in her next film opposite Shahrukh Khan. “Om Shanti Om” went on to become not only a hit in India, but also gained wider acclaim among western audiences.

“I completely didn’t expect it. When I met Farah I thought she was joking. And at that point it seemed too good to be true. Shahrukh is someone who I’ve grown up watching, and I didn’t think that I deserve being a part of such a huge film. It’s only later, when I met Shahrukh and when things actually started happening, when I realized that this is for real,” she told CNN.

Despite her meteoric rise to fame and work on some big budget films she believes she’s learning the job of being an A-list Bollywood actress.

“I had great debut, a successful film, but after that…I would think it’s quite difficult to choose the right film. You never know what’s right and what’s wrong,” she said.

“Things for me changed quite overnight, actually. I remember a couple of months before the film release, not too many people knew me. In November 2007 when my film released and immediately after that I had to travel to New York, to Dubai and to London, and suddenly everyone on the streets started recognizing me, especially the Indians. That’s when I realized that things have changed.”

With the public attention has come the inevitable media spotlight on her private life. She says she never experienced the “casting couch” but is consistently romantically linked with other Bollywood stars, and there were rumors about a relationship with Indian cricketer MS Dhoni.

“As someone who didn’t know how to deal with it, yes it was really difficult for me initially to read about myself or to read about things that are untrue. But I think slowly you start learning to deal with these things.”

Padukone’s father was a professional badminton player, and she played too as a teenager, traveling across the country to compete in tournaments. But by her late teens she decided she wanted to be a model and got the full support of her parents.

“I trained, I lost some weight. I then got a portfolio done. I sent it to Bombay to a couple of agencies and waited for awhile. I think that period is really the most challenging. Because that’s really the time that one can really go wrong. The waiting period. You can really make some wrong decisions and go completely wrong,” she told CNN.

“I had the support of my family. I didn’t get carried away. I think I was patient enough to wait for the right assignment to come my way.”

As a model she appeared in commercials and music videos. Since her move into the movie business more commercial endorsements have come her way, but in an industry notorious for its high turnover of starlets she is aware that for actresses there is often a limited shelf-life.

“For me my life now is my work. But I know that at some point I will have to have a life beyond my work. And I know that today there’s me, tomorrow there will be someone else. Maybe I’ll be here for 5 years, maybe I’ll be here for many, many years.

“I’m definitely going to work hard and make sure that I can be here for as long as I can, but I’ll also make sure that people don’t get bored of me. And…yes, let’s see how it goes.” (CNN)

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U.S.A to test Twenty20 cricket

The United States wants to launch an elite Twenty20 cricket tournament inside two years along the lines of the lucrative Indian Premier League featuring big-name players.

The USA Cricket Association hopes “top-class international cricket” will finally take root in the country by launching the first professional competition, the USA Premier League.

The first steps were taken on Thursday by inviting proposals from potential organizers, sponsors and broadcasters.

The USACA wants to unlock the sport’s potential in a “massive market” and use the revenues from the new league to help spread cricket across the U.S. and form a competitive international team.

“With the proliferation of Twenty20 cricket worldwide we feel an American audience is more adept at accepting that format rather than the longer more classical version of the game,” said USACA executive secretary John Aaron. Twenty20 matches can be played in hours as opposed to the days-long matches of traditional cricket.

He said the league will start “no later than 2011.” Discussions have already begun with leading sports broadcaster ESPN, which has channels in the U.S. and throughout the world.

It is owned by The Walt Disney Co. and the USACA hopes Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, will help to attract cricket fans to the country’s only international standard ground, which is in the state.

“We want to make it a family thing,” Aaron said.

The IPL has taken cricket-mad India by storm and attracted top players from around the world, although the second edition of the six-week competition was moved to South Africa in April after organizers failed to obtain security clearance.

The IPL’s city franchises offer big paychecks to attract big-name Indian and foreign stars, paying England duo Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff record salaries of US$1.55 million each at the last player auction.

They are the same sort of players coveted by the USAPL.

