By Jilawatan

At a time when there is a virtual scramble for first State Dinner of US President Barack Obama on November 24 in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a US news outlet has come out with its own top 10 wish list of the invitees.

Topping the list released by Politico – known for coverage of the Capitol Hill and the White House – is top industrialist Mukesh Ambani, who met the President early this year. He is followed by writer-turn activist Arundhati Roy.

“As India has assumed a larger role on the global stage, Roy has spoken out against globalisation, Indian poverty and the country’s nuclear weapons programme — though she has often stirred up controversy,” Politico said and put Thomas Friedman, author of ‘The World is Flat’ next on the list, followed by Bollywood stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

By Jilawatan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan may be garnering a lot of attention by featuring in the beauty soap advertisement with hubby Abhishek, but she is troubled these days. The actress is fuming because of director Vipul Shah, who has taken undue advantage with her role in ‘Action Replay’. And so now the Bachchan Bahu, who had every reason to be happy, has refused to dub for the film.
The latest Bollywood news comes as a surprise because the actress is known to be a thorough professional. However, she took the harsh decision after seeing the rushes of the film in which her role seems ignoble. The film also stars Vipul Shah’s favourite star – Akshay Kumar.

Although sources close to Ash have said that Vipul Shah’s commitment to ‘London Dreams’ stalled ‘Action Replay’, and that the actress is not being difficult but insiders say that things are far from normal. The green eyed beauty is seeing red.

By Jilawatan

Bubbly Kerala-born Priyamani has high hopes that Mani Ratnam’s Ravaan, a loosely-based present-day version of the Ramayana, which also stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram and Abhishek Bachchan, will prove to be the perfect launch vehicle for her in Bollywood. The much-anticipated film, which has suffered a number of production problems, is now scheduled for release in the summer of 2010.

Priyamani, who won a National Award for her role in Paruthiveeran, recently hit the screens with Ninaithalae Inikkum, a remake of the superhit Mollywood movie Classmates. The film starred Prithviraj and Karthik.

Priyamani’s career appears to know no limits and she has recently bagged a role in Kannada opposite Golden Star Ganesh in a movie said to be a remake of the Kollywood hit Kushi. This will be her second Sandalwood movie after Raam with Puneet Rajkumar which is still awaiting release. “Once Raam releases, people will know who I am,” she says, “I won’t even be able to ask auto drivers to drop me home because then they’ll know where I live.”

By Jilawatan

Before you get your grey cells into action, we would like to divulge that the good news, which Bollywood’s power couple Abhishek Bachchan & Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is talking about, isn’t the one which you always love speculating (Abhi-Ash’s parenthood). Instead the couple has come up with something which will benefit you in more ways than one!

Well the beauty soap brand Lux that has created history by bringing together the hottest couple of Bollywood - Abhishek and Aishwarya for the first time ever in their new commercial, has brought the golden couple together once again to announce some great news for all their fans and the consumers alike. The new Lux variants are now not only enriched with the essence of beauty oils but there will also be thousands of 3 gram gold coins to be found inside the new range of soaps!

By Jilawatan

Talking of eyes one just can’t forget Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s appeal in a commercial year back to pledge to donate one’s eyes after one has finished with the journey of life. This was just after she had won the National as well as the International beauty pageants.

How many people were influenced to actually donate their eyes is difficult to say but, quite a lot of people were interested in changing the colour of their eyes.

The fact that the commercial had Aishwarya in light green eyes appealing to one and all to donate their eyes as she had pledged to do attracted attention, not to the mission but to the colour of her eyes.

Thus, came in the various companies with various shade cards offering many colours for Contact Lenses. Initially, they were so expensive that only big shots like film stars and the upwardly mobile could afford to buy them. So, we had only actresses and some actors and a few socialites actually opting for them.

By Jilawatan

It has been dubbed the hottest ticket in town. More than what President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be holding forth when they meet here on next Tuesday, the buzz is all about who all will be invited to the first White House state dinner in honour of the Indian PM - and what the menu is like.

As the White House keeps the cards close to its chest, the well-regarded the ‘Politico’ journal has done what it apparently regards as the next best by publishing its own ‘wish list’ of the top 10 guests.

Topping the journal’s wish list is Mukesh Ambani and it includes, among others, writer Arundhati Roy, India buff Thomas Friedman, Bollywood couple Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Gandhiji’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, General Electric boss Jeffrey Immelt, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Kansas lawmaker Raj Goyle and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

By Jilawatan

Besides being hailed as the most beautiful woman in the world, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has always been synonymous to God’s eternal answer to beauty, grace and gorgeousness. After having been crowned as Miss World, Ash (as she is fondly called), has now been announced as the first Goodwill Ambassador for Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft charity. As a part of this Ambassadorship, Ash will partner with Smile Train, in association with her own charity (Aishwarya Rai Foundation), in numerous ways to spread awareness and garner recourses to help the worldwide movement.

By Jilawatan

The latest buzz in town is that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is not too happy with the way her film Action Replay, with producer- director Vipul Shah, has turned out.

She apparently saw the rushes and didn’t like quite a bit of the film and is therefore dilly-dallying for dubbing dates. But another rumour suggests that Shah had wasted her dates as he was focusing on promotion of London Dreams and will now have to wait a while.

Don’t know how true either rumours are but like they say - equations change every Friday in Bollywood. And now that London Dreams has flopped, Ash sure has the upper hand.

By Jilawatan

Ben Kingsley, famous for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Indian independence hero Mohandas Gandhi, is reaching deeper into the country’s history with a new role as the Mogul emperor who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal.

Kingsley will star as Shah Jahan in “Taj,” 27 years after his award-winning performance in “Gandhi.” Indian superstar and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will play Mumtaz Mahal in the $25-30 million production, the British actor’s production company, SBK Pictures, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while she was giving birth to their 14th child. Soon after its completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son and imprisoned at the nearby Agra Fort.

By Jilawatan

This bollywood babe is adding more and more feathers in her cap each passing day it seems! And this time it is the honor of being Barbie.

Well…we are not talking of her new movie where she plays Barbie dolls, but the toy brand Mattel has decided to design a Barbie with Katrina’s face as a mark of celebration of their 50th year. This is a great honor for Katrina who says she was flattered when she heard the news. She added it is always good to be related to the fans and kids like this.

The dolls will be in stores by December’09 and we can’t wait enough to welcome Kaif as the famous doll avatar. Kaif, sadly though, had no time to see the progress of the designs as she had been busy with her new releases lately; though she is eagerly waiting to see the doll as soon as she is back.