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US First Lady Michelle Obama danced to Bollywood tunes alongside Indian-American children during Diwali celebrations in the East Room of the White House. Michelle got the festivities going in the State Dining Room by lighting the "diya" [a traditional lamp] during the Hindu festival of lights. Welcoming the guests, the US first lady said: "We've celebrated this holiday here at the White House every year since [President] Barack (Obama) took office. And there's a reason why we've done that." She added: "When we say that we want to make the White House the 'people's house,' we mean all people. We...

Indian Bollywood actors Sonam Kapoor (right) and Dhanush (centre) with producer Krishika Lulla (right) attend a promotional event for the Hindi film "Raanjhanaa" in Mumbai on June 20, 2013. Pakistan has banned an Indian film about the love affair of a Muslim-Hindu couple on the grounds that it could offend viewers in the conservative Islamic republic, officials said Friday. (AFP/FILE) Islamabad (AFP) – Pakistan has banned an Indian film about the love affair of a Muslim-Hindu couple on the grounds that it could offend viewers in the conservative Islamic republic, officials said Friday. "Raanjhanaa" was scheduled for release in June, but...

US First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday danced barefoot to Bollywood tunes, as she visited a charity helping orphans and runaways in India's entertainment capital, Mumbai

Sahara India Pariwar, an Indian conglomerate with real estate and media holdings, has made a $2 billion bid to buy the debt of the struggling Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, according to press reports.

NEW DELHI -- Infamous for their conservative outlook towards love and marriage, the khap panchayats are finding their way on to the silver screen with several Bollywood directors lining up films based on honour killings. TV soap maker Ajai Sinha and director Avtar Bhogal are the latest to try and use a cinematic medium to deal with the complex issue. Known for soaps such as Ghar Ek Sapna, Haasratein and Astitva, Sinha decided to make Khap- A Story Of Honour Killing after he came across a related newspaper article. "These killings have taken place even in the capital Delhi also....

India's Bollywood cinema, known for its exuberant song-and-dance sequences and romantic plots, is to explore new territory with a satire on Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The movie, "Tere bin Laden" (Without you, Laden), is a story set in Pakistan about a young reporter who seeks to migrate to the United States in search of fame and fortune. The reporter, played by Pakistani actor-singer Ali Zafar, is denied entry and his visa rejected after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The farce follows a storyline in which the reporter makes a video with a bin Laden look-alike...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Protests by India's small Jewish community have prompted a leading actor to pull out of a film on the last days of Adolf Hitler , a rare subject for a movie in the Bollywood film industry. Anupam Kher, who was supposed to play the role of Hitler, told Reuters he had decided to withdraw from the film after an outpouring of messages on social networking sites and protests. "Considering the ill-will that the project is generating among my fans, I wish to withdraw from it as I respect their sentiments," Kher said in a statement released to...

She did it again! Aishwarya Rai impresses us a second time in a row. The Bollywood actress walked the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival for the “On Tour” Premiere.

White British actresses told to leave Bollywood British actresses who appear in Bollywood films are being targeted in a hate campaign by one of India's most feared political leaders. By Dean Nelson in New Delhi Published: 5:55PM GMT 17 Mar 2010 Actress Hazel Crowney: British actresses have flocked to Bollywood Stars including Alice Patten, the daughter of Lord Patten of Barnes, and Hazel Crowney, a former model from Kent, have been accused of stealing jobs from local girls. Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), a Mumbai nationalist street gang and political party which inspires terror throughout the city, has called...

Bollywood film star Anil Kapoor has revealed that he took inspiration from leaders such as Gandhi and Barack Obama for his role in ‘24’. The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ star, who plays a Middle Eastern leader in the new season of the show, said that he wanted to base his part on real world leaders. "I re searched all the speeches of all these great leaders -- from Mahatma Gandhi, to Mandela, Martin Luther King, Obama and [Bill] Clinton," the New York Post quoted him as saying.

Success story of a genius fascinated by light • Rajiv Jain • Award winning Indian Director of Photography • Cinematographer • DOP Success story of a genius fascinated by light • Rajiv Jain • Award winning Indian Director of Photography • Cinematographer • DOP Exceptionally gifted in overcoming technical hurdles and shady atmospheres, in twenty five years Indian Rajiv Jain has become one of the most sought-after DoPs, after having had a quite unconventional career. Rajiv hasn’t let the fame go to his head though and remains modest. Following his studies in drama at the Indian drama school Bhartendu Academy...

