Current self-claimed ‘King of Bollywood’ Akshay Kumar, and pretty wife Twinkle Khanna found themselves in public humiliation recently at Lakme Fashion Week, when social activist Anil Nair registered a case against them for a ‘vulgar and indecent’ public act.  During the catwalk, Akshay was to have his Levi’s unbuttoned by a fellow model, but he turned heads and heated up the room when he asked wife Twinkle, who was seated in the front row, to do the honours: an offer which she evidently found difficult to refuse.  Poor Twinkle later found herself arrested by police, but was ultimately released on bail of RS 950.  The stunt was aimed at promoting the Levi’s Unbuttoned campaign.

Bipasha Basu has been infuriated by conflict between herself and film producers regarding the use of her voice for her debut Bengali film, ‘Shob Charitro Kalponik’.  Apparently, the producers insist on having her lines dubbed by another female.   After heated discussions, they proposed to release one copy with her own voice to be submitted to the National Awards, and the rest to be dubbed as per their wishes.  Not if our Bips has anything to do with it.  The Bengali bombshell has fiercely refused this offer, saying that she has played her most demanding and ambitious role yet.  She fired back that there was no way she would allow the release of the film with someone else’s voice in her place.  Let’s hope this is a fight in which she emerges victorious.

Perhaps the most envied woman in Bollywood today is the stunning Kareena Kapoor.  Not only has she given herself the most incredible makeover, but she is now also the proud owner of the most expensive dress worn in Bollywood history.  Film-maker Sajid Nadiadwala, for ‘Kambakkht Ishq‘, had the RS 800,000 dress specially ordered from Paris to be worn in a song for the film, in which Bebo plays a supermodel, opposite Akshay Kumar.  After wrapping up shooting, the producer graciously gifted the dress to the actress, who was left in speechless awe of his kind gesture.

Rakhi Sawant is something else. Love her or loathe her, if you follow Bollywood, you hold an opinion of her.  At times she floors you with her unexpected philosophical anecdotes; but more often than not, you will find yourself cringing at her notorious antics.   Yet again, it is time to take sides.  Television’s most controversial star has now decided to tie the knot: through a reality TV show.  The show, titled ‘Rakhi Ka Swayamvara’, to be aired on NDTV Imagine, will use the public vote to help her decide on her husband-to-be.  After weeks of gruelling challenges to test their physical fitness, character, personality, talent and compatibility with Rakhi, the bride and winner ‘groom’ will tie the knot in the finale episode of the show.  After splitting with boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi in 2008, Rakhi has declared that it is the ‘perfect’ time for her to settle-down, and what better way than to use the help of the fans that made her? Well.. the standard sane-person way perhaps, but that’s never been an option for Rakhi Sawant. To her credit, would we really want it any other way!?

On a more gallant note, public favourite Shilpa Shetty has one fine husband-in-the-making.  Recent rumours accused the dignified Shilpa of being a ‘home-breaker’ and the reason behind beau Raj Kundra’s divorce.  The enraged Raj instantly jumped to defend his lady’s honour, and revealed to a Mumbai tabloid that the divorce had happened last year.  He went on to say that the only remains to be dealt with were financial settlements which were taking longer than expected, and consequently being sorted out-of-court.  As a result, Raj even made ex-wife Kavita sign a statement to the press to declare that Shilpa was not the reason behind their broken marriage.  Furthermore, the glamorous actress recently experienced an unfortunate ‘grope’ on her way to a temple, but before she could make sense of the situation, the sleaze in question was being beaten black and blue by her white knight.  And here we thought chivalry was dead.

Heads Up:

• Love-birds Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor to star together in Sriram Raghavan’s, ‘Agent Vinod’.
• Golden Couple Aishwariya and Abhishek Bachchan signed for Abhinay Deo’s ‘Crooked’, also starring Gul Panag, Jimmy Shergill and Boman Irani, to be shot in Greece, Istanbul, Thailand and India.
• Amir Khan’s movie ‘Delhi Belly’ to star hotty nephew Imran Khan opposite ‘Ishq Vishk’ third-wheel, Shehnaz Treasurywala.
• Prachi Desai of Kasam Se fame, set to play wife of a don- 1970’s working-class girl Mehjabeen, in Ekta Kapoor’s upcoming release ‘Once Upon a Time’.
• Vishal Bhardwaj’s latest venture ‘Kaminey’ set to release on 5 June 2009, starring current rumour mill victim-jodi Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor, with Shahid in a double role. The film also stars Amole Gupte, story and screenplay writer of ‘Taare Zameen Par‘, in his acting debut.

(4 votes. Average: 4 out of 5)