Had you for a moment there, didn’t we. Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and some members of team Chennai Express will be present in Kolkata during the Indian Premier League (IPL) final to promote the film and in the process fix the lack of glamour at Eden Gardens. Though SRK’s team, the Kolkata Knight Riders crashed out of the tournament, the star will at least be allowed into the ground unlike at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai where he is persona non grata after being part of a fracas there last year.It is not clear whether the Chennai Express IPL film promotion strategy has been communicated to the organisers. Certainly Balaji didn’t inform them about the Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Again promotion, resulting in Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi being blanked from the coverage.

While on the IPL spot-fixing saga, the late and much loved and missed Dara Singh named his son after a popular Goan dish for best known to himself. Be that as it may, Vindaloo (Vindu) is singing like a canary and has apparently named and shamed some top Bollywood stars. If there is any justice in India, those named will be questioned and if evidence is found, jailed. But justice takes a long time to be served in the land of Mahatma Gandhi. It took 20 long years before Sanjay Dutt was locked up and he’ll be out faster than you can say ‘Munnabhai sequel’; Salman Khan continues to roam free while his driving and blackbuck cases creak on in court and ditto for Saif Ali Khan for the latter case. At least Shayan Munshi (who?) is being tried for his perjury. And does anyone know where Shiney Ahuja is?

We are celebrating the centenary of Indian cinema and one of the industry’s greats must be looking down from the big studio in the sky and squirming in discomfort. We are talking about Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar, founder of AVM studios. The pioneering efforts of one of the fathers of Indian cinema are too numerous to be mentioned here, but we are concerned with his grandson. Though it is widely believed that N Srinivasan owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise, technically the position of franchise head belongs to his son in law, Gurunath Meiyappan who his named after his grandfather Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar. Meiyappan is due to be questioned by the police for his alleged connections with bookies and this fact alone is enough to trouble his late grandfather’s soul.

Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab owner Preity Zinta’s long delayed dream project Ishkq In Paris has finally opened and predictably, has not troubled the scoreboard. For those who like to keep track of these things, the plotline of the film is ‘inspired’ by Before Sunrise and the location from its sequel Before Sunset.

Finally, from one form of pornography, namely the IPL, to the real deal, since all of you seem to be lapping it up with alacrity these days. Cartoonist Satish Acharya, bless his cotton socks, has come up with the best joke on the IPL. He says that Sreesanth is only the second most famous Malayali with a towel. The most famous is soft porn star Shakeela. Poor Sreesanth, he can’t be numero uno in anything.

B-town is a stylish place to be. Celebs experiment, fall flat on their pretty faces, and rise again only to surprise us with their revamped fashion sense. From A-listers (Priyanka Chopra, Saif Ali Khan, Kajol) to aspiring kiddies (Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan) – fashion is an integral part of every celeb’s life. And while some of these stars put in a great amount of hard work to stand out in the crowd, there are a few who make it seem simply effortless – they sport their Rados and Louboutins with a Zen-like serenity.

We focus on these celebs for our Bollywoodlife anniversary special, choosing from the style mavens on whom the light of the shutterbugs shone brightly this year. And they did absolute justice to…well…almost every occasion – from red carpet soirees to la-di-da film premieres.

After a decade-long association with the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards, Amitabh Bachchan, then the brand ambassador of the annual event, had a tiff with organisers Wizcraft International Entertainment. This was because the Bachchan family had refused to go to Sri Lanka for the awards in 2010 owing to some opposition to Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s film Raavan in the neighbouring country.

And so, Salman Khan had famously taken over the mantle from Big B, and was seen everywhere at the Sri Lankan IIFA Weekend. But last year again, the big stars of Bollywood like Amitabh, Salman, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar (Aamir Khan doesn’t attend award ceremonies) missed the event. It was evident that the IIFA party was losing sheen.

It seems now Sabbas Joseph of Wizcraft has called a truce and Big B is likely to be the face of the international Bollywood awards ceremony again. And Bachchan will make his comeback at a familiar venue – The Venetian Macao hotel in Macau, where the 2009 IIFA Weekend was held.

Looks like Wizcraft preferred to go with Macau looking at its experience with The Venetian, and rejected Vancouver’s bid earlier this year. Let’s see if Shahrukh and Salman will turn up for the IIFA Awards 2013!

