'Jodhaa Akbar' - Watch Songs Preview

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You have to see it to believe it. Aishwarya Rai Bachan, at the age of 34, still stuns you with her ethereal beauty. Her looks, her elegant dance movements, and her subtle and graceful expressions are sure to captivate you. The compilation of the song sequences from her forthcoming ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ by Ashutosh Gowarikar just proves you why she is still the most sought after heroine of India.
IndiaGlitz has acquired exclusive clippings from the songs that show the amazing Aishwarya and fascinating Hrithik Roshan dancing in splendid outfits in the backdrop of grand sets made for the period film.

The grand and alluring musical by the music wizard A.R. Rahman shows the greatness of the man. The songs have an amazing variety of splendor and melody. Rahman’s music matches the grandeur of the movie and the majestic beauty of the lead pair.

Jodhaa Akbar Trailers/Jodhaa Akbar Videos
Jodhaa Akbar - Khwaja mere khwaja - song (1 Min) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Kehne ko - song (1 Min) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Kehne ko - song (30 Sec) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Azeemo shaan shehenshah - song (1 Min) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Azeemo shaan shehenshah - song (30 Sec) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Theatrical trailer -5 (30 Sec) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Theatrical trailer -4 (45 Sec) - [Updated 18, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Theatrical trailer -3 (45 Sec) - [Updated 14, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Theatrical trailer -2 (30 Sec) - [Updated 14, January, 2008]
Jodhaa Akbar - Theatrical trailer -1 (30 Sec) - [Updated 14, January, 2008]

Courtesy: Indiaglitz.com

Kamal Haasan to join forces with Disney for Marma Yogi

Tamil actor Kamal Haasan will now join forces with the Walt Disney Productions, who are slated to produce his forthcoming film Marma Yogi (Mysterious Saint).

Walt Disney Productions, which recently tied up with Yash Raj Films for a full-length animated feature called Roadside Romeo, wanted to expand its operations across the country.

According to sources, this spectacle will be co-produced by Bharath Bala, who was responsible for Vande Mataram, the first patriotic music video by A. R. Rahman. The new collaboration will also see Kamal Haasan and A. R. Rahman coming together after a long gap.

The film, which is said to be directed by Kamal Haasan will be his fourth directorial venture. It is a period drama, set in the seventh century, which will also feature him in the lead role. Hema Malini, who worked with Kamal in Hey Ram and Asin, and who is casted opposite him in Dasavadharam, has been roped in to play key role.

Co-incidentally, Marma Yogi is the title of one of MGR's legendary blockbusters, which is known to be the first Tamil film to receive an 'A' certificate at the time of its release in 1951. This is the second time that Kamal has adopted the title of an MGR film (after Sathi Leelavathi of 1936). The new film, which is touted to be the most expensive Tamil film, has an astronomical budget of Rs 90 crore.

Kamal will shortly go to the US to discuss the production of this film, which is slated to be shot in Thailand and the actor plans to start shooting for this film in February.

Courtesy: Televisionpoint.com

Super Star bags the Best Entertainer Award

NDTV, the private Television channel known for its candid and forthright opinion presented awards to Indian heroes in a grand ceremony which was held in the capital last evening. Super star Rajinikanth did Tamil Nadu proud by winning the Best Entertainer Award for 2007 while A R Rahman was awarded the NDTV music award.

The Boss was given the award by none other than the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh who himself was honored with the Best Leader of 2007.

The event had questions being shot at the winners from various sections of the audience along with NDTV crew. Rajinikanth was attired in a simple kurta and pyjama and when he went to collect the award he was shot a poser from the Badshah of Bollywood who wanted to know what should one do to become the Shahenshah. Super star smilingly said that Shah Rukh will certainly become the Shahenshah one day. To a question on whether he will take the plunge into politics, he said that he believes in God and destiny. Other South Indians who took away the awards were, Dr.A P J Abdul Kalam as the Inspirational Leader of the year and Vishwanathan Anand for Sports Leader of the year. The event was attended by the crème-de-la-crème of India like the Gandhi family, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the Ambanis, Shah Rukh Khan and his buddy Karan Johar and a host of other luminaries

Courtesy: Behindwoods.com

Deepika will pair with Rajnikant in Robot

Rajnikant will be coming in Director Shankar’s new sci-fci thriller mega budget film ‘Robot’. A.R Rahman will be composing music for ‘Robot’. The trio Rajnikanth, Shankar, and A. R. Rahman, after success of ‘Sivaji’ will be once again together to create the same magic.

