'3 Idiots' that created history by becoming one of the most successful films in Hindi cinema walked away with 11 trophies at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards that concluded in Colombo with a flourish early on June 6, being declared the Best Film, while the Best Director award went to Rajkumar Hirani and the Best Actress award to Kareena Kapoor for the same movie.

Kareena shared the award with Vidya Balan, who was honoured for perfectly portraying the role in 'Paa' of a single mother whose son is suffering from progeria.

Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood's affable Munnabhai, walked away with the Best Comic Actor trophy for his rib-tickling performance in 'All The Best', while Boman Irani received the Best Actor in A Negative Role honour for his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor in '3 Idiots'.



Sharman Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend in '3 Idiots', won the Best Supporting Actor award, while Divya Dutta received Best Supporting Actress honour for her performance in 'Delhi 6'.

In the special award category, well-known Hindi filmmaker J. Omprakash and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's maternal grandfather, who made films like 'Aap Ki Kasam' (1974) , 'Aasha' (1980) and 'Aas Paas' (1981), was honoured for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who made his mark in the international arena with British filmmaker Danny Boyle's multiple award winning rags-to-riches drama 'Slumdog Millionaire', was honoured for outstanding achievement by an Indian in international cinema. And yesteryears glamour girl Zeenat Aman was honoured for Outstanding Achievement in Indian Cinema.

While Bollywood heart throb Salman Khan was given the Habitat for Humanity award, his not-so-good friend Vivek Oberoi, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasongs ever since he arrived for the IIFA awards, was honoured with the Panasonic Global Green award.

Pritam Chakraborty won the Best Music Director Award for composing lilting numbers for 'Love Aaj Kal' and Swanand Kirkire bagged the Best Lyrics Award for the super-hit movie '3 Idiots'.

In the playback singing category, the Best Female Playback Singer award went to Kavita Seth for crooning 'Ik tara' in 'Wake Up Sid' and the Best Male Playback Singer Award went to Shaan for the hit number 'Behti hawa sa thaa wo' in '3 Idiots'.

Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez, who made her Bollywood debut with 'Aladin', was declared Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female). Apart from Jacqueline, Mahi Gill, who played the modern age Paro in Anurag Kashap's new interpretation of 'Devdas' titled "Dev D", too bagged the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Female) award.

'3 Idiots' fame Omi Vadiya, who had people rolling in the aisles with his antics in the super-hit movie, received the Star Plus Debut of the Year (Male) award along with Jackie Bhagnani - the young actor who made his debut with the not-so-successful movie 'Kal Kissne Dekha'.

Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra received the Best Story Award for penning the interesting tale of '3 Idiots'.

'3 Idiots' baggged the maximum technical awards. The film won the Best Sound Recording Award for Nihar Ranjan Samal and Sachin K. Sanghvi. The Best Sound Re-recording went to Anup Dev, the Best Song Recording Award went to Sachin K. Sanghvi, the Best Background Score Award went to Sanjay Wandrekar, Atul Raninga and Shantanu Moitra, while C.K. Muraleedharan received the Best Cinematography Award for '3 Idiots'.

Bosco Caesar won the Best Choreography Award for directing popular dance moves in 'Love Aaj Kal', the Best Costume Design Awrard went to Anahita Shroff and Dolly Ahluwalia for the same film, which had Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.

Sabu Cyril won the Best Art Direction Award and Charles Darby won Best Special Effects (Visual) Award for Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Aladin'.

For designing mindblowing action sequecnes in the crime thriller 'Kaminey', Shyam Kaushal was honoured with the Best Action Award and the Best Makeup Award went to the international make-up artists Christien Tinsley & Dominie Till for giving a progeria patient look to Amitabh in 'Paa'.

Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots' swept the 11th edition of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards that concluded with much fanfare in Colombo early on June 6 but the three-day event will perhaps be remembered more for the absence of Bollywood mega stars led by IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, apparently due to a boycott threatened by southern Indian film distributors of the stars who attended the event.

There was nothing official about the absence of the Bachchans, including Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, as also Shah Rukh Khan, who had previously announced he would be at Colombo, but it was quite clear that Bollywood was taking the boycott threat seriously.

