Kareena Kapoor on life with rivals, her beau, a possible shaadi… and living ambitiously Kareena Kapoor is fun to hang out with. She reminds me of Blair Waldorf, a fictional character from TV show Gossip Girl. Like her, she was born into a rich family, so there is vanity. They both have a bitchy side which is balanced by a sensitive one. Both Blair and Bebo have a superiority complex but also good-natured centers. Blair’s biggest vice is her “insecurity” with regard to her social status, which often makes her an over-achiever. Ditto for Bebo. But luckily for her she has a man, who checks her ambitious instinct. Here she talks about her beau’s influence on her life, her rivals (where are they?) and the inevitable marriage plans. Read on for the politically correct Kareena. The real one surfaces once the dictaphone is switched off. You have always believed that you are head and shoulders above competition. Admit it… (Thinks hard) Not really. I know what I can offer, maybe it is because of that. And I am passionate about cinema. I have grown up with people who lived and breathed cinema and that has a lot to do with it. Acting is in my blood. I am very proud of being a Kapoor and I thank God everyday that I come from this family. Lolo, too, was from the same family but she was humble. You don’t seem to have a false sense of modesty. You know, whoever knows me knows that I am very honest. I know what I can bring to the table. I am confident that I can deliver the goods. If asked to name an actress you consider your closest rival, you’d pick… The truth is, I think everyone is running a race. I am not. I know where I am. I am competing with myself. And if that wasn’t the case, I don’t think I would have films like 3 Idiots, Kurbaan, Omkara, Chameli, or Jab We Met. Also, the problem is, my closest rival keeps changing. Every year, a new name is touted. I don’t want to name anyone, but I think in the last few years, I have been compared to five different names. So let me name them… Bipasha, Katrina, Priyanka, Deepika, and Sonam… (Laughs) I am not naming anyone… let me just say that all these comparisons have never bothered me. Speaking of 3 Idiots, you had to know that the boys had the best roles, so what was the motivation for accepting the part? I knew what I was getting into. I did the film because I wanted to work with Raju Hirani, Vinod Chopra and Aamir Khan. From what 3 Idiots was on paper, I could see that it would go on to become really huge. And for me the question really was: Do I want to be part of this film? Or am I just going to be part of films where my role has been great but they’ve not gone on to be huge successes? And besides, we have to start thinking differently. In Inglourious Basterds, Christoph Waltz had a much better role but that didn’t stop Brad Pitt from being part of the film. We keep talking about the West doing things differently, but no one really follows it. Everyone is just bothered about the length of their roles, and how many songs and scenes they have. And for me, it’s not about screen time. It’s about being effective. How much money did you really make in 3 Idiots? (Giggles) Well, not even one third of what Raju, Vinod and Aamir made. But more than my bank balance, I am just happy that I am part of a film that has made history. Are you in discussion for another film with Aamir? You visited his house before you left for your European vacation with Saif… I went to Aamir’s house because I hadn’t seen him since his dad passed away. Saif and I are very fond of both Aamir and Kiran. And I would love to meet them again. Ours was a condolence visit, it wasn’t about work. Ok, I have to ask. You have worked with all the three Khans (Aamir, SRK, Salman). Who’s the most fun to work with? And please don’t be politically correct. I think they are all special — Aamir, Salman, Shah Rukh, Saif… Saif doesn’t count. He is the boyfriend… (Complains) No, no, not fair. Why should he be left out because we are together? Anyway, to get back to your question, I think they are all different and special in their own way. And that is why the Khans are still ruling the roost. No matter, who comes and who goes, they remain unaffected. I mean, see 3 Idiots, Love Aaj Kal, My Name Is Khan, and Wanted. Come on, guys, wake up. So where does that leave a Bachchan, a Kapoor and a Roshan? I would love to work with Hrithik. I think he is one of the finest actors in the country but surprisingly, no one is offering us films together, can you believe that. I am sure we will work together at some point. But there’s no stress there? Not at all. It’s strange that no one is even thinking of casting us together. I am looking forward to it, to be honest.