Ayngaran International and Eros Multimedia have formally announced the film. Ayngaran International and Eros International will jointly be producing this film.

Rs 120 crore is the initial budget allocated for the film, Robot. Investment will exceed the money ever spent on any big-budget film from Kollywood, Tollywood or Bollywood. Money should not be a constraint for the grandest film in India.

The film will be produced in three Indian languages Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. It is talked in media that Deeepika Padukone who made a superb debut with Shahrukh Khan in film Om Shanti Om may now be pairing with Rajnikant in Robot.

Shankar is also reported to have roped in science writer Sujatha to write the dialogue for Robot. Sujatha is, in fact, a 70-plus-year-old male, who has become a celebrity in his own right in Tamil Nadu through his youthful style of science fiction writing. The ex-employee of Bharat Electronics takes the credit for using the short story format for familiarising lay magazine readers of Tamil Nadu with cutting edge technology. Way back in the 1960s and 1970s, when other Indians were not aware of Telex and Fax, Sujatha’s fictional characters employed Instant Messenger and Internet for communication! The science fictionist cum engineer happens to be a classmate of ABJ Abdul Kalam.

Interestingly Deepika who is 22 years old had paired with Shahrukh of 40 plus and will now be with the Rajnikant who is of 57 years! But for superstar Rajinikanth who has acted earlier opposite to Shreya in ‘Sivaji the Boss’ who was almost Deepika’s age.

As of now Deepika is filming for Yash Raj Film''s Chandni Chowk to China, which is expected to hit the floors in February. Robot’s budget may exceed 100 crore probably may be the most expensive in Indian film history.

It will be worth a wait and watch for Deepika if she finalizes the deal and off course for Robot.

Courtesy: Mynews.in

Hrithik-Aishwarya are charismatic: Ashutosh Gowariker

Young and dynamic director Ashutosh Gowariker, who is ready with Jodhaa-Akbar, says he was fascinated by the relationship that the two historical figures must have shared after marriage.

"I feel if today we make a story about the past, it must be correlated to the present. And 'Jodhaa-Akbar' is as relevant to the present as arranged marriages. Jodha and Akbar shared a perfect arranged marriage. I was fascinated by how their relationship must have grown after marriage," Gowariker told IANS.

Starring Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan in the lead roles, the film is set to hit the marquee Feb 15. The director is dubbing it in Telugu and Tamil as well.

Excerpts:

After Lagaan, you return to a period film in Jodhaa-Akbar?
You might say that. But I call Lagaan a period film. Jodhaa-Akbar is to me a historical. Anything after 1857 is a period film for me. Anything before that is a historical. Jodhaa-Akbar is certainly not a costume drama. It isn't set in a never-never land. I'd call Mughal-e-Azam a historical though its focus was different from mine.

I feel if today we make a story about the past, it must be correlated to the present. And Jodhaa-Akbar is as relevant to present times as arranged marriages. Jodha and Akbar shared a perfect arranged marriage.

I was fascinated by how their relationship must have grown after marriage. There was no reference in any books about what happened between them. I've taken extreme care to make sure viewers believe in the relationship.

How much have you stressed the religious difference between Jodha and Akbar?
It's important but not stressed in my film. Let's not forget, Akbar's marriage to Jodhabai was no common occurrence. It had a nationwide reverberation 450 years ago when society was far more conservative. How did their marriage affect those times? That's a question relevant even today. But I'm not jingoistic in my treatment.

Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan have very contemporary personalities?
That won't be a problem. The audience will come in and forget everything about Hrithik and Aishwarya. Hrithik-Aishwarya's pairing is incredible. They're extremely charismatic and good-looking. They were a huge success in the contemporary Dhoom 2. That can only help my film, not harm it.

