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The whole idea to the conflict in the sequel is a woman, therefore we have two men and only one woman,” says director Milan Luthria, while putting to rest all rumours with respect to a parallel female lead in the much awaited and anticipated sequel to “Once Upon A Time In Mumbai”.
He says, “This franchise (OUATIM) is a very entertaining franchise – we don’t have the usual blood and gore that is associated with the underworld – our world is larger than life and we focus on the underworld that existed during 70s and 80s, and with the sequel, we want to bring back the romantic triangle set in the Mumbai underworld,” adding, “The story connects to the point in the 80s where the underworld was fascinated with the women in Bollywood and the starlets in B-Town too were attracted to smugglers and dons. So we have Akshay Kumar and Imran Khan as the gangsters and Sonakshi Sinha as the starlet.”

So does Sonakshi really plays Mandakini’s role or her character is a take off from the starlet’s life? “There is a lot of fact-meets-fiction in the sequel. In fact there is more of fiction than facts in the second part, but yes, Sonakshi plays the moll,” says Milan. But why Sonakshi? “Because Sonakshi has a very Indian sex appeal. I had met her before “Dabangg” released. I had gone to Salman’s house for dinner and the whole team of “Dabangg” was there – it was at Salman’s place where I saw Sonakshi and was awestruck by her simplicity and grace. A lot of my casting is instinctive and when I saw Sonakshi, I felt she would be well-suited the role of a demure girl, who comes to the city of dreams to make a name for herself,” says the director.

But more than Sona, it is Imran Khan and his role in the sequel that has Milan super excited. “You wait and watch for Imran. I have a feeling that our sequel will do to Imran, what “The Dirty Picture” did to Vidya Balan,” gushes Milan, as he goes on to explain why he thinks Imran fits the bill. “We chose Imran because of his mass appeal. He is extremely popular among young girls and the college going crowd, but with the sequel, he will be seen in an entirely different form. This is exactly what we did with Vidya – we gave her a different colour that was out of her comfort zone.

Imran too will be seen in something that’s in stark contrast to his image. His character has humour, action, witty one-liners and flamboyance, but he plays a typical sadak chhaap gangster with a heart of gold,” shares Milan.

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Day after Shah Rukh Khan hit headlines for his brawl with Mumbai Cricket Association officials at Wankhede, the actor finds one of his films in the top 10 films selected by Time magazine. His film Devdas stands 8th on the list of top 10 movies of the Millennium so far.
Time describes the film visually intoxicating musical. The other films on the list are Oscar winning silent film The Artist, Moulin Rouge. Director Baz Luhrmann was influenced from Bollywood and it all happened after he visited India. A little bit of Raj Kumar Santoshi’s film song Chamma Chamma was used in the film.

Both James Cameroon and his ex-wife too have their films in the top 10 films. Avataar Cameroon’s top grossing film which earned twice more than his classic Titanic and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Synecdoche, New York, Lord of The Rings and Wall-E are the other films.

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HYDERABAD: Floundering Team Hyderabad seemed to have saved their best for the penultimate league engagement against Rajasthan on Friday. Dravid’s Rajasthan, needing two wins from their last two outings, looked in a spot of bother after batting first.

Their total of 126/8 was not enough to test even Hyderabad, who cantered to a five-wicket win sans skipper Kumar Sangakkara at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday. The defeat ensured Rajasthan’s elimination from this year’s event with one game in hand.

Coming into this game, they needed to win both to stay in the hunt. With their batting coming a cropper, it was left to Shaun Tait and company to keep Rajasthan in the hunt. But the bowling held no terrors for Hyderabad lad Akshath Reddy and the in-form Shikhar Dhawan. Akshath, the 21-year old Ranji opener, impressed with 42 (35b; 4×4, 1×6) as 69 runs came in the first 10 overs.

His 63-run (51b) partnership with Dhawan put Hyderabad on a firm footing and though the latter holed out for 26 (24b, 2×4, 2×6), the duo had done enough to ensure the hosts could register their second IPL win at the venue with eight deliveries to spare. Ashish Reddy applying the finish touches with two consecutive boundaries off Tait.

