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On Sunday evening, Deepika Padukone and dad Pakash Padukone played a doubles badminton match against Aamir Khan and Aparna Popat, at the annual tournament for the Padukone Academy run by the one-time badminton champion.
Even though the actress lost the match against Aamir, Deepika believes it's the sportsmanship that won at the end of the day. In her words, "I know that Aamir plays badminton at the Khar gym. He's extremely fit and a great player. It was an incredible experience to play opposite him."

Deepika who's extremely passionate about badminton adds that she always enjoys pairing with dad on the court, "Even after so many years dad is such a driving force and an inspiration for badminton enthusiasts.

I remember in the older days when he would train in Bangalore there were no high roof courts, so he would play in shaadi mandaps. From that day to having his own badminton academy he's come a long way."

The actress grabs every opportunity to promote any kind of sport activity. "I have always been a champion of fitness and well being. I think badminton is a great sport for anyone who wants to increase his stamina and fitness level."

The two loveable goons, Munnabhai and his sidekick Circuit, are set to return again. This time, they’ll be making a trip to America.

We’ve already seen the promo of Munna and Circuit learning English before their trip to America. Even though the promo came a few years back, the film, Munnabhai Chale Amerika is yet to go on the floors. The movie was first held up when Sanjay Dutt who played the inimitable Munna, was arrested after his conviction in a case for illegal possession of arms. After that, director Rajkumar Hirani got busy directing his film 3 Idiots with Aamir Khan and put the third film in the ‘Munnabhai’ series on backburner.

But now, Arshad Warsi , who played the funny Circuit, has confirmed that the film will roll next year.
“'Munnabhai Chale Amerika' will go on the floors next year and we'll start shooting then onwards,” Arshad is quoted by a news agency as saying.

Though Arshad has paired with many actors in his career, his chemistry with Sanjay has been unmatched yet.

“Sanju is a zero complex guy…He is also not insecure like other actors who'd get other actors' scenes chopped to keep their own part. It's just too cool working with him and that is why our comic timing and everything match,” Arshad is quoted as saying.

‘Munnabhai Chale Amerika’ sneak peek

Circuit to Munna: “Bhai, English mein idhar aane to kya bolte hain?”

Munna: “Simple! Come here”.

Circuit: “Aur Bhai, kissi ko bolna ho ‘udhar ja’ toh kaise bolenge?”

Munna: “Simple! Pehle udhar jaane ka, aur phir kehne ka ‘Come here’.”

Apparently, Sharma frivolously wasted time in London, which could’ve been avoided if he had been better prepared for the shoot. The cavalier attitude inflated the budget considerably.

Salman had assured producer Vijay Galani that he would put his career back on track. Our source said, “Salman was so irritated by Sharma’s ways that he didn’t shy away from giving the director a earful on the sets.”

Revealing what transpired on the sets, a unit member said, “Anil Sharma doesn’t value time. Although we stayed in London for 30 days, the productivity was that of five days. Sharma asks for far too many retakes, so a lot of raw stock has been consumed. Plus, he hadn’t finalised the location. It is inexplicable that a director takes a unit abroad and doesn’t know where he is going to shoot next.”

However, Anil Sharma rebutted the story. He said, “There have been a lot of rumours about my London schedule. I would like to clarify that I had a very smooth shoot throughout. I had a wonderful working relationship with Salman. Veer is a period film and I shot scenes around Buckingham Palace, for which I had taken permission.”

Our source from the sets in London, disagreed. The source said, “For a 9am shift, Sharma would leave the hotel at 9.30am to hunt for the location. Often, he wouldn’t get the permission to shoot. If at all the shoot began, it wouldn’t be before 2.30pm. After which, it would not go on for more than four hours. We had to wind up by 6.30-7pm as most of the scenes were to be shot during the day. Everyday, the actors (including Salman) were left to cool their heels in the hotel while Sharma went to hunt for the locations.”

Not only Salman, but every actor was exasperated. The source concluded, “All of this magnified the cost of the film.”

Vijay Galani said, “We might have had a bit of a problem in getting permission to shoot at a certain place for a stipulated amount of time, but we didn’t have any major problems as such. I know Salman ever since he did my first film Suryavanshi and he has always been very supportive.”

