Mumbai, The year 2008 could well be actor Arshad Warsi's year. He has signed plum films with filmmakers like Anil Kapoor and Rohit Shetty and has just inked a deal with Rakesh Roshan in which he plays a mad man.
"For the first time I get to play this completely deranged character - a full-on mad man. I've never played a character like this. Why just me? I don't think such a character has been done before, " Arshad told IANS.
This would be Rakesh's first film without his son Hrithik in the last seven years. "In fact, Rakeshji has been with this script for more than 10 years, " Arshad says.
Too busy and committed to Ashutosh Gowariker's "Jodhaa-Akbar" and his father's next superhero film, Hrithik has given this assignment the go-by. It's being directed by Rakesh Roshan's assistant Raja Sen.
This is Roshan's first confident move forward in expanding and corporatising his production house into a multi-filmmaking concern like Yash Raj Films. He intends to concentrate on the projects that would star his son Hrithik and hire other directors for other ventures.
Karan Johar also plans to direct one film a year for his own production house and open it to directors from outside
Mumbai, Sameera Reddy says she doesn't care, but the fact is she has replaced Mallika Sherawat at the last moment in Abbas-Mustan's "Race".
"Who cares? Roles exchange hands all the time. Bipasha (Basu) was supposed to do my role in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's 'Kaal Purush'. Does it matter? I'm just too excited working with Abbas-Mustan for the first time, " Sameera told IANS.
"I'm also quite taken up with the idea of working with Saif (Ali Khan), Bipasha, Akshaye (Khanna) for the first time. And you know what? I play a full-on bimbette in this film!"
Sameera must be a rare actress to be so happy doing a no-brainer role.
"Yes, I am! Because the fact is, from 'Musafir' onwards I'm quite tired of doing serious dark roles. I want to just let my hair down and have fun. Abbas-Mustan's 'Race' will allow that because everyone has a character to play. No one is paired with anyone. It's just about having fun, " the sultry actress said.
Buddhadeb Dasgupta too is planning another film with her.
"It's another Bengali film with a peculiar title, 'Me, Yasim & Madhubala'. It's about voyeurism and I play a kathak dancer called Madhubala. But please don't jump to conclusions. There's nothing cheesy about the film. It's a serious study of a woman's space and how it's invaded by technology like mobile phones etc."
So are we looking at a Dasgupta-Reddy trilogy?
Sameera laughs, "Well...dada did compare me with Smita Patil. So there, I'm just happy doing such varied roles from 'Kaal Purush' to 'Race'. I think 2008 is going to be very special for me."
What about that someone special in her life? "It's really funny. But journalists keep making up soul mates for me when I've none. There's no space for any. In fact when someone special comes along that space would be automatically made."
The only thing in common between Ranbir Kapoor and Vinay Pathak is talent. A huge amount of screen presence makes them the most accomplished performers of 2007.
While Ranbir just took over the screen in his debut vehicle "Saawariya" with his endearing transparency, Vinay Pathak, a rank-outsider from Bihar with no filmy connections, stood at the opposite end of the spectrum with his performance as the very filmy, very annoying and real joker at the dinner in "Bheja Fry".
It proved talent is nurtured in the unlikeliest of places. You could be Raj Kapoor's grandson or just his fan from Bihar; you are equally qualified to blow the screen apart. And yes, Ranbir's father Rishi Kapoor was quite a treat in Vipul Shah's "Namastey London".
Father and son Pankaj and Shahid Kapur also gave accomplished performances in two different films. Though a little too callow for the role, Shahid carried off the grieving executive's part in "Jab We Met" with arresting aplomb. Pankaj exploded the screen with his dynamo performances in "Dharm" and "The Blue Umbrella". What an actor!
Then the redoubtable Bachchans - Amitabh and Abhishek. The Big B proved himself to be Amitabh Wry Bachchan as the dry cynical chef in "Cheeni Kum". A few months later I saw Catherine Zeta-Jones play the same role in "No Reservations". Copycat! However, I felt Tabu stole the show from the awesome Amitabh in "Cheeni Kum".
"Nishabd" earlier during the year would rank as one of Amitabh's most underrated performances ever. His 10-minute monologue at the end where he tells us why he didn't end his life after the end of love will rank among the great joys of cinema in 2007.
Junior Bachchan just slipped into Dhirubhai Ambani's role in "Guru". The slouch was ouch. But hey, Abhishek conducted himself with much credibility in the biopic. And wife Aishwarya Rai wasn't far behind with a solid supporting role.
My female performers of the year were Kareena Kapoor in "Jab We Met" and Tabu in "Cheeni Kum". They were such studies in contrast! While one was exuberant, vivacious and all there, the other was quiet, introspective and dreamy.
Oh, what talent our industry has! If Tabu requires no words to let you know she's the goddess of all celluloid things, her aunt Shabana Azmi blew the screen apart in two short-films - "Positive" by Farhan Akhtar and Rohit Roy's "Rice Plate".
