Friday 28 February 2014

Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor lock lips for Sajid Nadiadwala's 2 States



Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor are going to be seen together for the first time in Sajid Nadiadwala’s 2 States. The movie is based on a novel by Chetan Bhagat. The story is about a couple that falls in love when they meet at the IIMA campus and how they face difficulties when they want to take their relationship to the next level. Because in India, marriage is not the union of two souls, it is the union of two families. If a boy and a girl want to get married, they have to like each other, they have to be liked by each other’s parents and their families also have to like each other. Once all these obstacles are cleared, if you still love each other, you can get your happily ever after.


Alia and Arjun, who play the characters of a South Indian Tamilian Brahmin girl and a North Indian Punjabi boy, will be seen doing some intimate scenes in this Sajid Nadiadwala movie. A source close to the film said, "There are two-three kissing scenes in the film. Both Arjun and Alia were completely comfortable while shooting for them. There was no intention to exploit the rumours of their relationship.”  The comfort level that the two actors share is because they have gotten along very well during the shooting of this film and have in fact become very good friends. They have been spotted together at many public events as well. Speaking about her relationship with the actor, Alia said, "He (Arjun) has a very special place in my life...we were shooting for Highway and 2 States around the same time. He became a good friend of mine. He is a funny person and has a good sense of humour.”

2 States is directed by Abhishek Varman and co-produced by Sajid Nadiadwala’s Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd and Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. The film also has Shiv Kumar Subramaniam and Revathi as Alia Bhatt’s parents while Arjun’s parents are played by Amrita Singh and Ronit Roy. It is set to hit the theatres on the 18th of April 2014. 




Randeep Hooda wanted Naseeruddin Shah to watch Sajid Nadiadwala's Highway



Randeep Hooda is all smiles because of the complements he is receiving for his performance in his latest release Highway. Since its release on the 21st of February, the movie and its entire cast has been receiving appreciation from their colleagues as well as the critics. Randeep, however, feels that the appreciation he has received is incomplete if Naseeruddin Shah, who has been his friend since they worked together in the Motley theater group, does not watch it. He said, “For me, Highway is incomplete till Naseeruddin sir watches it. I am eagerly waiting for his review. I want him to see the film and sit down with me and discuss about it. He has been receiving a lot of calls from the many people praising my work. So he is very happy about it.” Highway, which is being presented worldwide by Sajid Nadiadwala’s banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd and UTV Motion Pictures, has touched the hearts of many. 

Randeep Hooda has also called Sajid Nadiadwala’s Highway his great comeback and he is absolutely right in saying so. Everybody who has watched the movie has been praising Randeeps’s acting. He had organized a special screening of the film for Mr. Shah, but unfortunately the actor couldn’t make it. Randeep said “Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it for the screening. Nonetheless, he will soon watch the film.” The actor has shared screen space with Naseeruddin in an action thriller in 2013 called John Day and is a huge fan of him. Randeep wants him to watch the movie and discuss what he liked about it and what he could do better in terms of acting. In the movie, Randeep is playing a gang leader, who abducts a girl, played by Alia Bhatt, from a petrol pump on a highway. He then takes her along with him across different states of North India to stay away from the police glare, until his gang members try to get the ransom money.
 
This Sajid Nadiadwala movie is very special for the entire cast and crew, especially the director Imtiaz Ali. Films like Highway don’t come around often. It stays with you hours after you have left the theatre. You can feel the story resonating in your mind. 




Wednesday 26 February 2014

Sajid Nadiadwala expands his film genres



Sajid Nadiadwala, the owner of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd, is known to be associated with movies that are labeled in Bollywood as ‘masala entertainers’. This is because his banner has produced blockbusters like Housefull, Housefull 2, Kambakkth Ishq, Heyy Baby, Judwa, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and many more. But 2014 is going to change that for this ace producer as he is going to be a part of two of the most talked about films of the year. Both these movies are non-commercial. The first is Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, which is being presented worldwide by Sajid. And the second is Kabir Khan’s Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer Phantom. Phantom is based on the 26/11 terror attacks and both the lead actors play counter terrorists in the film. This film is produced by the Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd banner.

