“I don’t know about that, maybe I am just lucky,” Kumar humbly replied when I asked him to analyse his appeal to NRI (Non Resident Indian) audiences. In addition to the Khans – Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman – Kumar is the only Bollywood star to guarantee a blockbuster in recent times. Last year, all of Kumar’s films were UK Top 10 box-office hits.

It looks like the new box-office King’s luck has just run out: last week’s release, ‘Tashan’ has failed to make it to the UK Top 10, after collecting a measly £180,000 in its opening weekend. “The box office collections in the UK are exactly what we have anticipated as the film was given a 15 certificate,” Avtar Panesar, Head of Yash Raj Films, the UK distributor reasons. This means that the lucrative family audiences were unable to view the film. He adds: “Akshay is very much an overseas superstar; this fact is undisputed.”

Kumar, Shilpa Shetty’s ex-boyfriend, is aware that the box-office relationship can be fickle. “Humility is essential because when you fall it really hurts. I used to sell furniture for a living; trouble was it was my own.”

A Safe Bet?

Saif Ali Khan is another Khan who is a current safe bet at the box-office. His recent ‘Race’ is one of the biggest hits of the year. But did ‘Race’ have a bound script? “There was no ready shooting script. Next time I do not know if I will work that way. Since the movie has done well, maybe I will.” Looks like Saif will have to rethink his strategy now that ‘Tashan’, which clearly did not have a script, and in which he co-stars with the aforementioned Kumar, has failed.

Indian Posh Spice

“I want to look like Victoria Beckham,” Kareena Kapoor declared earlier this year. Her new look was revealed in last week’s release, ‘Tashan’. Indians were appalled to see an anorexic looking Kapoor emerge from the sea in a bikini. Purists are incensed at Bollywood’s current obsession for ‘size-zero’ heroines. Kapoor was quick to deny she was the Indian Posh Spice. “I don’t think an Indian actress has really done that on screen before. I do yoga religiously; I’m eating like any healthy girl.”

Aishwarya Rai: “I am a foodie!”

Kareena Kapoor’s slim look mirrors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s weight loss for the earlier ‘Dhoom 2’. I asked Ash if she was worried that the stick-thin look was a responsible move as young girls regard heroines as role models. “I firmly believe that anorexia and bulimia are important issues which need to be addressed. I myself never had a fitness regime until recently as I had to get fit for two action-orientated roles, and yes, I am a foodie!”

The Return

Manoj Night Shyamalan, the Indian-born Hollywood director of supernatural thrillers (‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Signs’ and ‘The Lady in the Water’), is returning to India for the first time in over a decade. Shyamalan will be in Bollywood to promote his new film ‘The Happening’ which is co-produced by Bollywood studio UTV Motion Pictures. He then goes to Delhi to collect the Padma Shri, one of India’s most prestigious civilian awards, from the President. Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO of UTV confirms: “Yes, he would be arriving in the first week of May in Mumbai.”

Kollywood comes to London

“The art form is dying out and struggling to compete against the might of Bollywood,” James Green of the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in Fitzrovia, London told me when I asked him why they are hosting the UK’s first exhibition of hand painted Tamil film posters. The Tamil film industry, is based largely in Kodanbakkan (‘Kollywood’), South India and its films are often more larger than life than its Hindi counterpart, Bollywood. The 9 Emotions of Indian cinema hoardings runs until May 17.

Bollywood’s Casper?

Most of the stars have left London after last weekend’s Zee Cine Awards, but Bollywood’s biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan has just arrived in the British capital. The ‘Big B’ is here to promote next week’s release, ‘Bhootnath’, in which he plays a friendly ghost.

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