Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who starred in a recent Income-Tax Department advertisement to promote compliance, has lived up to his image by becoming the highest tax payer from among the film fraternity for the second straight year.

Mr Kumar paid an advance tax of Rs 9 crore in March, 2010, taking his total advance tax payment in the current financial year to Rs 18 crore. He paid Rs 31 crore in 2008-09, a period that saw him delivering hits after hits.

“It feels good and privileged to be the highest tax payer. It is also a greater sense of responsibility, “Mr Kumar told ET over telephone from the sets of Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan, his latest project. Aamir Khan, with a tax payment of Rs 12 crore, stands next in the ladder with Shah Rukh Khan following him. Read more…

Priyanka Chopra will make her debut on TVas the host of Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi and says she will be more than up to cracking what’s seen to be a male domain.

“Just because I’m a girl it shouldn’t be presumed that I can’t enter the boys’ territory. I’d do the stunts better than the boys,” Priyanka said.

The special edition of the show will feature Indian as well as international cricketers competing with each other to vie for the Fear Factor – Khaton Ka Khiladi title for 2010.

“And cricketers are people I’m very cool with. Not that I know the cricket world that well. It will be great getting to know them,” said the actress who has her own stunts planned for the show.

“All I can tell you is that the stunts this year are going to be bigger and scarier than they were on the show last year. Now we’ve male contestants instead of female and I’ve to match up to them,” she said. Read more…

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif is known for her glamorous roles but she hasn’t crossed the lines so far. That doesn’t mean she is a shy girl. This time, she has let the cat out of the bag by revealing that she would freak out on camera.

Yes, Katrina said that she has been wanting to freak out and get wild on camera for a long time. She added that she has got the chance to expose her sexy side through the item number in Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan. Read more…

Kareena Kapoor had landed a dream role, though it’s not with her anymore, thanks to cousin Ranbir Kapoor. The actress had apparently been cast to play Madhubala in the Kishore Kumar biopic. But now since Ranbir is playing the singer-actor-filmmaker, the two cannot be paired romantically. Now, the producers, UTV, and the director, Anurag Basu have begun to brainstorm over who to cast opposite RK.

According to a source in the production house, UTV had considered Kareena when Shoojit Sircar was expected to direct the movie. The company, that shares a great rapport with Aamir Khan who played the lead in their blockbuster, Rang De Basanti, had initiated talks with Khan on the biopic about two years ago. Read more…

The latest lass to be linked with actor Vivek Oberoi, is his Rakta Charitraco-star, Radhika Apte. The actor was even said to be quite close to the ladies of his upcoming release, Prince.

Since his break-up with Aishwarya Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi has had his fair share of arm candy with models and actresses galore. The actor hangs out and makes appearances with several pretty ladies but there has never been any talk of commitment on the actor’s part. This could be yet another name the ladies man has been linked with. Read more…

The film in question has been in the making for quite sometime now with the starcast apparently having issues about promoting the film. However, now we hear that Shahid Kapoor has decided to go ahead and promote his film with Kareena Kapoor, Milenge Milenge.

Sources close to the film have confirmed that Shahid Kapoor is shooting a promotional music video for the film today. Choreographed by Ahmed Khan, shoot of Shahid’s portions are to be finished by today. Read more…

Ever played a game that gets you a chance to win Rs 50 lacs while watching television?

Get ready to show Youngistaan Ka WOW in The Game, a concept that brings to life the fun of gaming through TV advertising. Featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt for the first time together, The Game promises to be an exciting challenge for Youngistaanis, this IPL season. Read more…

The huge success of ‘3 Idiots’ has rubbed on to Sharman Joshi big time. The actor who played one of the three ‘idiots’ college boys in the blockbuster hit, has now joined the league of Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

Since the past few days, no commercial break on any channel, breaks without one of Sharman’s six interesting ads. He has two big brands by his side now. Nokia, which has had Shah Rukh and Priyanka endorse its handsets and Airtel, which has had Shah Rukh, Saif and Kareena in their ads in the past, have roped in Sharman as their latest endorser.

With his great looks and cute expressions, Sharman is carrying on with his 3 Idiots’ college guy image in one Nokia and 5 Airtel advertisements. And the actor is quite kicked about it. Talking to us about his new endorsements, Sharman said, “Of course it is the ‘3 Idiots’ effect. These corporate guys and advertising agencies do a lot of research before zeroing in on a face. They need someone who is popular amongst their target audience. I feel great that they chose me.” Read more…

Early in the morning, I would start with my sa re ga ma… right from the time I would wake up to brushing my teeth to taking the shower, all the time I sang with hand movements trying to reach the highest scale and the lowest note,” Hrithik said.
The song “Kites in the sky” is in English and will be launched on national television along with behind-the-scenes footage March 29 at 9.30 p.m.