What audiences will see in my film are Jodha and Akbar. At least that's what I've tried to ensure through their looks, body language and behaviour. I wanted to make my historical as believable as I'd like to see it being.

Every element big or small, from the texture of the clothes to the sets, dialogues and the protocol, even the incidental sounds of birds and animals, they all had to be just right for me.

I'm tired of filmmakers wondering where those good old days have gone. I wanted to reclaim those days. It took me two years of pre-production before I got into my first shot.

Film analysts feel history has no relevance for today's average youngster?
I agree. Even as a child myself historical films never interested me. But when I saw Mughal-e-Azam on TV, I connected to it because it was a story of lovers separated by parental opposition. That the parents were historical figures was incidental.

I feel the story has to be connectable to the audience. Hyder Ali, who wrote Jodhaa-Abkar, told me, "In Mughal-e-Azam the focus was so much on Salim and Anarkali, nobody asked a fundamental question. How did Akbar come to marry Jodhabai in spite of their religious and cultural divide? I immediately reacted to their alliance. I saw an interesting story there that needed to be told.

As for the youngsters, I had one rule of connectivity in my range of vision. Any word or dialogue that I didn't understand in Urdu I kept out. I've no interest in impressing audiences with my knowledge of Urdu, Hindi or even literature. I feel literature is for the books, and that's where it should stay. I needed to reach out to the masses.

So is Jodhaa-Akbar kitsch?
No. I've referred to literature and academia. But the Akbarnama was in Pharsi. It doesn't mean I'd use Pharsi in my film. I want Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bengal to understand the film.

I'm dubbing the film into Telugu and Tamil. Each language has its own regality and I'm going by the individual regality of the province. I had one vision before me when I started making this film. It was the world of the Amar Chitra Katha. I've grown up on that world.

Are you happy with the end product?
Oh! it has been tremendously enriching. So far the Mughal period was part of textbooks. I always wondered about the battles and the durbar intrigue. The Mughal period was known for its lavishness, so much so that studio bosses in Hollywood from the golden period were not called movie czars or movie nawabs. They were called movie moguls.

Courtesy: Hindustimes.com

Star Screen Award for Best Music

Winner
A.R. Rahman
Guru
“Due to some urgent commitment, I could not make it for the function. I must thank Screen and also the Almighty Mani Ratnam. Gulzarsaab wrote some wonderful lyrics. As usual, we had recorded more songs, finally narrowing them down to what I guess turned out to be the best. The first song I recorded was Mayya mayya - I was coming back from my Haj when I heard some people say that word, as Mayya stands for water, and told Gulzarsaab that it was a nice phrase and he liked it too.”-A.R. Rahman

Courtesy:ScreenIndia.com

Rahman’s dream‘land'

The composer has acquired property near Chennai airport for a music conservatory.

A R Rahman has already bought land to build the state-of-the-art music conservatory that he first talked about on his birthday, “It’s near the airport in Chennai. And we plan to start work on it very soon.” Now that the land is in place, preparations are underway to ensure that all functioning starts off in the next academic year.

Dreaming big

Rahman says starting a music conservatory is a dream he has nurtured for years. “I feel young talented musicians in our country specially those who want to learn western classical music, have nowhere seriously creative to go.

We need to cultivate a taste for western symphonic music so that an average musically-inclined young musician would be as enthused about learning the violin as the sitar.”

The land purchase puts Rahman’s dream plan into third gear. “We’ll soon be working round-the-clock. I want it to be one of the best music schools in our country.”

Instinctive

Meanwhile, Rahman tells us that he doesn’t want to compare his latest score for Jodhaa Akbar songs with Lagaan or Swades, “I don’t even want to compare it to Rang De Basanti. We’ve done what we liked without thinking of the outcome. You’ve to go by your instincts in every form of art.”

Two of his old scores are also ready for release. “Two years back, Abbas Tyrewala’s Jaane Tu Jaane Na and Adaa by Tanvir Ahmed were recorded. These will come in the next two months.”

And there’s Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraj. “It’s got western-classical vibes. But the sound is Indian, very mellow.