It's not that the southern Indian distributors are opposed per se to the event going out of India - it has previously been held in cities like Macau, Bangkok and Amsterdam - but they were specifically opposed to Colombo as the venue because of what they perceived to be the excesses by the Sri Lanka armed forces in the final push against the Tamil Tiger rebels last year.


Still, the event weathered the storm, as was evident at the ritzy grand finale, the highpoint of which was Hrithik Roshan's mindblowing livewire performance when he not only danced but wowed the audience by singing as well.

The other highlight was the compering by Lara Dutta along with Boman Irani-Riteish Deshmukh who once again enthralled the audience with their excellent chemistry on an extravagant set.

But then, there were the low points too - for instance, Bipasha Basu's performance on the awards night and the humid weather.

And, the threatened boycott by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce meant the glamour quotient on the final light was much lower than in the past, with it being left to the likes of Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and Bipasha Basu to fly the Bollywood flag.

Nevertheless, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was ecstatic about hosting the awards ceremony in his country.

"Thank you IIFA for choosing my country as the venue for this extravagant event. It will help us in bridging the gap between the two nations in a simple manner," Rajapaksa said.

The grand finale apart, there was much more to the three-day event

On the first day, the IIFA Fashion Extravaganza saw the participation of many Bollywood actors and Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara, who walked the ramp for leading Indian and Sri Lankan designers. This was backed by a live musical performance by composers Salim-Suleiman and singers Kailash Kher and Anushka Manchanda.

A charity cricket match was organised the next day between the Sangakkara XI, boasting of some Sri Lankan greats and two teams comprising Bollywood stars and led respectively by Suniel Shetty and Hrithik Roshan. The former but naturally knocked out the Bollywood heroes.

The sixth edition of the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum, also on Friday, focused on various strategies to explore and boost business opportunities between India and Sri Lanka. The theme this year was "India - Sri Lanka Partnership: The Way forward", with some key speakers being President Rajapaksa and former Indian junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor.

The first look of movies like 'Dabaang', 'Lamhaa' and 'Knockout' were also showcased at the event, as was a sneak peek into the multi-million project Kingdom of Dreams - a mega entertainment destination slated to open in Gurgaon ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October.

Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra has planned a surprise trip for his wife's birthday June 8.

An ecstatic Shilpa wrote on her blog: "Glad Raj is back to celebrate my 1st birthday after marriage on the 8th of June. He has instructed my manager to keep 7th, 8th, 9th free to surprise me with a break (Yes, he's full of surprises! He's made arrangements for a trip but I have no idea where to... too sweet, all very exciting)."

Shilpa got to know about the location early on June 7 though. She posted on her Twitter page, "Too early barely slept on the flight with excitemnt, landed in HK now taking a Chopper to ...MACAU :) yippppppeeeee!! Finally nw I know;)"

Meanwhile, the actress re-lived her good old filmi days during the shooting of dance reality show 'Zara Nach Ke Dikha' when the female participants paid tribute to her by performing on her songs.

"The girls performed on a medley of my songs for an act and in similar costumes that I wore in my songs... made me very nostalgic and brought back some beautiful memories that made me a tad bit emotional (don't know why) in a good way," she added.

Neha Dhupia enjoys roles that are different from the usual heroine parts, sample her work in ‘Ek Chalis Ki Last Local’ and ‘Mithya’. But her latest part definitely takes the cake when it comes to being ‘zara hatke’. Neha’s playing dictator Adolf Hitler’s mistress (and some say his wife) Eva Braun in 'Dear Friend Hitler', a movie based on their relationship. Guess who’s playing Hitler? It’s Anupam Kher!

Apparently the movie being made by director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar will show the last days of the dictator's life, and how his relationships with those close to him changed during that time.

There’s always been a lot of speculation about Hitler and Eva Braun’s relationship, and Neha is reportedly doing a lot of research into her character for the movie.

We think Anupam Kher might look like Hitler with the right make-up but Neha as Eva? We’ll be waiting to see how she does it

Priyanka Chopra's been saying for a while now that her role in Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Saat Khoon Maaf' is her most challenging yet. And looks like the challenge extends to her weight as well. The actress had to put on a lot of weight for the movie, and now that the shooting is almost done, she's in a rush to lose it all.

