Aamir Khan's innovative way to interact with the media for Ghajini

Be it 30 secs commercial or a 3 hour long film, when Aamir Khan does it, he does it differently. This superstar deserves accolades for not just being a talented actor but also a very intelligent marketing personnel when it comes to promoting his films. Just last year we saw how Aamir grabbed everyone's attention with his directorial venture Taare Zameen Par, which had a young kid (Darsheel Safary) as the lead actor and a subject which was never dealt before in Bollywood. Yes, the film did star Aamir but it was also his smart marketing plan that managed to get the film, the great opening and rest is history. Ditto for one of this year's biggest hits Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, which had a complete new cast and crew, but the film created new records and thus made Imran Khan an over night star. One can't deny that the aggressive marketing done by Aamir did the trick.

And now, for his next film, Ghajini, Aamir has (yet again) devised a very smart and creative plan to interact with the media. As we know by now, Aamir has been enjoying blogging on his personal website and has been keeping his fans updated on every new development on his film projects. But now, the 'perfectionist' Khan will be creatively using the internet medium to interact with the media persons. 'Creatively' because the interaction will be based on the theme of Ghajini.

It goes like this. Every media person will be asked to upload their photograph on the website www.rememberghajini.com/media especially designed for Aamir to readily access their photograph. This will help Aamir recall everything about the journalist in a jiffy including their name and other details. Aamir will also write down a personal note that will be part of the journalists' profile. According to Aamir, this would be an interesting exercise since it goes with the theme of my film, Ghajini.

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India is fastest growing market for Bell Helicopter

After taking 52 years to sell its first 100 choppers in India, Bell Helicopter expects to sell its next 100 in less than five years as the country has emerged as an important market for the US company, a top official said.

'India is our fastest growing market in the whole world,' said Bell's director of communications Greg Hubbard, who was here for the civil aviation show last week.

'When we started our India office in 1995 we had only four percent of the market share; today we enjoy 52 percent market share,' Hubbard told IANS.

Bell sold its first helicopter in India in 1956 and delivered its 100th commercial aircraft to leading Indian infrastructure company Abir Infrastructure during the air show here.

'We have sold 17 helicopters in India this year, we expect to sell 22 next year and we expect to sell our next 100th one within five years,' Hubbard said.

'In India our growth rate is 15-17 percent while it is less than five percent in the US or Europe. Russia and Brazil are also growing fast, but the growth rate is lower than that in India,' he said.

According to the Bell executive, the global downturn has not affected its India operations; nor does the company expect it to do so in the future. 'Unlike fixed wing aircraft, helicopters are utility vehicles and demand will always be there.'

Bell Helicopter, which is a subsidiary of Texas-based $13.2 billion multi-industry company Textron Inc, is also excited about supplying military helicopters to India.

'We will bid for the Indian Army's 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter programme by end of December and we are hopeful of bagging a large contract.'

Giving details of the Bell429 model that it unveiled at the air show, Hubbard said the company had adopted a unique approach while developing the model.

'We formed a panel of customers and asked them what features they wanted and during the designing process they participated in working out the trade-offs between various features,' he said.

'As a result, we ended up developing a very flexible model that can be easily customized. For example, it has a completely flat floor that helps in customizing to meet specific needs of customers,' he said.

The helicopter has a glass cockpit and digital controls designed to meet the latest safety requirements and is very quiet, he said.

Talking about training institutes and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centres that Bell is planning to set up in India, Hubbard said: 'We hope to select our Indian partners by early next year.'

Priyanka takes a dig at Kat

We saw Priyanka Chopra taking a dig at Katrina Kaif while speaking to a news channel. Apart from her ongoing long term verbal dual with Kareena Kapoor for years now, Priyanka seems to have opened another war front by taking on the reigning box-office queen Katrina.

Priyanka said, "I love to do films that have me in important roles and not where I am used just as a prop. I don't see any reason to do films where I have 4-5 songs and 15-20 scenes just because they are touted to be commercial successes. What is the point of acting in such films and giving seven back to back hits? That doesn't make you grow as an actress!"

Getting more venomous she further added, "I may have delivered a few flops but even those had me playing important roles. I have not and will never act in films where my role is inconsequential and that my only job in those films is to look pretty."

All these clearly hint at taking on Katrina Kaif who has delivered 7 back to back hits in hero centric subjects with her roles in all the films right from Namastey London to Singh Is Kinng being almost negligible. Her only job was to bring in the glamour quotient to these films. Priyanka who debuted in Bollywood in 2002 is a year senior to Katrina who debuted in the doomed Boom which released in 2003. But what is interesting is that till date while Katrina has 8 hits to boast of Priyanka just has six!