Rakeysh Mehra’s Dilli 6 is also coming up. “It’s turned out well. Who can if it will be accepted? Did anyone expect RDB to become so big?”

Hopeful

Rahman has a lot of hope from popular Hindi music. “A lot of people are still doing good work, but not consistently. Let’s not blame the lack of opportunities for the inconsistency. Malayalam director Adoor Gopalakrishnan says television has corrupted popular tastes… I agree. Even I get pulled into projects that are not right.”

Ask Rahman whom he considers a path breaker and he quips, “Why do we need a pathbreaker? Right now we need experimental melodies but neither do the films demand it, nor do the audiences.”

The composer continues, “When you start composing a soundtrack you’re thinking of what will sell and your intention gets diluted. It becomes more about marketing than creativity. The market should be assessed after the creative process. But there is hope yet.”

Courtesy:

'Jodhaa Akbar' a challenge for music maestro Rahman

For composer A. R. Rahman, the biggest challenge in "Jodhaa Akbar" was creating music that could echo the union of cultures in the period film -- the story of 16th century Mughal emperor Akbar's romance with a Rajput princess.

"Story wise it is about two cultures coming together in a love story," said Rahman. "It was a big challenge for me to compose music keeping in mind this theme of union."

Known for his musical versatility -- from romantic compositions to foot-tapping numbers -- Rahman has innovated with different instruments and sounds to create some of India's best known musical hits for more than a decade.

But for filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker's ambitious project, the Bollywood composer said he had kept the modern day audience in mind.

"The sounds and songs are very contemporary," said Rahman. "It is a period film but I have not gone into using Rudraveena or those classical instruments while composing."

"The music is simple - mainly instruments and vocals and there's no flashy use of sounds."

Courtesy: Reuters.com

An earthquake proof set worth Rs 12 crore!

Is your building earthquake proof? Not many will be able to answer in the positive, but Ashutosh Gowariker can claim that even for a structure as temporary as the set of his film ‘Jodha Akbar’.

This is just one aspect of many that went into the making of what is probably one of the most expensive sets created in the history of Bollywood.

Art director Nitin Desai, while recounting the hours of research that went into constructing the ‘Jodha Akbar’ set says, “We had teams doing research for more than six months on the kind of 16th century architecture that would have been prevalent in those days. We built an entire fort in exactly the way that it was built in the 16th century, but what took them 33 years, we had to complete in 3 months.”

Obviously, something like this would cost a lot. The entire set is said to worth more than Rs 12 crore, which is around a fourth of the movie’s budget.

Jodha’s chamber itself, which is made with intricate wall carvings, heavy curtains and fibreglass paintings, is said to have cost over Rs one crore.

Even the weapons used in the war scenes have been made of fibreglass, rubber and wood, so that the chances of anyone getting hurt were minimal.

“Obviously, to take such precautions as making the set earthquake proof, intricate carvings and still maintaining a realistic feel was a tough job. But we think we have reached international standards with the films. The only sad thing is that we will have to break it all down,” laughs Nitin.

Courtesy: DnaIndia.com

Big B lends his voice to Jodha Akbar

He did it in Lagaan and now he will be doing it for Ashutosh Gowarikar's Jodha Akbar as well. Amitabh Bachchan will be doing the voiceover for the epic romance which stars his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai and actor Hrithik Roshan in the lead roles.

Reportedly, Big B is all set to do the voice over next week. Surely, Gowarikar has high hopes from Jodhaa Akbar now that Big B too features in it!.

Courtesy: NewIndPress.com

Rajni the animated superhero

Meet India's first 3-D superhero - superstar Rajnikanth! He is to star in an animated mythological film at a whopping budget of Rs 40 crores, and directing Rajnikanth in this new avataar is his own daughter.

Rajnikanth has always played larger-than-life images on the silver screen, but now South India's biggest superstar is attempting a bigger feat - an altogether new celluloid genre.

The film 'The Sultan' features Rajni as India's first 3-D animated superhero, and presenting him in a kingsize persona on reel is his daughter Soundarya who is calling the shots.

