The next big clash of movies in Bollywood is going to be between Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay on October 28. The former is a Karan Johar production starring, among other big names, Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The latter stars Ajay Devgn who is also directing and producing the movie. 
This is going to be his second directorial venture and the first, U Me Aur Hum, in 2008 had been a big flop. Ajay has much banking on Shivaay therefore and the trailer is being lauded for the Hollywood-quality action sequences and special effects. But Ajay does have a history of getting into conflict when his movie is against another big budget fare. 
When Son Of Sardaar released, he even filed a complaint against Shah Rukh Khan’s Jab Tak Hain Jaan accusing them of unfairly monopolising theatres. And now trouble is brewing with Karan Johar too. Initially smooth sailing was expected because Karan is not known for getting into squabbles. But the trigger this time was rather bizarre and came in the form of Kamaal R Khan, a flop actor who reinvented himself as an obnoxious social networking figure with a large following. 
He has lately also tried to become a movie critic and trade analyst. The problem arose when Khan made an analysis in Twitter in which he calculated how Karan Johar is going to recover his movie’s costs even before its release because of satellite and overseas rights. 
But in a subsequent Tweet he said how Shivaay, because of its huge budget, would be a flop. This seemed to have got Ajay’s goat. A co-producer of Shivaay called up Khan who said that he was being paid Rs25 lakh by Karan to say good things about the movie. The phone conversation was being recorded and then Ajay tweeted along with recording, ‘Hear what self proclaimed no. 1 critic and trade analyst Kamaal R Khan has to say.’ 
He also released a statement later saying that he had been in the industry for a quarter century and was pained that someone like Khan was ‘holding the film industry to ransom by spreading negativity about films to extort money from producers. It is very sad that people from our own industry are supporting such elements and spoiling the ethos of the film industry. I would strongly demand that this be thoroughly investigated by competent authorities to clarify if Karan Johar was indeed involved in this.’ 
Khan later said that he had not been paid and only came up with that story to mollify the man who had called him.

No sorry


Sonakshi Sinha has devoted quite a lot of time to her latest release Akira. The reviews have not been too kind and how the movie does commercially will only be evident in the days to come. 
Sonakshi should now be looking at the future and choose what projects to take up which would build her brand in the industry. And while she might be making cool calculated decisions when it comes to acting with former boyfriend Arjun Kapoor, things can get complicated. 
Reportedly, she was offered a role in Mubaraka, a movie by Anees Bazmee, and turned it down because Arjun was in it. Arjun, it is said, had even called Sonakshi to take up the role but she wouldn’t change her mind. The two had broken up a year back and both were thought to have moved on. 
On the other hand, it is also said that Sonakshi’s refusal to do the movie had nothing to do with Arjun. The movie had three heroines and she didn’t want to be just another one in a crowd. 
There was another interesting incident when during an interview Sonakshi was given the names of a few male stars which included Arjun and asked to rank them in order of sexiness. She put Arjun at the bottom of the list!


Changing course?



For a long time Abhishek Bachchan was an actor who had a reputation for regularly giving flops. But, by a strange twist of fate, since the last few years, he has in fact been giving a steady stream of hits. In 2012 there was Bol Bachchan, the next year Dhoom 3 went onto become one of the biggest hits of all time and in 2014 there was Happy New Year, yet another blockbuster. 
This year too, Housefull 3 has grossed more than Rs 100 crore. So what changed? Abhishek played second fiddle roles in most of them. Or he was just one among many stars. Now comes news that he wants to test the solo hero waters again and he has therefore been choosy about signing on new movies. 
The one he is said to be banking on is a movie that Prabhudeva will direct for him. It is a fair enough aspiration to be hero once again but in Abhishek’s case he should probably understand that what is working for him right now is not his solo star charisma and that if something is not broken then it might be wise not to fix it.


Favourite new star


It is curious how Nawazuddin Siddiqui has suddenly become a darling of the Salman Khan camp. It has its start with him playing the villain to Salman Khan in Kick and that was followed by a meaty side role in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which went on to become Salman’s biggest blockbuster ever. 
And now Nawazuddin is appearing as the hero in a movie directed by Salman’s younger brother Sohail Khan. Called Freaky Ali, it has Nawazuddin playing a golfer. The Khans are naturally all praises for their star and it was probably during such enthusiasm, that Sohail found himself stoking a needless controversy. 
During an interview while talking about Nawazuddin, he compared him to Hrithik Roshan and in a manner that was not very salutary to the latter. Sohail said that Hrithik wouldn’t be able to act like Nawazuddin even if he tried for 10 years, while Nawazuddin could with some effort be like Hrithik in three years. 
Later, there were news snippets quoting sources close to Sohail clarifying that he had meant no disrespect and it had actually been a sarcastic comment related to dancing and not acting ability!


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