In Farhan's very accomplished film, Shabana's character simply touched her dying husband's hand to let you know she had forgiven him. And that young actor Arjun Mathur who plays Irrfan's gay lover in Mira Nair's "Migration" and Shabana's morose son in "Positive" has an interesting presence.
At the other end of the spectrum little Sweeni Khara was also dying in "Cheeni Kum". As the wise-and-wonderful Sexy, Sweeni was sexy. And I say this at the risk of the moralists lynching me.
Clearly the year of child performers, what with little Sweeni matching the Big B and towering Tabu scene by scene and that bundle of talent Dwij Yadan giving Bobby Deol a run for his money in "Nanhe Jaisalmer". And at the end of the year, that bundle of bratty brilliancy, Darsheel Safary, bringing madness to Aamir Khan's method... the kids seemed to take over the screen in "Taare Zameen Par".
Vidya Balan surprised with her light-and-shade play of hope and dejection in "Guru" and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa". The rage she expressed in her climactic dance in the latter just blew everyone else out of sight.
Raima Sen as the spirited spunky gregarious Bengali housewife in Reema Kagti's "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd" proved herself to be Suchitra Sen's bump-and-grind-granddaughter.
Esha Deol played the affable ghost in "Darling". Her expressions of anguish were so real I wondered where this star-daughter learnt to be so unhappy!
Tabu must immediately be stopped from languishing in self-imposed exile. She was extraordinary in "Cheeni Kum" and then again in Mira Nair's "The Namesake". Irrfan Khan, who played her husband, whooped it up with glorious unselfconsciousness with Konkona Sen Sharma in "Life...In A Metro".
While Irrfan came into his own in 2007, Konkona, I'm afraid, showed signs of over-confidence especially in "Aaja Nachle". However, she is a brilliant actress and a pleasure to behold always.
Shefali Shah as Mahatma Gandhi's wife in "Gandhi My Father" could've easily become Nirupa Roy in "Deewaar" or "Raakhee" in "Shakti". Just how she managed to imbue such incandescent dignity to a dangerously stereotypical role is anyone's guess.
Two quirky male performers caught my eye in 2007 - Ranveer Shorey as the doped-out street wanderer in "Traffic Signal" was the summit of poignancy, hard to achieve for an actor who has an essentially comic image.
And in Sohail Khan we've our first cartoon-strip hero. As a horny Rajasthani trying to celebrate his delayed first wedding night in "Salaam-e-Ishq", Sohail was a laugh riot and arguably the funniest guy on screen in 2007.
Jameel Khan, as the organiser of a music reality show in "Loins Of Punjab Presents", epitomised the virtues of sinfully over-the-top acting.
And let's end with the inimitable Shah Rukh Khan. He was a scintillating bundle of wound-up angst in "Chak De! India". For the first time in his career he didn't seem to be acting at all. For that we shall always remain grateful to director Shimit Amin who managed to even out the excesses of King Khan's other big blockbuster "Om Shanti Om" in 2007.
London, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai serve as more influential role models for youngsters than any of the famous figures from history, a new study from the University of Leicester suggests.
The research in the University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication examines interest in celebrities and gossip about them. It was carried out by Charlotte De Backer who sought in her study to explain interest in celebrity culture.
She said: "Life is about learning, gaining experience and in that process we have a tendency to observe and mimic the actions of others. Ideally we mimic what makes others successful and avoid unsuccessful actions others have trialed (and paid for).
"In reality, humans seem to have the tendency to mimic the overall behaviour pattern of higher status or more successful others.
"This explains why celebrities act as role models for broad ranges of behaviour they display - good or bad."
De Backer also examined another theory for interest in celebrity, known as the Parasocial Hypothesis.
In this case, the bonds are parasocial or one-way because the celebrity reveals private information (often involuntary), and the audience members respond emotionally to this, but there is no feedback of the private life of the audience going to the celebrity (or hardly ever), and nor do celebrities display emotions towards their audience.
Her study of 800 respondents and over 100 interviews confirmed that younger participants showed greater interest in celebrity gossip, even if it was about celebrities who were a lot older than them and even when they did not know the celebrities. They showed greatest interest in internationally known celebrities, because they considered those as more prestigious.
De Backer study also found that older people were interested in celebrity gossip not because they wanted to learn about the celebrities, but because it helped them to form social networks with other people.
"We did find in the interviews that older people do not gossip about celebrities as much because they want to learn from them or feel befriended with them, but they use celebrity gossip to bond with real life friends and acquaintances.
"Living in scattered societies, we often don't know who to talk about with the many people we know, and celebrities can act as our mutual friends and acquaintances."
Her research was published in the journal Human Nature.
He may have innumerable batting records to his name, but if there is one chapter that Sachin Tendulkar would like to add to his glittering career, it is winning the quadrennial extravaganza – the World Cup.
Despite being one of the senior most cricketers who would be in action in cricket's biggest extravaganza that gets under way in the Caribbean Islands from March 13, Sachin still appears hungry for more glory and motivated to set new marks.
