Editorial: This week in entertainment

By: Sunil Noronha
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Any director, actor or producer knows that their life in movies can be cut short, elongated or just killed over a weekend. The people who felt the pinch the most this week are Chiranjeevi, Prabhudeva and Ajith with their films flopping in succession. In this environment that can make or break you in almost no time, Rajinikanth, Govinda, Salman Khan, Sajid Nadiadwala have managed to get the most out it. But this is a regular fight that anybody in the industry has to win to stay alive and kickin'. Let's see what losers and winners the next weeks releases bring.

Of late, we've seen the kissing phenomena taking Bollywood by storm. Apparently as it seems to be, to be kissed or kiss is one way to have people take notice of you. Neha Dhupia has actually said that she feels awkward kissing onscreen and that she will do it only if the script requires it. Well, only time will tell if she really means what she says. Meanwhile the serial kisser Emraan Hashmi has also shunned his much publicized kissing habit - finally!!! Meanwhile Hritik Roshan and Aishwarya Bachchan show no signs backing up from each others lips.

This is similar to the item number craze that was there a while back in the industry. In Rakhi Sawant's own words, an item used to be frowned upon because it was an item number. At the same time, it got the dancer(s) in question the fame much faster that it came for those actresses who were in favour of real acting.

Now understanding this, the tables have turned. All the item girls and all those who have indulged in skin show are moving on to "more serious roles" while the more serious actors are trying to get atleast an item number or two to their credit to give them some headway. Hindi and Telugu item girl Mumaith Khan has officially moved on to full fledged roles with Maisamma IPS. Her fame has even got her a few sick middle aged fans because of whom she is surrounded by two bodyguards at all times.

In lessons learnt in this season in Bollywood, the best of the best in Bollywood are still doing the masala entertainers - a formula that has been proved to be a failure move in the past many a time. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is the biggest exponent of this formula. When will they ever learn?

Adamant to learn, Cash will be released soon with all the regular masala flick actors - Riteish Deshmukh, Esha Deol, Zayed Khan - sans the hype it looks like not so much of a head turner - atleast from the promos. And also the movies premise is an oft repeated one in the recent past - Cash. Looks to be like another Apna Sapna Money Money. To add to these problems, its producer has seemed to cheat the filmmakers out of a release on the planned date.

Meanwhile, Himesh Reshammiya has had what could be arguably the best weekends of his life. After spending almost his entire career in the media spotlight, he has finally spoken out - clearly this time - on all the controversy that has dogged him for all these years. He accepted the nasal twang in his voice, confessed his awe and admiration for Sonu Nigam and Asha Bhonsle and was brought to tears by both the appreciation of his music by the common man (read boys, girls, children, men and women - old and young alike), the industry's top musicians and the DJ's who thanked him so much for his chart topping hits.

Bollywood's actresses can feel much safer since a man who has threatened almost 25 actresses' to date. The man, Mehraj Rehman, was caught at a railway station. His targets have been Bollywood hottest - Priyanka Chopra, Rakhi Sawant, Koena Mitra, Lara Dutta and more.