"My dad is ,king and I am very proud to say that. I personally think he deserves the best - and to be animated first is the best. All his films are for his fans, so he is putting in a lot of drama, a lot of humour and excitement in the story which is his own. It's a typical Rajnikanth commercial film," says Soundarya Rajnikanth, MD of Ocher Studio.

The slick production belies its Indian origins. The Sultan is a mythological movie to be made at a whopping Rs 40 crore budget and is expecetd to make Rajnikanth the first ever South Asian hero to be compeletely animated.

Soundarya says it is her tribute not only to her dad, but to the countless Indians technicians who are on par with their international counterparts in digital wizardry.

"This is my dedication to my father, and I am looking at giving it to him on his birthday this year. So there is a lot of effort that is going into it and definitely directing my father is not simple, but it's very exciting and apart from the excitement and the personal involement that my father and I have in this movie, I want to do this for the country as well; Indian technicians are so, so good and they have not have the recognition ot the chance to prove themselves as yet," says Soundarya.

This is just a small teaser for what will turn out to be a full-length feature film - one that will be not only be a much awaited one for Rajni fans, but all technosavvy Indians.

Courtesy: Timesnow.tv

Sultan the Warrior: First 3D animated feature film

Ecstatic Soundarya, the younger daughter of Superstar Rajinikanth launched the theatrical trailer of "Sultan of Warrior" India's biggest 3D animation film on January 13 in Chennai.

This 40 crore film is directed by Soundarya and Produced by Ocher in partnership with Adlabs.

The flamboyant aor agreed to do the film on the pretext of her daughter, under whose direction the film has promises to keep the expectation of huge fan following Rajinikanth.

With this movie Rajinikanth will script his name to be the first superhero to act in an animated film made in India or South East Asia.

Both the father and daughter are newcomers for one is going to be the first to do the animated film while his daughter is debuting with “Sultan of Warrior” and according to her the film is a ‘daughter’s gift to a father.’

“And with this, we hope to set a benchmark for Indian animation. There have been animation films before in India but, not of quality that we are trying to achieve with this movie,” she added.

“My father is happy and proud that I am a director. And I am proud of directing him,” she said.

The film has four songs written by Vairamuthu and A.R. Rehman scores the music.

India entertainment industry unknown to this concept will get a first hand experience which promises to break the myth that only Hollywood can deliver good animated movie. The film will be released by the end of the year in 12 different languages.

Courtesy: NewstrackIndia.com

Soundarya Rajnikanth reveals her future plans

"Apart from animation, I have plans to direct commercial films as well," revealed Soundarya Rajnikanth after launching the second trailer of her maiden venture Sultan The Warrior (STW), at the Inox Theatre.
STW is a 3D animation film featuring superstar Rajnikanth in the lead role, the movie has 10 million dollar budget and is jointly produced by Soundarya's Ocher Studios and Adlabs.

While replying to a question about how her father reacted to the venture, she said, "Initially my father was very apprehensive about the project. But after a few days of shooting and seeing my work, he was convinced."

Soundarya also revealed that the film was purely based on fiction and boasted of a fresh script. Except for Rajnikanth the characters of the heroine, comedian, villain are fictitious.

So can we expect some trademark Rajni style dialogues in STW, she say "Yes, of course! Some of them are even written by me."

When asked about the reason behind Sultan wearing a rudraksha around his neck, Soundarya said that her father's sentiments were attached to it and the reason would be justified in the script as well.

A.R. Rahman composes the music for this film, Thotta Tharani is in charge of the sets. The movie will be released in 12 different languages including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and English and is scheduled for a 2008 end release.

Courtesy: Televisionpoint.com

Sultan: The Warrior is for my Appa, says Soundarya Rajnikant

"It's a daughter's gift to her father" - that's how Soundarya, daughter of Tamil superstar Rajnikant, describes her full-length animation film Sultan: The Warrior to be released in November this year.

Addressing mediapersons after a special screening of the second trailer of the much-awaited film, Soundarya sounded thrilled over producing the first-ever animation film made around an Indian actor.