After Asin Thottumkal, Genelia D’ Souza, Shriya Saran and Trisha, another southern actress Priyamani is set to enter the Hindi film industry with Mani Ratnam’s “Ravanan”, that has Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in the lead.

Priyamani will portray the same role in the Hindi version of “Ravanan” that she did in the Tamil. Priyamani is excited about the significance of her character in the film.

The actress, who has done reasonably well in all the south Indian movies, is also looking forward to “Aarumugam”. She is in awe of director Suresh Krissha and says she liked his style of doing things silently and effectively.

“I have become kind of a glamour doll after ‘Paruthiveeran’. One can’t keep on doing the same roles, isn’t it? Suresh has given me a lot of scope to act in the film. In fact, I haven’t done anything extra other than following in letter and spirit what Suresh asked me to do,” said Priyamani, who has been a sizzler for the past couple of years in all her movies.

Priyamani also disclosed that she would be dubbing in her own voice in her future Malayalam movies so that she won’t miss out on awards when the films reach that level.

Mumbai, Imtiaz Ali openly admits that his upcoming “Love Aaj Kal”, which stars Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, has unabashed kissing scenes and shows the lead actors mouthing expletives, but the director insists that it will still be a complete family entertainer.

The director says he has included the so-called objectionable scenes in the movie’s promos so that people are already used to it by the time they see the film.

“See, it’s the way you put it in the film and treat it. It’s up to the filmmaker not to make his film some fodder for perversion or lechery.” Ali told IANS.

Ali promises that “Love Aaj Kal”, which is Saif’s production debut, is a film that would be accepted by an entire family.

“Kisses included,” he winks. “Nobody will feel inhibited watching ‘Love Aaj Kal’. No one will hesitate walking into the film with his family. All that is potentially objectionable in the film in the strictest of sense has been taken care of in the first promo. If you have warmed up on it, rest assured you will love ‘Love Aaj Kal’,” the filmmaker said.

“Love Aaj Kal” is his third love story after “Socha Na Tha” and the blockbuster “Jab We Met”.

But there were people around Ali who weren’t too comfortable with the idea of showing Saif trying to hold Deepika’s butt, then share an unabashed kiss with her in the car and also mouth Hinglish expletives on a date right in the promo itself.

“They thought that people may get an impression that the film was only about these things but I had my own viewpoint,” explains Ali.

“My argument is that audiences are really smart. They pretty much see the intention of the filmmaker and make up their mind to watch the film accordingly. We better start taking them seriously rather than attempt at fooling them by considering ourselves over smart,” he says.

To substantiate his claim, Ali goes on to share an anecdote from his experience during the making of “Jab We Met”, which starred Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

“Remember the sequence in the second half of the film when Kareena curses her ex-boyfriend on phone? She goes on to say ‘Teri Maa Ki’ and a lot more. Did the audience feel awkward? Not at all. In fact they laughed during the entire scene and not a single soul came and told me that he/she felt offended by the language,” Ali reasons.

The director, however, admits that for “Love Aaj Kal”, the prime target audience is the younger crowd.

“And that’s more by accident rather than planned,” he says. “The film caters to them mainly because it’s this age group that goes and sees films in theatres. Due to this, even when I am conceptualising a film and then putting it on celluloid, I feel safe from my target audience perspective,” he explains.

With music by Pritam and lyrics by Irshad Kamil, “Love Aaj Kal” is set for a July 31 release.

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja's 18-year-old domestic help has categorically stated she was raped by him, the National Commission for
Women (NCW) chief said here on Saturday.

"When we had talked to the girl in Mumbai, she had categorically stated that she was raped," Girija Vyas told reporters here.

Asked about Shiney's statement that he had "consensual sex" with the maid, the NCW chief said: "Even the medical and the DNA reports proved that she was raped. But now I cannot say anything as the case is in court."

The actor had Friday said in court that he had consensual sex with his maid and argued that the rape charge was a conspiracy to extort money from him. The actor was arrested after the victim alleged he raped her June 14.

Earlier, police said DNA test reports confirmed that Shiney had sex with his domestic help. The police had said the DNA samples of the accused matched the samples taken from the victim, who also suffered scratch marks on her body.

An NCW team, including Vyas, had rushed to Mumbai and met all the parties concerned, including the victim and her family members. Following the visit, Mumbai chief minister Ashok Chavan had announced that the Shiney Ahuja rape case would be transferred to a fast track court soon.