The Batting Maestro already has many firsts to his credit in 33 matches he has played so far in the World Cups.
Sachin was adjudged as man of the match on an enviable eight times, the highest so far by any player, besides being declared Player of the Tournament at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa where he was also Man of the Match on three occasions.
Sachin also tops the list of stars for most runs in World Cups, highest strike rate and batting averages among the current players and joint first for most number of centuries.
Sachin has amassed 1732 World Cup runs in 33 matches followed by Javed Miandad (Pak 1083), Aravinda De Silva (Sri Lanka 1064), Sir Vivian Richards (West Indies 1013) and Mark Waugh (Australia 1004).
Among the contemporaries, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting is sixth with 998 runs.
Former World Cup winning Indian captain Kapil Dev although has the best strike rate so far in World Cups with 115.14.
Sachin, perhaps the richest cricketer in the world, is joint leader in the list for most number of centuries (four) in World Cups along with compatriot Sourav Ganguly and Mark Waugh of Australia.
Sachin's centuries were 127 not out against Kenya at Cuttack (95-96), 137 against Sri Lanka (Delhi 95-96), 140 not out against Kenya (Bristol 1999) and 152 against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg South Africa in 2003.
The exploits against Kenya helped Sachin surpass the World Cup aggregate of another batting legend Vivian Richards, who had then tallied 1013 runs in 23 matches.
For Sachin, the records did not end there. He also happened to be the fastest century maker from India by scoring in 140 not out off just 84 balls, aided by 16 fours and 2 sixes. He broke the record of Sunil Gavaskar, who had scored a century in 85 balls against New Zealand at Nagpur in 1987.
It was also the third fastest World Cup century after Clive Lloyd's 82 ball effort (against Australia at Lord's in 1975) and Brian Lara's 83 ball ton (against South Africa at Karachi in 1996).
Sachin has been the face of Indian cricket for nearly two decades now. The boy wonder from Mumbai was truly a product of one-day cricket whose exploits with the willow have coincided with the rise of India both as a cricket and economic power.
Compared to Sir Donald Bradman by none other than the Don himself, Sachin is cricket's most prolific run scorer - with 10, 668 from 135 Tests and 14, 783 from 381 ODIs.
The world record holder for most Test centuries (35), India's premier batsman has stamped his class in cricket's showpiece event. In 33 matches from four World Cup appearances, Sachin has amassed 1732 runs at 59.72 with four hundreds.
Sachin would be keen to celebrate his 34th birthday in the Caribbean as it coincides with the first semi-final on April 24 and then go on to realize his dream of winning the World Cup.
A day when India ended up losing to Pakistan by a mere 12 runs in the 2nd ODI in Rawalpindi, one man will be utterly disappointed. A man who is now the parent of all cricketers. A man with the most experience and a man with the most runs. Sachin Tendulkar, in an attempt to chase an impossible target passed yet another milestone, 13000 runs in One Day International cricket. Miles in front of next in the list, Inzamam with 9607 runs.
14 years ago when Sachin started his International career there was a thought in everyone's mind. Many professionals said that this kid will go far. Today after surpassing the milestone, those same people would be thinking 'not this far'. No one at that time would have thought that one day this kid will surpass 13000 runs. Back in 1989 when Sachin made his debut, there were the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis gunning for him. Having had a miserable debut, he suffered a painful blow later in that series to learn what International cricket is all about. At that time he was being tamed by the bowlers, with bouncers flying close to his nose, he survived. The result of that survival can now be seen.
With 37 centuries and 66 half centuries Sachin has been the king of One Day cricket. Scoring those 13000 runs at an average of 45 runs per innings for 14 years is a phenomenal achievement. Only god will be able to tell us how much will he be ending with. Any cricketing pundit will predict above 20000 ODI runs, but then how many pundits predicted in 1989 that he will cross 13000. He has always been a step ahead of everyone. He has always been a master!
This milestone has been such a relishing moment for everybody. Inzamam ul haq, the Pakistan skipper, and his fiercest rival, bestowed accolades on him for the way he has managed himself throughout his career. Yousuf Youhana, was quoted saying that he is the champion of champions. Rashid Latif wrote in a column referring Sachin as the 'Kohinoor' of cricket. After surpassing 12000 runs in Centurion during the World Cup match against Pakistan, he is back adding another milestone to his list exactly one year after against the same opponents on their home turf.
Not much is left to describe this great cricketer. I am still not able to digest the 13000 figure. There have been batsman whose total number of runs in both forms of the game has not reached this mark. It is an incredible achievement by an incredible cricketer.
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Mumbai, The year 2008 could well be actor Arshad Warsi's year. He has signed plum films with filmmakers like Anil Kapoor and Rohit Shetty and has just inked a deal with Rakesh Roshan in which he plays a mad man.
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The only thing in common between Ranbir Kapoor and Vinay Pathak is talent. A huge amount of screen presence makes them the most accomplished performers of 2007.