She also confessed that her Appa (father) was initially very hesitant to play the role. She was happy, however, that he agreed after "all his apprehension were allayed".

Except Rajnikant, all the characters would be animated. The superstar would have his jodi (female opposite). Further details about the movie, however, are strictly under wraps.

The film, being made at a cost of $10 million by Adlabs, along with Soundarya's own Ocher Studio, will be released in 12 languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English.

Soundarya said that the film is a "collective effort of 80 of us from the Ocher Studio".

The second trailer showed Rajnikant fighting the villains in his familiar style.

AR Rahman scores the music for the film, which will have four songs. One of these will be in English, and the search is on for a Western singer.

Courtesy: Hindustantimes.com

A royal chemistry?

Ashutosh Gowariker's much-awaited 'Jodha Akbar' is a film, which has been making everyone drool over exotic visuals and the sizzling starcast. The magnum opus is all set to be released in January-end.

The film is all set to showcase Ash-Hrithik pair amidst the magnificent sets depicting a sixteenth century tale of true love and war. The Ash Hrithik chemistry is still clearly alive with both the actors looking like picture perfect pieces of history. The duo were earlier seen in 'Dhoom 2'. However, it will be interesting to see their chemistry in the movie. Interestingly, 'Jodha Akbar' is Ash's first film after marriage.

Rumours mills are abuzz as to whether the reel life King (Hrithik Roshan) and Queen (Aishwairya Rai) will fire up the screen with their much-talked about chemistry. However, when quizzed about their chemistry in the movie, Hrithik was at his reticent best and said:"Go and see the film in the theatres."

According to the grapevine, the chemistry between the lead cast of the movie is very much there, and ironically, it is even making some people uncomfortable especially those who are close to the pair.

Both Hrithik and Aishwairya were eager to clear the air in their own different ways. Tongue firmly in cheek, Hrithik Roshan said:"We like doing good work and even if there was a spark on the screen, which might make anbody angry, we will be the first to sort it out."

While, Aishwairya Rai Bachchan, was quick to react to Hrithik's comment and warned the media saying,"Now that he has talked of a spark, let me clearly specify that there never was a spark, so kindly don't start speculating."

Well Ash, we just wonder whether is it that easy to brush away what many say is the 'obvious'.

Courtesy: Timesnow.tv

A Few Tidbits about Jodhaa Akbar's Music

Along with the near frenzy of anticipation for Jodhaa Akbar, the movie, the soundtrack is also very eagerly anticipated. The music had a grand launch last week with stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in attendance. Though not in the stores until this week, the music has all ready attracted notice. It is being played on the radio much to the delight of fans and the song's promos have gotten rave reviews from all who have seen them. To hold you over until you get your hands on the CD we thought we would share a few facts about the music.

Despite rumors there have been no songs cut from the film, Director Ashutosh Gowariker said, “There are only five songs recorded for Jodhaa Akbar and we've retained all of them. I treasure every song that I record and wouldn't dream of cutting them for length. Even if we had nine songs only two would wind their way into the charts. We have five songs and I've worked on making each hummable.” He is very pleased with how the songs have been accepted, “The response to the first two songs has been surprisingly positive. People were expecting archaic songs, but they seem to have liked the modern adaptation of the 16th century sounds.”

Originally for the song 'Mann Mohana', they wanted Aishwarya to lend her voice to the track. Bela Shende recorded it first and then the plan was that Aishwarya would come and sing it later. However, the timing for her to record could never be worked out. Composer AR Rahman said, “Ashutosh strongly felt that Aishwarya could record the song in her own voice, as a bonus for her fans. So, we got Bela to record the track and waited for Ash to come and dub it. It’s sheer bad luck that when I was free, Ash was too busy and vice-versa. Meanwhile, we got so used to hearing Bela’s voice that we decided to retain it.”

With music by AR Rahman and lyrics by Javed Akhtar, Javed Ali, Sonu Nigam, Bela Shende and AR Rahman himself perform the songs. "Jodha Akbar is a romantic story about a king falling in love with a princess and I have tried to keep the music contemporary so that it satisfies both critics and the music lovers," Rahman said.

