As Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express rolls in this week, select cinema halls in the country will have audiences getting a taste of some delicious snacks from different Indian states.
If you are wondering how, we can let you in on a little secret. The exhibitor chain Rathi Group of Cinemas has tied up with the 60-year-old Kolkata-based company Mukharochak Foods to offer popular snack dishes like jhaal muri from Kolkata, kabuli chana chaat from Delhi and bhel from Mumbai at some of their theaters in their cinema hall chain.
Starting with Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express starring SRK and Deepika Padukone with a special song dedicated to none other than Rajnikanth, the mouth-watering experience will extend to Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara! (OUATIMD) starring Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha; closely followed by Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha starring Amitabh Bachchan with Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor.
OUATIMD producer Ekta Kapoor is kicked about the idea! “It’s a novel initiative in elevating the viewer’s movie-watching experience,” she quips.
Akshaye Rathi, the brain behind the association with the Kolkata-based company, sums it up saying, “Indians are passionate about films and food, so it can’t get better than offering the best of both worlds”. Indeed, with path-breaking marketing concepts such as these, Bollywood sure is on a fun romp.
While the Salman-Shah Rukh Khan war or words rages on, one unlikely name who is enjoying stage performances with both the Khans is firebrand Rakhi Sawant.
“Mujhe kya lena-dena kis Khan ka kis Khan se panga hai! Main toh sab ki dost hoon,” Rakhi says with a smile. After doing a phataka act with Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan in the grand finale of Bigg Boss last month, the gutsy gal has gone ahead and performed another with SRK and Ranbir Kapoor at the Filmfare Awards this week.
“I’m lucky that I’m getting to work with all the cool dudes of the industry. Mujhe toh bahut mazaa aa raha hai,” Rakhi adds. After telling Sallu that she can do a better Chikni Chameli act than Katrina Kaif, at the Awards night, she tried to convince SRK that she can be better than Kareena Kapoor as Chammak Challo!!
No doubt, it is sheer guts, energy, professionalism and entertainment value which has kept Rakhi going and the public’s eyes popping every time she’s on camera.
India’s biggest reality show Bigg Boss is in controversy once again! The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), an independent body set up by the Indian Broadcasters Foundation (IBF) to promote self-regulation by Indian television media, has stated that the Indo-Canadian pornstar Sunny Leone has promoted her pornography business through Bigg Boss.
With just two weeks remaining for the grand finale of the show; taking up 19 complaints pertaining to Sunny Leone, BCCC is reported to have put Colors, one of IBF members, on notice for allowing cross-promotion of sexually explicit content by Sunny Leone, who, in turn, is making money out of her presence on Bigg Boss.
It has been reported in The Tribune that in a meeting yesterday, BCCC directed Colors to stop all cross-promotion of Leone’s pornographic sites and videos by December 26.
Wajahat Habibullah, chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and a member of BCCC, said, “We all agreed that Sunny Leone has been using Bigg Boss on Colors to promote pornography which is classified as criminal activity in India. It may not be criminal in the United States where she comes from, but here, it happens to be so. Therefore, she can’t be allowed to use our television to promote her business. Colors has agreed to comply and report back on steps taken.”
Sunny’s interactions with Bigg Boss hosts Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt and Housemates including Juhi Parmar, Siddharth Sid Bhardwaj, Akashdeep Sky Saigal, Amar Upadhyay and guest Andrew Symonds have been widely speculated and discussed on the show.
“Sunny has been constantly playing mischief with Amar Upadhyay on Bigg Boss, falsely alleging that the family man has been ‘touchy-feely’ with her,” remarked Dale Bhagwagar, publicist for the television star, most famous for his role as the righteous Mihir Virani in the epic daily soap Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
A public relations specialist with Bigg Boss; Dale has earlier handled the media for the maximum number of celebrities on reality shows including Shilpa Shetty (during Big Brother), Rakhi Sawant, Kashmera Shah, Ashmit Patel, Sherlyn Chopra, Diana Hayden (Bigg Boss). He pointed out that “Brand Sunny Leone has enhanced itself multiple times since her appearance on Bigg Boss.”
Dale added that “her stint inside the Bigg Boss house has helped Sunny top Google charts with millions looking her up on the internet from India and abroad.”
“According to data collected from Google Trends, Sunny Leone’s search results are reported to be five times more than current teen sensation Katrina Kaif, twice as many as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and nine times more than the vivacious Kareena Kapoor. That says a lot for Sunny’s rising brand and popularity,” said the Bollywood PR.
Meanwhile, BCCC is reported to have said that anyone is free to appear on any show, but no one has the right to promote their business through it, especially so when the business happens to be illegal.
It was noted that Sunny Leone’s video postings, procured from Bigg Boss 5, are being cross-promoted on a blog authored by the pornstar. The report further states that Sunny’s Twitter account, having 86,000 followers, mentions that mobile applications of her hard porn products are available via email.
More about Sunny Leone on Bigg Boss:
Born Karen Malhotra, Sunny, who entered Bigg Boss as a Wild Card Entry on November 21, became an instant sensation, creating ripples across the country, and garnering attention and protests from people shocked with a pornstar’s presence on Indian national television.
A few days later, acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt went into the Bigg Boss House and offered her a lead role in his next film Jism 2, creating great hype all over again. Her seducing pole dance on the show too, attracted great eyeballs and was expected to have boosted the TRP’s.
Not revealing her true identity to the Housemates for long, Sunny, whose Hindi accent is also famous on the show, finally relented when firebrand Pooja Misrra (who had re-entered the House as a guest entry after being in the outside world and knowing about her pornstar status) coaxed her to come out with the truth.