Does ex beau Shahid Kapoor still hurts Kareena Kapoor? It makes no sense to disrupt the professional relationship with Shahid when they both planned to appear in Boney Kapoor’s film ‘Milenge Milenge’ even after their break up.

‘Milenge Milenge’ was postponed by Boney due to financial problem. He was planning to make its release in April and to do a promotional song with lead pair Kareena and Shahid.

Unfortunately, Boney’s plans got flopped due to Kareena’s resent to appear with Shahid. According to sources report when Bony made his plan publicly, Kareena reacted negatively and made it clear to him that she is not appearing opposite her ex beau Shahid.

Reportedly, Kareena still sends SMS to Shahid and her refusal to shoot with him took everybody aback, source stated, “Milenge Milenge was made when the Kareena and Shahid were seeing each other, but due to Boney’s financial problems the film was held up and put on the backburner. However, after the success of ‘Wanted’, Boney is back and wants to release it. He has even recorded a fresh song with Himesh Reshammiya for the film’s promo.” Kareena and Shahid kept in touch with each other after the break up too. Kareena admitted that she and Shahid still exchange SMSs, so her refusal to shoot with Shahid has come as a surprise to many.

Kareena relented to do any promo with Shahid for Boney’s film and finally he had to place another girl for the promo song, sources reported, “Boney left with no choice now has to shoot the song with Shahid and some other girl who will be brought into the film just for the song.”

May be Kareena finds it difficult to balance in between Saif and Shahid at the same time. So she is maintaining in the easiest way through SMS with her ex beau Shahid.

By far the biggest hit of the year is undoubtedly Rajkumar Hirani’s latest magnum opus ‘3 Idiots’. The film has witnessed unprecedented opening collections including the paid preview collections.

Besides ‘3 Idiots’, there were only ten out of the 240 plus films made in Hindi during the year, which proved to be hits.

They were ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Kaminey’, ‘All The Best’, ‘Wanted’, ‘De Dana Dan’, ‘New York’, ‘Wake Up Sid’, ‘Raaz- The Mystery Continues’, ‘Dev D’, ‘Paa’ and last but not the least ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’.

‘Love Aaj Kal’, director Imtiaz Ali’s third directorial venture and Saif’s first attempt as a producer, which was appreciated by both critics and audiences.

Though it was made on a budget of Rs.48 crore, it did business of about Rs.75 crore in its first week itself. Spanning two different eras, the romantic drama starred Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and newcomer Giselle Monteiro.

The unprecedented success of Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Kaminey’ made on a budget of Rs.35 crores was a gamble at making a crime thriller that succeeded in talking both director Vishal Bhardwaj and actor Shahid Kapoor to a different level. Also starring Priyanka Chopra, the film’s box office earning was close to Rs.63.75 crore in India.

Salman Khan ended up as a wanted actor by every one in Bollywood after his film ‘Wanted’, the Hindi remake of the Telugu hit ‘Pokkiri’, which sent every one’s adrenaline pumping by showing the power of single-screen theatres in the country as the maximum collections came from there. Directed by Prabhu Deva, the film’s total cost was Rs.35 crores but it recovered the investment by earning Rs.38 crores in its first week itself!

Though ‘De Dana Dan’, directed by Priyadarshan had stars like Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy, and started with a good box office response, it started limping gradually and will take some time before it makes a kill at the box office.

Made at a budget of Rs. 37 crores, it managed to rake in around Rs.68 crore at the domestic box office and is still running. Kabir Khan’s ‘New York’ broke the dry spell at the ticket counters as the first hit after the producer-distributor and multiplex strike over revenue sharing got over.

The film dealt with terrorism and had John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh as key players. Where producer Karan Johar was unlucky with his film on terrorism- ‘Kurbaan’ flopping at the box office, Aditya Chopra was happy with handsome rewards at the box office for his film.

Aditya, however, was disappointed with the outcome at the box office of both his ambitious films ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ and ‘Rocket Singh- Salesman Of The Year’ directed by Shimit Amin.