“With the commercialization of the game there would be enough funds to attract some of the best players in the world,” Aaron said.

Rushmans, an international sports event management company based in England, has been appointed as commercial adviser.

“This process will enable us to consider all the proposals on the table and select the ideas and form the partnerships which are most beneficial to USACA, to the development of cricket in the USA and to the partners themselves,” commercial adviser Nigel Rushman said.

Rushman said the United States is the world’s second biggest Internet cricket market, with the 2007 World Cup attracting 1.15 billion hits, just behind India.

“With the right partners, the USA can host a world-class Premier League which will fill grounds and attract massive television and online audiences,” Rushman said. Potential partners, corporate sponsors, strategy experts, broadcasters and merchandise retailers must make formal proposals by Aug. 7.

It is a great news for Bollywood also as lots of its players are deeply involved in Twenty 20.  So we could expect larger participation and  mutation of cricket and Bollywood

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Bollywood stars follow West and goes online

Taking a lead from their Hollywood counterparts, India’s Hindi-language film stars are getting online, using the Internet to get closer to their fans.

Whereas only a few years ago, Bollywood stars were still responding to fan mail, signing photographs of themselves and sending them across India by post, the industry’s biggest names are now keeping followers up to date via the web.

Actresses from Shilpa Shetty and Celina Jaitley to actors Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan are posting photos, videos and their thoughts on films and life on personal websites.

Social networking sites like Facebook and its Indian equivalent Orkut are also a preferred medium to keep fans up to date with new releases and events.

And although no Bollywood star has yet to surpass US actor Ashton Kutcher’s massive 2.75 million followers on Twitter, Bollywood is also taking to the micro-blogging site to interact with fans without traditional media filters.

Leading star Priyanka Chopra says writing is therapeutic and that she is now hooked on Twitter.

“It started as a lark, a quest of discovery, and now I find my fingers twitching for my Nokia or my laptop wherever something interesting happens,” she told The Hindustan Times last week.

“I have great fun interacting with my ‘Tweeps’. At least they believe it’s the real me, unlike some of you guys, who still aren’t sure that it’s me reading your mails.”

Chopra’s Twitter feed — www.twitter.com/priyankachopra — reveals her recent thoughts on everything from Michael Jackson’s death to updates about her shooting schedule and even the monsoon rains.

Sonam Kapoor follows a similar line, “tweeting” on the banal, like her favourite television shows, to her next film project, “Aisha”, based on English author Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma”.

Mayank Shekhar, national cultural editor at The Hindustan Times, said the switch to technology — despite the low Internet penetration in India — makes perfect sense given the growing hunger for Bollywood news.

“There’s been an increase in the number of newspapers and television stations that are after the same five people. Most newspapers have five to 10 pages (on Bollywood) every day,” he told AFP.

“Editors want the story as it ups circulation. There’s so much written about these guys’ lives on a daily basis that’s not true, with blogs they can set the record straight.”

Electronic marketing also cuts down costs and avoids time-consuming news conferences, he added.

Bachchan, for example, updates his blog bigb.bigadda.com daily, musing at length on life and responding personally to his many fans’ comments. He also picks apart every news item written about him, giving his own response.

Most recently, the 66-year-old has been giving updates on his health after a recurring stomach complaint.

“Reporters got the entire story from his blog. All the information was in his post that day. It was as good as the reporter having spoken to him,” said Shekhar.

In a sign of the Internet’s influence as a source of Bollywood news, Bachchan courted controversy over remarks he made about the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”.

Media took his comments that the film showed India’s “third-world underbelly” as a slight on British director Danny Boyle, although Bachchan denied he was being critical of the movie’s success.

Actor-producer-director Aamir Khan also flew into a storm after writing on his website www.aamirkhan.com that he had named one of his dogs “Shahrukh”, fuelling the rivalry between him and his namesake Shahrukh Khan.

But mostly, new technology is used to maintain a strong fan base.

“People find it awesome that a movie star writes to them,” said Shekhar.

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