At the launch Rahman said, "Jodhaa Akbar is going to change the mentality of Indian people, no matter which religion they belong to. It is going to bring love."

On a side note another interesting tidbit was revealed at the music launch; Amitabh Bachchan is part of the film as the narrator.

As soon as we get a copy of the soundtrack our reviewer will get to work, so be sure to check back here often to see how many stars he gives it!

Courtesy: Bollyspice.com

Ayngaran to produce 'Robot'

Ayngaran International, which was last year acquired by Eros International company, has announced the production of 'Robot', starring superstar Rajnikanth.

After the grand success of 'Sivaji', Rajnikanth, talented director Shankar, and music maestro A. R. Rahman, are coming together once again in the much anticipated 'Robot', which will be produced in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Rajnikanth says, "I am immensely happy to be working with Ayngaran – Eros International for 'Robot'. This film by Shankar is one of its kinds to be made on Indian screen. No one has done it before."

Director, Shankar, commented,"It's very exciting to be working again with talents like Rajnikanth and A. R. Rahman. Combined with production & distribution muscle of Ayngaran – Eros International, 'Robot' has the potential of becoming this year's biggest film."

K Karuna Moorthy, CEO, Ayngaran, commented, "After the grand success of 'Sivaji' and 'Billa' we are all geared up for 'Robot' now. Aligning with Eros International's consolidation strategy, we are leveraging our position to integrate the Tamil film industry by producing & releasing films on the global platform. It's a pleasure working again with the magical team of Rajnikanth, Shankar and A. R. Rahman. We are positive that 'Robot' will break all box office records."

Courtesy: Televisionpoint.com

Rahman runs from Bollywood

Bollywood’s loss is going to be the Western world’s gain.

A R Rahman is deliberately turning down big assignments here because of copyright and royalty issues regarding music sales. The reticent retainer of the raga and rhythm is reluctant to discuss the issue.

“It’s too complicated. But, yes, the issues do stop me from accepting more Bollywood offers. Those who want to work with me in Mumbai but won’t agree to my conditions, are going to other composers. At the moment, I’ve also cut down film assignments because I want to focus on creating a Western-classic music conservatory in India. With this I hope to bridge the gap between Western classical and Indian ragas. Imagine a thumri being played by an orchestra! Or a Carnatic raga being a part of a big Hollywood epic,” said Rahman.

The musical visionary says he needs to take his music to another level now. “I can’t be doing just films, films, films all my life,” said Rahman. “But whenever I work in Mumbai, I give my fullest concentration, as I did for Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar , which I’m proud of.”

However, international assignments are getting more prominent in Rahman’s career. “I enjoyed doing Shekhar Kapoor’s Elizabeth — The Golden Age . Now my music for the stage adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings is ready. The album is being released in Feb.”

Rahman sees this album as his big international leap. “Every song has a minimum of 200 musicians and technicians involved in it. Huge choirs and orchestras were brought into play. We recorded the album in London and mixed it in my studio at Chennai. The whole crew came down from all over the world.” All the songs are in English and in Elvish...the language of The Lord Of The Rings. “I had lots of help from fellow musicians like Christopher Nightingale. It took me three years to do the album.”

Looking back, Rahman is not the least content with his achievements. “It’s never enough,” he rued. “Music is my only therapy. There’re so many awful things happening in the world. I wish I could heal the world. My peace anthems like Vande Mataram and Pray For Me, Brother are a small candle light in the storm. But you never know which candle will light a thousand other candles.”

Courtesy: TimesofIndia.com

Mission Ustaad - this week

Mission Ustaad this week again made sure to keep the quality high. The theme this week was - Mother. It was one of the most emotional, thought provoking and overwhelming episodes that left one choked with emotion. This was one subject that captured the attention of even the ever elusive Rehman and made him more vocal. The performances were brilliant, the judge-participant interactions were thought provoking, the Brahmastra songs were very touching and the personal touches in the show highlighted one very big truth - Whether one is a celebrity or a common man, mother means and is the world to him or her.

Courtesy: India-forums.com

Sultan The Warrior - Images

Courtesy: Behindwoods.com