‘Raaz- The Mystery Continues’ proved to be an unexpected success and the first hit of the year. The movie proved that content rules at the box office. Made on a shoestring budget of Rs.9 crore, producers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt managed to earn Rs.33 crores in India.

Director Mohit Suri’s film had Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman in the lead roles. The Bhatts tasted failure with their next venture ‘Jashn’, which had Shekhar Suman’s son Adhyayan leading the star cast with Anjana Sukhani and Shahana Goswami.

Abhay Deol scored a high as an actor with his hit film ‘Dev D’, a low-budget film with not so big co-stars like Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin. It was writer Anurag Kashyap’s take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic Bengali novel ‘Devdas’.

Director Anurag Kashyap presented the doomed love story with chutzpah and people loved watching the tragic love story in its new avatar. While the total money invested in the movie was a meager Rs.6 crores, it earned Rs.23.25 crores.

‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’ directed by Rajkumar Santoshi who tasted a big hit after his film ‘Hulla Bol’ flopped last year, proved to be the savior for Ranbir Kapoor, besides ‘Wake Up Sid’, though his ‘Rocket Singh- Salesman of the year’ bombed, like Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Jail’.

The Ranbir-Katrina star pair was liked by the audiences, so much so, that the media was full of stories about how Ranbir had dropped his lady love Deepika for the sake of Katrina, in spite of Salman Khan, though both Ranbir and Kat denied the stories vehemently.

Amitabh Bachchan proved that he is indeed the Shahenshah at the box office by coming up with an award winning performance as Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan’s child afflicted with illness called Progeria in ‘Paa’.

The film directed by R. Balki who had earlier made ‘Cheeni Kum’ was made on a budget of Rs 16 crores but can be safely called a hit because Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and directors R. Balki reportedly did not charge their market price for the film and also the Bachchans- both Amitabh and Abhishek have reportedly kept the satellite rights of the film which is valued at Rs 10 crores.

Though Priyanka had a hit in the form of ‘Kaminey’, she tasted failure when ‘What’s Your Raashee?’ proved that she couldn’t carry a film on her shoulders.

Ditto was the case with Rani Mukherjee who could not carry ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ on her shoulders. Though the year proved to be dismal for Shah Rukh Khan whose ‘Billu’ flopped at the box office, in spite of having Priyadarshan as the director.

Kareena tasted failure with both ‘Main Aurr Mrs Khanna’ as well as ‘Kurbaan’ though she had a hit in the form of ‘3 Idiots’. Bipasha had a hit in ‘All The Best’ though her film ‘Aa Dekhe Zara’ sank without a trace.

As far as the actors are concerned, it was certainly a bad year for Akshay Kumar, since every film of his flopped- ‘8 X 10 Tasveer’, ‘Chandni Chowk to China’, ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ and ‘Blue’. To some extent ‘De Dana Dan’ helped him resurrect his sagging career.

Saif Ali Khan had a hit in ‘Love Aaj Kal’ and a flop in ‘Kurbaan’. It is Aamir Khan who scored a high with his film ‘3 Idiots’ which was an icing on the cake for Rajkumar Hirani whose third film it was, after ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’.

On the whole, it was a lackadaisical and lackluster year for Bollywood which faced the worst set back during the year when the multiplexes remained closed for almost two months crippling the film industry badly. One hopes the year 2010 is able to bring cheers to Bollywood!

It’s finally time for Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor to reunite on-screen as their long delayed film ‘Milenge Milenge’ is set to hit theatres on March 5, 2010.

The release date has been confirmed by producer Boney Kapoor who continues to be passionate about his pet project in spite of it being in the making for half a decade.

“The principal shooting of the film is wrapped up and we are neck deep in post production. 5th March has been confirmed for release and we are finalising our marketing and promotional strategy,” Kapoor said.

The film’s leading lady, Kareena Kapoor has meanwhile silenced detractors who raised questions as to whether the former couple will come together to promote the film.

