Those who have enjoyed watching Shahrukh Khan’s IPL finals promo (at least the music buffs) can certainly agree that the title track of Rohit Shetty’s upcoming romcom has uncanny resemblance to it. Considering the marketing genius that the Kolkata Knight Riders team co-owner is, SRK will definitely cash in on the cricket season and promote his film! In the IPL promo, SRK is seen promoting his movie, Chennai Express and cheering up the cricket freaks to ‘Express’ their emotions while watching their favourite team matches. “Watch the IPL finals with me and ‘Express’ yourself!” says Khan in the IPL promo.

The title track teaser of CE starts with similar lyrics – Get on the train, baby! And goes on – Ticket khareedke, baith ja seat pe, nikal na jaaye kahin Chennai Express. It’s sung by the legendary singer, SP Balasubramaniam who has returned to Bollywood after a long time. We assume it’s a rough cut and not a polished soundtrack, but still, it’s quite hummable with Balasubramaniam’s personal touch to it. So listen to the teaser of the song and tell us if it excites you or not!

[jwplayer mediaid="227674"]

Yeah, so we hear that producer Ratan Jain is looking to make a sequel to Baazigar, the movie that shot Shahrukh Khan into the limelight as the baddie who had no problems killing people. While we are extremely excited at the news, we wonder what the revengeful but very dead Ajay Sharma / Vicky Malhotra will turn out to be like in part two.

We all know what Baazigar did to Shahrukh Khan‘s career, even though it was a super-villainous role and besides us, movie buffs got a new superstar to adore! The way he so casually tipped the unfortunate Shilpa Shetty off the terrace of a building was a class act and we clapped heartily, as did most of the movie-watching audience. But sadly, SRK died in the end, covered in huge amounts of blood and gasping his excuses with his last breath. So if Jain is considering a sequel, what sort of role would our favourite baazigar have in it? Jain says he does plan to do a film that takes part one further, but not without SRK or at least his consent, but not immediately.

“I am thinking of Baazigar sequel, but not right now,” said Ratan. “I am busy with other projects. May be three to four years later I will make a sequel to Baazigar. It will happen only if Shahrukh agrees to do it.” The film that catapulted Khan into the league of superstars was directed by Abbas Mustan and produced by Ratan’s brother Ganesh Jain.

We wonder what the most romantic Khan will have to say to this. You tell us, what do you think – should the Baazigar sequel be made? And what role could SRK play in it? More interesting, will Shahrukh be able to pull off a negative role after all these years of spreading his arms wide and singing love songs?

Rishi Kapoor recently took a subtle li’l swipe at our very own Shahrukh Khan. In the course of praising his son, he made sure he didn’t leave the golden opportunity of taking a dig at the King of Bollywood. So while raving about his dashing bundle of joy’s achievements, he recalled how his son had already declared that his Bollywood journey won’t be about playing basketball, sporting a twisted cap and wooing the girls with 40 dancers grooving behind him – just the way Shahrukh Khan did in the ‘90s. Now we aren’t sure if the Barfi! dude used the exact lines, but his dad’s made sure to pull a gag about SRK, at his son’s expense.

Call it pride or ulterior motives – but we can already see Mr Kapoor’s swollen chest, the square shoulders and his face turning all smug with pride at the thought of Ranbir being one of the most sought-after actors in B-town. And he has all the more reason to be happy as his son achieved this success without trundling on a cool skate board and yanking at his cool sleek jacket. Now which dad wouldn’t take the unabashed liberty to boast about his son -especially a talented one? We don’t exactly approve such cheekiness –but since we any day prefer a Barfi! over a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in today’s times – wethinks a li’l bit of ‘conceited attitude’ on Rishi’s part is allowed! What say?

There are actors and then there are stars. Actors are those who become the characters they play. The likes of Boman Irani, Paresh Rawal, Aamir Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and now Rishi Kapoor come instantly to mind when you think of performers who slip into the skin of the role they play, effortlessly and convincingly. The performer takes a back seat and the character – with all his or her hopes, worst fears, insecurities, mistakes, triumphs and human frailties – comes to the fore.

Stars, on the other hand, convert the characters they play into blown-up versions of themselves, becoming larger than life figures with an impossible to breach aura and that incredible swagger. Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan – and dare we say it! – Amitabh Bachchan are synonymous with characters like Rahul, Prem and Vijay respectively. For the indelible impressions they have left on our collective consciousness with both their on- and off-screen personalities, these actors are demi-gods.

Today, with the changing dynamics of Hindi movies, these million-buck babies want more; they now aspire to being actors rather than just stars. Going by Ranbir Kapoor’s performance in Rockstar and Barfi! or Priyanka Chopra’s act in Kaminey and Saat Khoon Maaf or, for that matter, Rani Mukerji’s roles in Talaash and Bombay Talkies, one can sense that the definition of ‘acting’ is changing…and fast. And audiences today are far more than accepting of this evolution. Take a look at the list of star performers who will rock it with their talent in the days to come….

PHOTOS; Yogen Shah

Bollywood is fanatically followed in India and any story – serious or fun – on the top stars, be it Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor or even Ajay Devgn, is met with passionate opinions by fans and detractors alike. In our second anniversary special, we share some comments made by BollywoodLife readers.

These might not be one of the ‘most commented’ stories – which highlighted…err…the charms of Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Satyamev Jayate, Ek Tha Tiger, Dabangg 2, box office reports, Sunny Leone, Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey and Veena Malik. We chose comments that we found most entertaining.

Click here to read the best comments on BollywoodLife:

BL Anniversary Special: Is Ranveer Singh a better actor than Ranbir Kapoor?

BL Anniversary Special: Is Ajay Devgn jealous of Shahrukh Khan?

BL Anniversary Special: Did Madhuri Dixit-Nene have cheek implants to look younger?

It’s a known and accepted fact in B-town that actors Ajay Devgn and Shahrukh Khan are not the best of friends. Wethinks the reason for this is not just professional rivalry, but also the closeness that SRK and Ajay’s wife Kajol share. SRK-Kajol have also been voted as one of the most romantic onscreen pairs of Bollywood, especially for films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

Ajay recently made it clear that SRK was just an acquaintance. He said, “Salman Khan is a friend and I don’t mind working with him…. As far as Shahrukh is concerned, he is just an acquaintance…I work with people I am comfortable with.” Ouch!

Now we don’t know if that remark pinched SRK, but it did hurt his fans. A BollywoodLife reader who goes by the name rima lagu (strangely similar to an actor’s name) commented on the Ajay-SRK rivalry, saying, “Professional jealousy. Kajal teamed up with SRK and successful as on screen pair. He teamed up with Kajol but it didn’t work. If a dumb character is created who can only do stunts, Ajoy fits there most. He can neither act nor do comedy. His films succeed but all were multi starred, whether Golmal or Bol B.chan.”

To which reader SKF replied, rather furiously, “@RIMA if u’ve watched films like “zakhm”, “takshak” and “the legend of bhagat singh” then u wouldn’t have write such thing. If u didn’t watch these movies watch them and then decide by your mind who’s gon’na learn acting from whom???????”

Whew – we don’t know if we want to be a part of the fight! But you can be. Do you agree that Ajay Devgn is jealous of Shahrukh Khan’s success? Type in your comments below!

READ MORE: Anniversary Special: What are the best comments on BollywoodLife?

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.