Rajasthan have only themselves to blame for this early exit. Hyderabad, true to coach Darren Lehmann’s words, having spoilt Rajasthan’s party, will be left wondering what could have been.

Earlier, once Dale Steyn had neutralised Ajinkya Rahane’s threat, the Rajasthan innings lost momentum. The Mumbaikar, back at second place in the batting charts behind Chris Gayle, was left clueless by the South African pacer and it could have been worse than 20/1 had Shikhar Dhawan and Ashish Reddy not dropped Watson and Dravid off Manpreet Gony.

Fortunately for the hosts, it didn’t prove costly.

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NEW DELHI: The IPL 5 contest between Team Delhi and Team Bangalore was turned into a secondary affair by one man. Friday night’s encounter at the Ferozeshah Kotla was a ‘longest six’ competition for Chris Gayle.

A total of 13 sixes, to all corners of the ground, came off the Bangalore batsman’s blade during his 62-ball unbeaten 128. The ball just went into the stratosphere and kept disappearing into the crowd.

Gayle and Virat Kohli (73 n.o., 53b, 9×4, 1×6) put on a mammoth 204 runs during their unbeaten second-wicket stand as Bangalore powered to 215/1 in 20 overs in a must-win clash after being put into bat.

The total was more than sufficient to shut Delhi out of the contest even though the hosts valiantly tried to make a match of it before going down by 21 runs.

It was just brute force on show as Gayle distributed his assault equally amongst all Delhi bowlers. His first 38 runs though very sedate as they came off 34.

The flood gates opened from the 12th over. Two sixes off Pawan Negi were measured at 110m and 109m while Irfan Pathan was deposited 108m and 109m long into the stands.

The West Indian’s first 50 came off 37 while the second came in a mere 16 balls – eight of those being sixes. The records just kept on tumbling at the blink of an eyelid as Gayle sailed past 700 runs for the tournament (he now stands at 706 runs) and even equalled Brendon McCullum’s record of 13 sixes in an IPL innings.

It was always going to be bridge too far for the hosts to cross. With an ‘unwell’ Virender Sehwag sitting out, a lot depended on David Warner. Warner (10) managed one six before he lost his bat and wicket to a Zaheer Khan delivery.

Delhi, though, will consider this match as an aberration and will thank their luck that the freakish Gayle assault came after they had already booked their play-off berth.

The only positive to come out of this match for Delhi was the return to form for Ross Taylor who has been struggling to fire in IPL 5 after his return from injury, smashed a 26-ball 55 (7×4, 2×6) to keep the Delhi crowd entertained.

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says adult star Sunny Leone, who’s currently busy shooting her Bollywood film

One of the hottest newbies in Bollywood is busy shooting in Sri Lanka these days. Sunny Leone is all set to woo audiences this year with Jism 2. After the much-hyped poster of the film was revealed, Sunny was in the news all over again. The Indo-Canadian adult star was offered a role in Jism 2 during her stint in the Bigg Boss house. “I had no idea that my entry in Indian reality television would end up in getting a role in a Bhatt film. Though I have known the Bhatts, this role came as a surprise to me,” she says.

Sunny, who started shooting for director Pooja Bhatt’s film along with co-star Randeep Hooda, is all excited about her big debut with the Bhatts. “My audience should be prepared to see a very different me in this movie. It’s a story for mature audiences. Even the sensual scenes have been shot aesthetically. With this movie, I’m living my dream right now. Being an adult entertainment star, it was not difficult for me to shoot these scenes. I’m very comfortable with my body and my background helped me give my best in the movie,” admits Sunny, also claiming that she is more than just a beautiful face, having understood the depth and emotional intricacy of her character.

Jism 2 is yet to hit screens, but Sunny is already the face a popular condom brand, the ads for which are making waves. “I wanted to promote safe sex as the youth is very vulnerable,” she says about her sexy avatar in the ad.
And after endorsing a phone and a condom brand, the actor is being flooded with endorsement offers, but she claims that she is very choosey about what she wants to signs up as her next. “I want to give the right message, whatever be the product that I sign up for,” she adds.