“I can’t help it if the media chooses to report things based on their whims and fancies. Did I ever say that I won’t be working with Shahid? In fact I loved Shahid in ‘Kaminey’. He was superb there. Our personal equation can’t define our professional relationship,” said Kareena.

Shahid and Kareena were last seen together in the 2007 hit ‘Jab We Met’ which re-energised their fizzling careers and Kapoor hopes that the film directed by Satish Kaushik will achieve similar success.

Shooting for ‘Milenge Milenge’ had begun in 2004 and this was the time when the real life love story between Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor was blossoming.

Though the film was fighting it’s own production battles, there was a subsequent halt when Shahid and Kareena broke up.

Many felt that the film may never see the light of the day but Boney Kapoor as well as director Satish Kaushik were confident that ‘Milenge Milenge’ will definitely hit the marquee.

In fact the industry was quite surprised when the first theatrical promo of ‘Milenge Milenge’ was unveiled a couple of months back.

Kareena is now gearing up to promote the film and said that she has no problems sharing the stage with Shahid.

“When I am willing to do films with him, why would I hesitate from the promotional perspective? There were reports some time back that I had said ‘No’ to shooting for a music video with him to promote ‘Milenge Milenge’. Now someone has to tell me where did that come from? I am there for the makers whenever they call me,” said the actress.

Boney Kapoor whose last production, Salman Khan starrer ‘Wanted’ was a superhit is meanwhile keeping his fingers crossed.

Himesh Reshammiya is composing the music for ‘Milenge Milenge’ and the film also enjoys the status of a solo release since there is no other film planned for a 5th March opening.

Shahid Kapur and Kareena Kapoor are all set to come together again! Wait… we are talking about their much-anticipated film ‘Milenge Milenge’, starring Shahid and Bebo, which may finally get to see the light of day this December.

Produced by Boney Kapoor and directed by Satish Kaushik, the long-waited film had got stuck mid-way, due to the two lead actors’ much-hyped break up as well as some other reasons.

But now, finally the film is all set to hit the theatres. And Boney Kapoor, who’s already basking in the success of Salman Khan starrer ‘Wanted’, said, “I am a happy man today because of two reasons – First, ‘Wanted’ is doing excellent business all over the world. And second, people love the promos of ‘Milenge Milenge’. I am getting an excellent reaction from all over. Those who have seen the promos are already raving about it.”

Confirming the news of this one’s release, Boney said, “Yes, ‘Milenge Milenge’ is all set for a December release. We have cleared all the problems related to the film. We have submitted the film to the producers association who are now planning the release date. Since many films have already been lined up for release we are not sure about the date. But there is a ray of hope for my film now. With ‘Wanted’ having done superbly at the Box Office, I hope the best for Milenge Milenge.”

Wonder how different is it going to be watching Shahid-Kareena together on-screen now!

The ‘Jab We Met’ pair is going to hit off together again! But incidentally this movie should have been released much before JWM. Milenge Milenge was said to have done before this movie but due to several reasons the movie was left on the shelf.

Now one can see the ex-lovers Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor back with this one. In ‘Milenge Milenge’ both the actors will be seen in their Pre-JWM avatars, if one has to go by their current looks. It is rumoured that their break-up was one of the reason of the movie’s abrupt halt. The two actors sometime back have said to have completed the dubbing separately. Planned to be a 2005 release, ‘Milenge Milenge’ will now hit the screens this December.

The movie revolves around boy and girl. Both falls in love but realisation dawns on both that they are poles apart to each other.

Being high on the success of his ‘Wanted’, producer Boney Kapoor claimed, “Yes, Milenge Milenge is all set for a December release. We have cleared all the problems related to the film. We have submitted the film to the producers association who are now planning the release date. Since many films have already been lined up for release we are not sure about the date. But there is a ray of hope for my film now. With Wanted having done superbly at the box office I hope the best for Milenge Milenge.” The producer seems to be confident about the movie as its promos are generating good response.

Rub your palms people! Let’s wait for December!