Sajid Nadiadwala, who has launched directors like Sajid Khan and Shirish Kunder, said "Highway is a beautiful story so I jumped into the project. I feel proud to be associated with Imtiaz Ali and Kabir Khan. It is not intentional. It is not that just because I was making only entertainers I want to work with them. I would like to be associated with those whose cinema I like and feel comfortable working with. It is not a conscious decision." He further adds, "I have grown up watching cinema of directors like JP Dutta. Now I am reinventing myself. Even sitting with Imtiaz and Kabir refreshes me. It is like taking coaching classes and such heavy duty coaching classes coming free is not bad. It is a great experience to see how they visualize and conceptualize their films."

Sajid Nadiadwala has a number of films lined up for release this year. This list includes the Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor starrer 2 States, which is a love story and is a screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s book with the same name. He is also producing Heropanti, which marks the debut of Jackie Shroff’s son Tiger Shroff in Bollywood. Kick, Sajid’s directorial debut, is all set to release on the 25th of July 2014. 




Tuesday 25 February 2014

Jacqueline Fernandez did not reshoot any song for Sajid Nadiadwala's Kick



There has been a lot of news about Sajid Nadiadwala’s directorial debut Kick, that stars Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez in the lead. There was recently news that Salman has been taking his and his co-star’s look in the film very seriously. And that he did not like Jacqueline’s hair do in one of the sequences and so the director had to reshoot an entire song. “Salman Khan asked it to be redone, following which Jacqueline’s hair and make-up artist started all over again. After this, the song was re-shot,” informed a source close to Sajid’s banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

Jacqueline is totally miffed with the media who has been writing such news about her and her co-star Salman. A source from the sets confirmed that Jackie isn’t happy about all this gossip. She is in fact happy that Salman gives his honest feedback about her look because he is way more experienced than the Sri Lankan beauty. It is true that she had to redo her hair and makeup, but it was before the shooting for the song began. When Salman walked in on the sets of his friend Sajid Nadiadwala’s film in the NG Studios in film city, he expressed his displeasure about her makeup and hair and so the makeup team did her look all over again. A source from the sets confirmed that, “No reshooting has happened, Salman wasn’t happy with Jackie’s hairstyle and expressed his displeasure over it as soon as he arrived on the sets. The song was shot after Jacqueline redid her hair and make-up.”

Salman has always been known to take interest in his leading lady’s looks. He even looked very closely at Daisy Shah’s looks and costumes when shooting with her for his brother’s film Jai Ho. Salman is also very conscious about his own look in Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kick and is going to be seen sporting two different looks. His first look, which he will be seen in for almost the first 40 minutes of the film, is a French beard. His second clean shaven look, with his hair parted to the left, was revealed a few days ago, when his co-star Jacqueline put up a selfie with the actor on Instagram.




Alia Bhatt plays the character based on Chetan Bhagat’s wife in Sajid Nadiadwala’s 2 States



2 States is a movie which is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel with the same name, which was published in the year 2009. The film stars Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor in the lead. It is being directed by Abhishek Verman and co-produced by Dharma Productions and Sajid Nadiadwala’s banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd. It is the love story of a Punjabi boy from North India and a Tamilian girl from South India. 


Alia Bhatt is playing the role of Ananya Swaminathan, a Tamil Brahmin girl from Chennai. Her role is very different than the clichéd South Indian characters that we are used to seeing in Bollywood movies, including the character of Deepika Padukone in Chennai Express. The producer of the film Sajid Nadiadwala explains, “Alia has played the first non-caricatural South Indian character in our films. Normally, when we show South Indians in our films they have thick accents, and if it’s a woman from the South she will have gajra in her hair and will go ‘Aiyo yo’ every five minutes. Alia does none of that.” Alia was specifically asked not to put on an accent for this film. Her character breaks through all the stereotypes about South Indian characters in Bollywood. “How do I explain this? Alia is Tamilian and she even talks in Tamil. But she behaves like a normal city wife,” says Sajid.

Alia Bhatt’s role in the film is based on writer Chetan Bhagat’s wife. The novel is inspired by his own marriage, but is a work of fiction. When asked if it was difficult for Alia to keep the pre conceived south Indian characteristics out of her character for this Sajid Nadiadwala film, she said, “I was not allowed to be culture-specific in 2 States in my body-language or my accent. Yes, I am a Tamilian in 2 States. But I don’t make a show of my regional roots. It is tough because when you are not resorting to speech and behavioral props you have no handy tools to give personality to your character.”