By Jilawatan

While we may or may not endorse it, he has beaten the likes of Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and of course the current darling of the West — Freida Pinto — to bag the top spot. No mean achievement for a first-time film actor!

But, while many may rejoice at the fact, is Dev’s win really something to do with his special talent? Or, is his just a case of ‘flavour of the season’? Filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia thinks it is the latter. “These lists are generally compiled not on the basis of calibre, but rather it’s about what’s ‘in’ now. SM has been a huge success, and Dev and Freida have been all over the place. It’s all about clout and recall value. You cannot definitely compare one-film wonders like Freida and Dev to seasoned actors like Shabanaji and Om Puriji,” says the filmmaker.

By Jilawatan

While we may or may not endorse it, he has beaten the likes of Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and of course the current darling of the West — Freida Pinto — to bag the top spot. No mean achievement for a first-time film actor!

But, while many may rejoice at the fact, is Dev’s win really something to do with his special talent? Or, is his just a case of ‘flavour of the season’? Filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia thinks it is the latter. “These lists are generally compiled not on the basis of calibre, but rather it’s about what’s ‘in’ now. SM has been a huge success, and Dev and Freida have been all over the place. It’s all about clout and recall value. You cannot definitely compare one-film wonders like Freida and Dev to seasoned actors like Shabanaji and Om Puriji,” says the filmmaker.

By Jilawatan

The lukewarm response to her recent Hollywood release Pink Panther-II has had Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (35) conceding her position as the most popular face of Bollywood.

In the West to the new international craze 24-year-old Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), who according to reliable sources has been signed for two films — one with Woody Allen and the second with Julian Schnabel.

Freida, who is said to have earned over two million pounds, overtaking Bollywood beauties like Aishwarya, Kareena Kapoor and Katrina Kaif is also, according to a world film distributor, being wooed to walk the red carpet at Cannes in May 2009.

On the Bollywood front, Kareena Kapoor (28) has nudged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan out of the Filmfare Top-10 Power list.

But a producer from Chennai confirms that Ash is still the highest paid Indian heroine and has reportedly been paid a fee of Rs six crore for Shankar’s Robot, where she is cast opposite Rajnikant.