We also heard that both Kat and Priyanka have signed two film deals with UTV and the price for which Kat has been signed for is supposed to be Rs 5 crore ie Rs 2.5 crore for each. Whereas Priyanka's deal was at a much lesser price.

Saloni aka Rajshree Thakur thrown out of Saat Phere?

Saloni aka Rajshree Thakur of Saat Phere on Zee has been shown the door by the makers of the serial. There had been reports earlier of her throwing tantrums on the sets and also reporting late for the shoots creating inconvenience for her co-stars in the serial.


A production insider revealed, “Saloni has been kicked out of the show. It was an unanimously taken decision by the production team as they were tired of her ever growing tantrums. You must be aware of how she had accused a dress attendant of tearing her saree while it was she herself who had torn because she didn’t want to wear it. Then again her late coming on sets was creating problems for us all. We had to use body double for her every time she was late. We are all relieved that she has been let off!”

Deep, The Creative Head of Sphere’s Origin, the producers of Saat Phere however clarifies, “She is very much a part of the show as of now. Presently a strike is going on in the industry so we are not shooting. As we begin shooting soon, she is very much in for the upcoming schedule.”

Lara Dutta gets a rose Tattoo on ankle!

Lara Dutta seems to have got completely carried away by the new found hot image and the comparisons with ‘the sexiest women in the world’ Megan Fox, on the sets of ‘Blue’.

The buzz is that she has got a rose tattoo done while shooting for the underwater adventure co-starring Sanjay Dutt and Akshay Kumar in Thailand.


Well, the word is that Kinng Akki plans to promote her too. So doing the hot thing has been of use, it seems!

Lara stumbled upon a tattoo design of a rose with a Maori symbol and decided to get it inked on her right ankle.

She says, “As soon as I saw this one, I completely fell in love with it and knew that this was going to be it. The pain was worth it because the tattoo artist did a magnificent job.”

Bollywood and Aishwarya mocked!

Canadian comedian of Indian origin Russel Peters who’s also internationally famous has launched an attack on Bollywood.


The man is not too impressed by the Bollywood movies despite reports of the progress the industry has made internationally in recent years.

He’s reportedly said, “I wouldn’t watch a Bollywood film even if I am at the lowest point of my life. These films have horrible stories and terrible acting. I don’t know why your films have singing or dancing every other minute. Either you are telling a story or you are not.”

We know that most of the news about Bollywood growing by leaps and bounds is created by the overenthusiastic Indian media. It’s great that someone has seen through the sham and has straightforwardly talked about it.

He delivers another shocker when he says, “Aishwarya Rai is the biggest example of bad acting. She has proved it time and again how it can do wonders. In Bollywood, people can become superstars just by having a pretty face.”

Devdas vs Sholay on Bigg Boss 2

Monica tries to convince Raja to go and talk to Rahul, but Raja refuses. Later, Rahul goes to Zulfi and says Raja said sorry to him. Monica tries to make peace between the two of them and advises Raja to stop fighting. The groups are divided and the housemates talk about each other's nominations....

On Sunday morning, the housemates wake up to the Airtel tune as the wake up alarm. Raja, Ashutosh and Rahul once again discuss who to nominate, later in the day.

Bigg Boss announces that the nomination procedure will start soon and tells everyone to assemble in the living room, only to be surprised by a stern lecture, and totally unexpected decision. Later, the housemates discuss this decision.

Monica: Everything is planned

Monica and Diana have an argument over planning nominations. Later on, Monica tells Rahul that she did not like the way Diana spoke to her in the kitchen and she thought that Diana was a fair girl, but no longer.

Further in the episode, Bigg Boss gives the housemates this week's weekly task. For the next three days, the housemates will have to enact famous characters from famous movies, as suggested by Bigg Boss. Everyday, they will be given a different set of characters to become. Bigg Boss also provides them costumes and props which they will have to utilise while in character, and whenever the alarm is played they have to get into character and stay that way till the next alarm.

Devdas is the first movie given by Bigg Boss and the housemates choose the following character:

Raja – Devdas 
Diana - Paaro
Ashutosh - Chunnilal
Debojit - Narayan Mukherjee
Monica - Chandramukhi
Zulfi – Sumitra
Rahul - Kaali Babu

The Devdas alarm is played and there is chaos everywhere. All the housemates are confused as to what to do…. They admit that they haven't seen the film so they could not act properly. 

As a result, they are given Sholay as their new film. After Sholay is launched, alarm is played and all the housemates get in to their characters, with hilarious results.