A R Rahiman on the Cover of People Magazine

The film Slumdog Millionaire has been making headlines for the number of Oscar nominations that it has garnered and the Golden Globes that it has won. However, this one individual associated with this film has been blessed with success at every step that he took in his career. But he has not once taken it for granted; instead he has worked even harder to outdo himself. He is none other than A R Rahman.

This month in People magazine, musician A.R. Rahman opens up about the philosophy that makes him a great artist. The soft-spoken maestro attributes his success as much to his tremendous talent as having “ethics, commitment, passion and friendship”. After taking the international stage by storm with his score for Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman is now intent on cementing his reputation further.

Talking about his spiritual side, Rahman says, “It boosts my confidence, instills humility and detaches me from everything else.” He in fact credits his father for teaching him to respect people. “My father was a hard worker and never judged musicians by their compositions. He had great respect for them as people and I learnt the same.”

Though it is a Hollywood film that won him international acclaim (the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations), Rahman says that it is the victory of the Indian music. “My win is a win for Indian music. And I want to bring India more and more recognition in the field of music.”

And now though the world is at his feet, for Rahman family comes first. “It is too exhausting to have many films on hand. We all need a personal life. I need to spend quality time with my family.”

The magazine also features Rahman’s mother Kareema Begum, who treats the readers with an inside view of his life, “I have to send my grandchildren to the studio to remind him to have his food.” That just goes to show how committed he is towards what he is doing…

So all of us here at Bollywood Hungama say cheers to India’s very own Beethoven.

Asin to take up Anushka’s role

With Ghajini breaking all the box office records and raking mullah, Asin seems to have grabbed a few eyeballs even with the lack of proper publicity she deserved for the movie. She is currently busy with Vipul Shah’s London Dreams and is also contemplating on other projects

Another possible venture that could fall in her kitty is the Hindi remake of the Telugu hit Arundati. The movie is a joint venture co-produced by Geetha Arts, producers of Ghajini, and Ram Gopal Verma’s close ally Madhu. The producers were quoted as saying that Asin is considered as the probable actor for the role that was donned by Anushka in Telugu. “Other details will be revealed soon,” a source from producer’s side asserted

Exclusive: Shruti Hassan to make her ad film debut replacing Amrita Rao

Kamal Hassan and Sarika’s eldest daughter, Shruti Hassan will be making her debut with a TV commercial before the big screen one. Shruti has recently shot for an ice cream commercial for the brand Walls. Her first ever ad campaign features along with her young musician cum actor Raghav Sachar who is known for giving music to films like Kabul Express and One Two Three. However, it is learnt that Shruti has replaced Amrita Rao in the ad campaign.

Our source informs, "This particular TV commercial was earlier supposed to feature Amrita Rao with Pakistani band Jal singer Farhan Saeed. But with the diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan having turned sour post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and there being a ban called upon by local political parties on Pakistani artists, the makers thought it would be best to replace the whole concept and rope two totally fresh faces. Shruti was therefore chosen without any audition and since her background too is music, the makers thought a musical personality would suit her perfectly. Musician Raghav who is actually the music director of this very commercial was roped in at the last minute. It is learnt that the post production for the ad is presently on and it shall be on air in a few days time."

Shruti is presently shooting for Soham Shah’s Luck opposite Imran Khan and also for Leena Yadav’s Teen Patti starring Amitabh Bachchan and R. Madhavan. Raghav who had given music to films like Yash Raj’s Kabul Express and One Two Three is also planning to make a career in acting and has been taking acting classes. He was supposed to star in the Manzar song in Sunday but was replaced by Tusshar Kapoor.

Farah Khan is turning actor for Milap Zaveri’s film ‘Jaane Kahan Se Aayi’. Interestingly Farah plays a filmmaker in the movie, and Ritiesh Deshmukh her assistant.

In the film Farah doesn’t treat her assistant well and constantly insults him, so much so that once when he brings her some chai , she doesn’t like it too much and spits it onto his face.

Poor Ritiesh! It took all of three re-takes till the shot was okayed. But Rits, we hear, was too sporting. So we’re giving him the chai-nese award. Yay!

After delivering the smash-hit Heyy Babyy, Sajid Khan announced that his next directorial venture Housefull would star Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Deepika Padukone besides two more leading ladies. Soon the super-sexy Jiah Khan was also added to the star-cast and a hunt for the third and final leading lady was on.

A lot of names of top Bollywood beauties such as Genelia D’Souza, Vidya Balan etc. did the rounds but now after months of speculation by the media and industry-wallahs of who the third heroine of Housefull could be, we are finally going to reveal the suspense. The lady in question is none other than Lara Dutta. Yes, it’s official, Lara has been signed for Housefull and when we contacted director Sajid Khan, he seemed a little surprised at how we managed to get the news but nevertheless confirmed the same.

Now with an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta and Jiah Khan, expect the Housefull boards when this film hits the screens later this year