A much-needed boost for the South Florida economy could be coming all the way from India, complete with song and dance numbers. The second major Bollywood film production of the last twelve months is set to get underway in Miami in February, this one even bigger than the last. And that's saying something. Dostana, which wrapped last year after filming all around Miami and South Florida-as-Miami, went on to be one of the year's biggest blockbusters in Mumbai and beyond. Now Shahrukh Khan, commonly referred to as Bollywood's answer to Brad Pitt and George Clooney rolled into one, is heading...

''My name is Khan.'' ''Oh it is, is it? Step aside, please.'' The way it was related, that might well have been the opening exchange between Shahrukh Khan and an unnamed, uniformed, super-empowered US immigration official who had no idea (and didn’t care) that the man in front of him is the star of a film by the same name (My Name is Khan), much less that he is a universal Bollywood icon. ( Watch Video ) SRK, as the actor star is known by his popular acronym, was asked to indeed step aside for a ''secondary inspection'' at Newark’s...

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, who is ready with his debut production venture Love Aaj Kal, was inspired by Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood to get into the business of making movies. Saif is a huge fan of the Hollywood legend and is quite fascinated by his work. "Once, when Saif was reading Clint's interviews, it was mentioned that he was planning to start a production house. When Saif read this, he was quite inspired by it. He was shooting outdoors and in the middle of the night he called up Dinesh Vijan and told him about the whole idea of...

20th Century Fox is reportedly seeking damages and an injunction against the release of a Hindi-language film in the latest plagiarism row between Hollywood and Bollywood. Fox has submitted a claim at the Bombay High Court for 70 million rupees ($1.9 million) against BR Films over Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, which the studio says is an illegal remake of the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. Fox says BR Films had been given permission to make a film based on the idea of the Oscar-winning movie but that rights for a Hindi-language remake had not been approved, the Press Trust of...

Bollywood actress Shamita Shetty's hotel room in South Africa was ransacked by baboons. Shamita, who is accompanying her sister, actress Shilpa in South Africa, was on a safari in Singita Game Reserves with Shilpa and her beau Raj Kundra and some "close friends and family in toe". "...It's been a great weekend. Shamita loved every bit of it till she went to her room and discovered her room was ransacked by the Baboons... apparently they knew where the mini bar is and we were warned when we checked in to keep all doors locked when we leave the room...Obviously someone...

Even if directing three Bollywood macho men, two sizzling beauties and one Australian pop diva didn't seem a tough bet for debut director Anthony D'Souza, wielding the megaphone for 40 sharks for an underwater action sequence for Blue surely gave him the jitters. "The scariest part of Blue' was in fact the sharks. Getting them to act in my film was not easy," said D'Souza. The particular scene with sharks has actors Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and Zayed Khan in the frame and it called for a lot of safety measures. The director explained: "We had shark handlers present on...

Look, he's like Lincoln! No, he's like Reagan. Or like Truman maybe... Welcome to the Obollywood administration: trying hard to imitate great American Presidents but ultimately only succeeding to embarrass our nation. Read on

So you're an arms dealer, you want to win a contract in India, and you rather liked the look of those dancing scenes in Slumdog Millionaire. What do you do next? Well, if you're the Israeli firm Rafael, the obvious (but no less excruciating) answer is to make a Bollywood movie promoting your military hardware. Doesn't sound like it has any of the ingredients for one of those classically romantic Indian films does it? Trust me. You truly have no idea how bad, or hilarious, this could be until you see it. The first thing watchers will notice is that...

"Does it have subtitles?" I asked. My friend Nina wanted to see a Bollywood film with the weird title of "Slumdog Millionaire." I preferred to see the new James Bond film because, really, I just wanted -- during the Thanksgiving holiday -- to put my brain on cruise control for an hour or two and watch good ol' reliable 007 blast bad guys. "Sort of," she said. "Oh." "But I've heard amazing things about this film," she insisted. So off we went. Movie reviews that reveal too much always bother me. So here's an outline -- and I mean outline,...