SRK wins over Brad Pitt

Forget Brad Pitt, declared Screen International in its Monday's Toronto International Film Festival special. 'The biggest stars in town were Bollywood movie titans Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.'

Rani Mukherji could have been on that list too but the actress, who was shooting in New York for the past several weeks, could not get her Canadian visa on time, according to Yash Raj Films.

If one took a look at the hordes of desis, and movie fans from Trindad, Guayana, South Africa, and the Arab countries outside the theatre where Never Say Goodbye (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) had a red carpet gala release, the Screen International comment made perfect sense.

The movie fans at the theatre where Brad Pitt was attending the premiere of his critically acclaimed Babel was miniscule (some 500 people) compared to over 2,000 outside the KANK venue.

But the mainstream publications, which in the past years have run glorious pictures of Lisa Ray and John Abraham (Water), Mallika Sherawat (The Myth) and Padma Lakshmi (tiny role in the little seen The Mistress of the Spices), have been ignoring the Indian star presence at the festival this year.

India has eight films (out of over 350 features and documentaries) at the festival. John Abraham is here to promote Kabul Express, with Bipasha Basu giving him company. And Nandita Das is promoting Maati Maay (A Grave-keeper's Tale), one of the most thought-provoking films at the festival.

But the Toronto Star newspaper ran a 400-word piece on page two of its festival special section under the headline, 'Bollywood stars thrill fans'. It also carried a picture of director Karan Johar.

Although many fans had seen KANK during its record-breaking run in the city, they still bought the tickets for the gala.

"We could have brought 1,000 friends to see Amitabh and Shah Rukh if tickets were available," said one teenager who had come with three of her friends.

Another teenager, who said he has seen most of Amitabh films, said, "Shah Rukh is great but Amitabh is like a god," he said smiling broadly. "At 65, he is like a superstar and he doesn't look his age at all."

Many said they had waited for over four hours to get a glimpse of Amitabh and Shah Rukh.

For Shah Rukh, the current Toronto visit makes up in some ways for the loss in 2001 when his home production Asoka was to have a gala screening at the festival. But Shah Rukh and his production team had booked their flight from New York either on September 11 or the next day. In the commotion that followed the terrorist attack on 9/11, the print of Asoka was reportedly misplaced at the airport and the film never made it to the festival.

Article from Rediff India!!!

John in Kabul Express

'I love to be in a film that puts story and script above actors'

Toronto has become a like a second home to John Abraham. Last year he spent over a week in the Canadian city promoting Deepa Mehta's Water at the Toronto International Film Festival. And he came this year to promote Kabul Express, a comedy of errors and looking beyond the stereotypes of an enemy.

Abraham, who played an idealistic lawyer in Water, now plays an Indian reporter in Afghanistan in the new film. The Taliban is on the run, but reporters are looking to interview members of the dreaded Afghan group. The story spanning two days links five people: two journalists from India including a photographer, an Afghan who hates the Taliban, a Taliban on the run and an American woman reporter.

Abraham spoke to rediff.com in between his visits to the gym. He ordered a four-egg omelet, insisting that he will have only the whites. Among many things, he also spoke about what it meant to be working with first time director Kabir Khan (Kabul Express) and how he deals with people who are convinced he cannot be a serious actor.

Tabu in Namesake

We haven't seen Tabu on the marquee in a full-fledged role for a long, long time.

Except for a half-baked role in Yash Chopra's Fanaa, the actress hasn't been in a film for almost a year.

But she has been busy, and here's proof.

Tabu's next film, The Namesake, is ready, and has been lapped up by audiences at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. It was premiered at the festival on September 11.

Directed by Mira Nair, the film -- based on a best-selling novel by Jhumpa Lahiri -- also stars Irrfan and Kal Penn.

Here, the director-actress strike a pose for the portrait session of The Namesake at TIFF.

Article copied from Rediff India!!!!

Shahrukh Khaike Paan Banaras Waalaa

Farhan Akhtar released the soundtrack of his Don remake a week ago, and the remixed Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy version is having a hard time comparing to the Kalyandji-Anandji classic.

We asked readers what they thought, and readers feel the new soundtrack -- which rehashes the original tunes -- doesn't match up at all.

And while we can't get over comparing Udit Narayan's version of Khaike Paan Banaras Wala to Kishore Kumar's immortal original, here is a still from Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra's version of the Amitabh Bachchan - Zeenat Aman classic.

The tributes seem well in place, anyway. The setting seems completely out of the 1978 classic, and film fans would note that the pattern on Shah Rukh's shirt is uncannily similar to that of the Big B's waistcoat in the original film.