Director Sairam Shanthakumar has rolled cameras on Gestures, ostensibly a Kannada film but in reality a silent film in 99 languages. Confused? Not to worry, Cineswami is at hand to explain all. The leads of the film are Dhruva Sharma and Spoorthi. Both actors are speech and hearing impaired and the film will therefore be played out in sign language with all the songs also being only in instrumental rather than vocal versions. Thought bubbles will pop up around the leads, reflecting what they are thinking at any given moment and these, being customisable, will be in 99 different languages.

As a nation, we are often cruel to the unfortunate souls who cannot hear or speak and we don’t pause to think the distress the many instances of casual cruelty can cause. Also, we feel the need to classify and pigeonhole. For example, look at how that that great shining example of a silent film, Pushpaka Vimana, was classified at the 1988 National Awards. It won the ‘award for the best film providing popular and wholesome entertainment’ and the citation in parentheses next to the film’s title had the word Kannada. Now, like Gestures, the film was shot entirely in Bangalore, but read slowly if you’re losing me here, it was a SILENT film. The director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao had directed films in all the south Indian languages, the male lead Kamal Haasan had acted in the same languages, besides Hindi and Bengali and ditto minus the Bengali for leading lady Amala. The villain Tinnu Anand was a successful director of Hindi films and had acted in Tamil and Hindi films. So there was no call to classify the film as Kannada.

Meanwhile, Priya Anand has joined the cast of Aishwarya R Dhanush’s Vai Raja Vai. Anand has tasted success and failure in equal measure. Her winning turn in English Vinglish was counterbalanced by the disastrous Rangrezz and in Tamil, the dire 180 was evened out by the delightful Ethir Neechal. Her hero in Vai Raja Vai is Gautham Karhik who is no stranger to failure having debuted with the flop Kadal, though he personally won favourable notices. With Kadal, Mani Ratnam proved again that just his name alone is not enough to open a film just as Aishwarya found out with 3 that just being Rajinikanth’s daughter does not guarantee success.

As we cannot end without taking potshots at the Khans, here goes.

Saif Ali Khan (yes, we are elevating him to senior level for the purposes of this discussion) + zombie = good and reflection of real life.

Salman Khan – why are you changing the title of Mental when it is so accurate and resonates with reality?

Shahrukh Khan – why don’t you take Yusuf Pathan’s place in KKR and send him to act in Chennai Express? Surely better for all concerned?

Aamir Khan – why do you regularly appear in drag? Is there something you want to tell us?

And though he is not a Khan we beseech the apex court to give Sanjay Dutt more time – in jail.

In an interview to BollywoodLife, Saif Ali Khan had said that he doesn’t like zombie films and he had no idea why he picked up Go Goa Gone. Well, after looking at the reviews and the box office collections of his home production, we are sure Saif would like to take back his words, right?

The movie made Rs 3.75 crores on the first day of its release and went on to do slightly better business in the next two days. On Saturday, the zombie flick collected Rs 4 crores and on Sunday it earned Rs 4.50 crores, thus amassing Rs 12.50 crores in the opening weekend. “GGG is a very interesting film, but with limited appeal – in the metros and a few big cities. The average audience in smaller towns and cities is not even aware of the concept of zombies, which makes it tough for them to relate to the film. It has done very good business in Delhi and Mumbai particularly, but because of the lukewarm response in tier two and three towns, the film has not been able to go beyond the ceiling of the niche audience base it has targeted. Besides, Aashiqui 2 and Shootout At Wadala are still going strong in the smaller towns, making the climb even tougher for GGG,” informed our trade expert Akshaye Rathi.

The other release this weekend, Sonam Nair’s Gippi earned a paltry Rs 75 lakhs on the opening day. Rathi said, “It’s a very niche film and the numbers over the weekend aren’t something to boast about, but what’s helping the film in a huge way is the shoestring budget it’s been made at! Probably, the least expensive film produced by Dharma Productions in the longest time, it should be able to sail past the finish line (recovery) very comfortably courtesy the satellite price that the brand power of Dharma and UTV will help it command.”

Watch this space for more updates!

Go Goa Gone – starring Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Khemu, Vir Das, Anand Tiwari and Pooja Gupta – has earned just Rs 3.75 crores at the box office on the first day of its release, this despite the movie garnering good reviews all over.