“I was nervous to make my debut as a singer, considering I come from a family that is well known in the world of music, but for this very reason my chacha (Rajesh Roshan) and director Anurag Basu were most certain that I could sing,” Hrithik said.
“My niece has learnt piano and she has this little Casio player which I borrowed. And I have the knack of finding any tune on any instrument. So I practiced on that for a week. Then I realized that it won’t work like that and I got a professional trainer.
“I have given this song my best and honest shot but I still don’t consider myself a professional singer,” the 36-year-old said. Read more…

Delhiites were mesmerised by the princely charm of Vivek Oberoi, who inaugurated the Provogue Studio at Ansal Plaza recently, and was also promoting his forthcoming flick, Prince. Provogue is also the fashion partner for the film. He was caught glancing through Provogue’s latest Spring-Summer collection. Read more…

There was plenty of excitement the other night at the premiere of Reliance BIG Pictures’ Well Done Abba.

The director Shyam Benegal and his star cast — Boman Irani, Sammir Dattani and Minissha Lamba (dazzling in a gold sleeveless, low-neck kurti) — wore proud smiles across their faces as they welcomed their guests inside the theatre. Read more…

It is common knowledge that Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan don’t get along well but that doesn’t stop Salman’s girlfriend Katrina Kaif from bonding with Shahrukh. The news is doing the rounds that she is getting too close to King Khan.

Katrina, who inaugurated the recent FICCI – Frames 2010 with Shahrukh, is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Rumourmongers are talking about her growing closeness to the Baadshah but she said that he is just an acquaintance. She added that there is nothing to be made out of her meeting with him, as it is very normal to greet cordially when ‘you meet somebody you know.’ Read more…

Anushka Sharma has gone in for a drastic makeover in Yash Raj Films’Badmaash Company. After a simple Punjabi kudi avatar in her first film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, she goes glam with a vengeance in her second film with the same banner. The look of the film is sporty chic.

Says an insider, “Shahid and Anushka have shot some water sports and games in the film hence the casual sporty look. They took the games very seriously and played stuff like badminton and beach volleyball even after pack-up. Anushka turned out to be the better player and beat her co-star everyday, irritating the competitive Shahid!” Read more…

They were perhaps some of the darkest days in Salman Khan’s life, but now they are set to light up the silver screen. Salman, one of the prime accused in the infamous chinkara case, had to spend time behind bars in 1996 and 1998, and now that period of his life is being recreated in a film called Qaidi No 210. And guess who is helping with the research? Salman’s former cellmate, Mahesh Kumar Saini.

Mahesh and Salman struck up something of a friendship in the three days they spent together in Jodhpur Central jail in 1996. Ranjit Sharma, the producer of Qaidi No 210, was introduced to Saini by the jailor during the course of his research and now he has taken him onboard as a consultant.

“I spent quite some time researching the subject and met many people in Jodhpur Central jail. That’s where I also met Mahesh Kumar Saini, a murder suspect,” said Ranjit Sharma. “I told him to get in touch with me whenever he was released. He got in touch some months ago and he has given me details about Salman’s stay in the jail. Chirag Patil, son of former cricketer Sandeep Patil, will play Salman.”

Mahesh himself is all praise for Salman and convinced about his innocence. “All I can say is that Salman is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. I know for a fact that he is innocent. I can’t reveal more because he had told me everything in confidence, but Salman never fired that shot (which killed the chinkara). He is going through hell to save someone else. I don’t think he ever expected this incident to become such a controversial matter and that even political bigwigs would play dirty. But one day justice will be done,” he said. Read more…

She is the one responsible for the turnaround of the idiot box. She is also responsible for the launching of many of today’s superstars, not just on TV, but also on the silver screen. She is none other than Ekta Kapoor, the undisputed queen of entertainment.

She is also the producer of the recent released and highly spoken about film Love Sex Aur Dhokha. The surfers were given an opportunity to get up, close and personal with the lady on celebrity chat.

But if you missed the chat, here are the excerpts of the same.

Ekta Kapoor: Hi This is Ekta Kapoor

cute MAHAK: hi ekta, good to see u here on chat….
Ekta Kapoor: hi mahak…

hamd: elka tell us about LSD pls…
Ekta Kapoor: LSD is about the voyeuristic nature of our society and is captured by 3 diff cameras which form 3 different stories in the film

dharmin: i see ur all tv seial.. .where do u get inspiration for them?
Ekta Kapoor: dharmin…from real life Read more…