Lots of fun little things today.  Well, some fun, some stressful.  But mostly fun!  And also nostalgic.

Two tiny things about the upcoming Sonakshi releases, both of which are related to global connections.  Akira (which I personally am super excited about!) is apparently under-buzzed.  I hadn’t thought about it, because I myself am so aware of it, but yeah!  There haven’t been any interviews, articles, randomly placed news stories, or even any music launch type news stories.

Partly this is just the curse of the female lead film.  Most female stars aren’t necessarily good at interviews and press conferences and so on, because it’s not necessarily something they need to do a lot.  Sonam’s pretty good at it, so is Vidya, and they hit the press circuit hard for their films.  Sonakshi’s always seemed fine to me, but I don’t know that I’ve seen her lead a press conference alone, without another actor there to kind of guide the conversation.  And, of course, the bigger problem is that anything the big male stars do is news, so they can go out for ice cream, and it will help create buzz for their film.  Sonakshi would have to actually come up with something people want to report and then follow through on it.

The bigger problem, bollywoodhungama claims, is that there is a Jackie Chan movie coming out.  Really?  I had no idea!  As Akira is to India, so is Jackie Chan to me.  And also a little bit to America.  His last Hollywood made movie was a box office disappointment, opening at #6 here.  Which would be really good for a foreign film, but for a major Hollywood release to be lower than #3, that’s just a disaster.

But in India, this new release is a HUGE DEAL.  Interesting!  So while India is sending it’s prints over to take over the Chinese screens, China is sending its star to take over India.  Well, not really.  Hollywood is sending him.  I just checked his filmography, and Jackie Chan has been cranking out the Chinese made films, but they haven’t been getting mainstream releases in America, and I assume not in India either.  So really, this is Hollywood taking advantage of a pre-existing fandom for one Asian star, in a second Asian country.  And no one is excited about poor Johnny Knoxville.

In completely unrelated news, WEDDING PHOTOS!!!!  Bollywoodhungama has managed to grab some shots from Preity’s wedding to the Goodenough white guy.  She looks great, he looks awkward.

And finally, ready for some 90s flashbacks?  News about Judwaa 2, for one thing.  Varun is excited, and is planning to show the script to Salman for his input before shooting.  Which makes sense to me!  Why not get his input on a character he created?  And why not try to connect a big name to the early buzz about this movie?  It’s exactly the kind of thing I was saying Akira missed out on.

Also, an interview with Karisma!  In which the interviewer awkwardly tried to limit her career to just her big name films (Raja Hindustani, Dil Toh Pagal Hai) and Karisma was having none of that.

Raja Hindustani was the first big film as an actress, you were acknowledged for it big time.
Thank you so much, I think there have been a few others also apart form that. I think 1996 was a career defining year for me. We had a Jeet also followed by Raja Hindustani, but I’d like to say just one thing that all my films have contributed to my career. I don’t want to name just super-hit films or blockbusters. I think every movie that I’ve acted in; each film that I’ve been a part of has been a stepping stone to achieve something in life.

Later, when the interviewer was poking around trying to get her to mention career regrets, with a slight implication that the industry has more options now, she shut that down too.

Again, I’ll say that I’ve been very lucky in my career that I got a chance to do commercial films and at the same time, meaningful cinema like Fiza and Zubeida and even women centric films, commercial films likeBiwi No 1, they were commercial movies but were around a woman’s central character. So in that sense I don’t think I’ve missed out.

I just love Karisma.  She is so phenomenally talented, and more than that, so phenomenally flexible.  Truly, she can make any role in any movie work.  I desperately want to see her take on an older woman role, she could have knocked English/Vinglish out of the park, or Kajol’s role in Dilwale, anything like that would be amazing.  I don’t want her to see her in a mother’s role, though, because I don’t think there is a heroine around who she wouldn’t over-shadow.

I mean, look at this!  Just a simple little street dance, and she is OWNING it!!!