Being a complete multiplex flick, this zomcom had approx 30-35% occupancy in Metros and other major centres across the country. As expected, the single screens in the remote areas are getting a dull response. “Go Goa Gone has had an ordinary start at multiplexes. The occupancy was 30% to 40% at several screens, but the occupancy was lower outside metros. However, the word of mouth is encouraging and the business should grow during the evening/night shows, especially at urban centres,” tweeted trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

If our trade expert, Akshaye Rathi is to be believed, the collections of GGG is unexpectedly quite less as compared to Saif’s other releases like Agent Vinod and Cocktail. Now, we need to wait and watch if GGG recovers its cost and is declared a hit. Watch this space for  weekend BO collections!

For an audience (read masses) that has majorly grown up on a robust diet of filmi stories of ghosts, possessed bodies, revengeful souls, voodoo dolls, black magic et al – even paranormal elements and spiteful witches in recent times – director Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s Go Goa Gone is a refreshingly stimulating concept that has been tried and tested successfully in Hollywood, but is absolutely new on the Bollywood map.

Welcome to the zombie folklore that has a desi tadka to it with never ending witty one-liners that will keep you entertained and hooked throughout. Made strictly for city folks, this zom-com is both hilarious and spooky in unequal proportion, but nevertheless engaging and delightful. Those who have seen at least one zombie movie before venturing into this relatively unknown terrain will know where the director duo has come from to craft a production of this nature. The rest might raise their eyebrows at this curious experiment. Far from your regular angrezi mindless zombie movies, GGG is humorous, cocky and controlled.

Luv, Hardik and Bunny played by Kunal Khemu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari are your regular city Joes. While Luv is dumped by his ladylove, Hardik is jobless because of his overt sexual drive. Bunny is a perpetually hard-working fun-deprived moron. The frustrated trio decides to ditch the urban jungle and the monotonous lifestyle for a clandestine wild rave party on a secret island in Goa at the insistence of a curvy babe (Puja Gupta). The four soon find themselves in big trouble as the fun-fare goes horribly wrong, thanks to a never-tried-before, newly imported super drug served in the party that sends the revelers into an overdrive, ultimately turning them into flesh-eating, brain-dead zombies. Trapped on the party island with death looming large, the four friends find their ultimate saviour in the Russian mafia Boris (Saif Ali Khan) who can tot guns and bring down these blood-thirsty creatures with his sharp shooting skills.

For a plot as simple as that, Go Goa Gone’s narrative can sound ridiculously flat, but the zany energy of the film’s starcast, its intelligent writing, smart direction and taut editing – not to forget its apt background score and lively music by composers Sachin Jigar – make the movie a wacky roller coaster ride with never ending craziness.

Performance wise, Kunal Khemu steals the show with his range of expressions and solid punches, Anand Tiwari is highly impressive with his deadpan expression and Vir Das does equally well except for his overtly polished accent that gets on your nerves at times. Saif Ali Khan has played his part with relish and his swaggering screen presence stays with you long after you have left the theatres. Newbie Puja Gupta offers the much needed eye candy for a movie largely revolving around zombies and a bunch of guys.

All in all, watch Go Goa Gone for the innocent banters, unexpected histrionics and total madness leading to a wacky ride that you would least anticipate.

Pakistani model-turned-actor Veena Malik Wednesday voiced her aspirations of working with all the three Khans of Bollywood. “I would like a bit of Shahrukh (Khan), a bit of Salman (Khan) and a bit of Aamir Khan. I would go with Aamir for his acting, Shahrukh for his romance and Salman’s Dabangg style,” Malik told reporters during a media conference in Kolkata to promote her forthcoming movie Zindagi 50-5o.

Zindagi 50-50, scheduled for a May 24 release, will see Malik in the role of a sex worker opposite actors Rajan Verma, Rajpal Yadav and Riya Sen. Veena was last seen in Daal Mein Kuch Kaala Hai. The actor attributed Saif Ali Khan’s sense of style to his being a royal.

“I love his sense of style. Its quite natural, he is a nawab… If a nawab doesn’t know how to dress, then who does? He is a very stylish guy and in that way I think Kareena (Kapoor) is lucky,” said Malik.

MUST SEE: Veena Malik says she loves shooting in sexy bikinis: View pics!