Priyanka confessed on her Twitter page, "I've been on a put-on-some-serious-weight kinda diet for SKM..yuck!I feel so unhealthy! Now that the films almost over, I plan on hitting the gym with a vengeance.. And coming from me that's a feat in itself.. Cuz I hate gyms!! Aaaarrrggghh!!"

So how serious is PC about this 'Let's hit the gym and lose weight' resolution? "Just up!! It's 4 in the morning..ive hardly slept man! Back to the spooky room in my hotel.. And I went to metropole last nite and ate n ate." Not the best of starts, Prinks. But we wish you luck for the future!

Here’s a 16 mixed pics of the Indian actress Genelia D’Souza.

She made her debut in a Hindi movie ‘Bollywood’ back in 2003, but it wasn’t a success so she went south to work in Telugu and Tamil movies where she’s become a big star.

Not too bad on the eye either.

After along gap, ex-lovers Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor will come together on July 9 to promote their much delayed film Milenge Milenge. The movie has been produced by Boney Kapoor, who is desperately trying to bring both the actors together since long.

Boney has decided to go ahead with the movie without the diva Kareena Kapoor, who has been stalling the movie for long.

The movie was filmed when Shahid and Kareena were dating each other but since their break up, it has been a difficult task to get these two together professionally.

Boney has been pleading for Miss Kapoor to allot him some dates, so that he can carry on with the promotional shoot for the movie.

Boney, when asked about this, furiously stated that, Kareena has given him dates, but a time, specifically a couple of hours, for two days. That's all that he needs for the promotional shoot.



Kareena, as reported earlier, is in Goa shooting a climax scene for Rohit Shetty's Golmaal 3. Boney is doubtful if she will make it on time. He has also set up a deadline for the movie, i.e. 30th May, if she doesn't show up, he will go ahead without her help in publicity.

This isn't the first case where Kareena has stalled a shooting schedule due to date problems; she even did for the Movie Bewafaa, which was supposed to take place in Canada.

Well, we all know how busy Superstars lead busy lives, but we hope we get to see Kareena and Shahid together in the same frame at least for once.

6.30 am: Staring at the alarm in disbelief! It rang too soon.Waking up and going for a run before I rush back to catch a flight. I am flying to Delhi again today.

9.30am: At Mumbai airport, waiting to board my flight. I can't believe how many times have gone to Delhi this week. It's a new record for me! I am flying to Delhi for an IIFA curtain raiser shoot. You'll get more details soon.

12 noon: Finally landed in Delhi after circling in mid-air for a very long time. Air traffic! Never thought a day would come where we would experience air traffic. What has our world come to!

1 pm: Rushing to the hotel for my hair & make up. Lord, am so late thanks to air traffic!

4 pm: Hair and make up done. I'm kicked to be dressed in a glamorous outfit. Shoot kicking off now.



6 pm: Break time. Team and crew taking a breather. Am revising the latter half of my script. I think once I am done revising, I'll take a quick power nap for 20 mins. It sure will do the trick to recharge me since I had an early start today.

8 pm: Shooting, shooting, shooting. It's fun as I feel like I am kicking off a fun season for this year's IIFA. Oh, can you believe what just happened? My friends just came onto my set to meet me. They were coordinating with my manager to surprise me. It's so great to see my friends after so long. That's why I love shooting in Delhi.

10 pm: Shoot's still on. Lots more to do. Need some energy... bhaiyya, chai lana!

3 am: Finally, hear magic words - Pack Up! What a feeling! Time to go back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep. Have really enjoyed sharing my week with you Keep smiling!

Abbas Tyrewala is not the first Indian director to pair his wife with an actor. For decades the legendary V Shantaram directed his two wives, first Jayshree and then Sandhya in films co-starring himself and other actors.

But Abbas’s film tentatively titled 1-800-Love is a unique case. Here for the first time in Indian cinema, Abbas directs his own wife Pakhi and that too in an intense love story, featuring Bollywood’s resident pinup boy John Abraham.

To add to the intriguing scenario there is the fact that Pakhi who has written the screenplay had a massive crush on John during college and wrote the film with him and herself in mind.

Says Abbas, “There’s no denying the fact that Pakhi and John share a tremendous chemistry on screen. And I’m glad! Imagine, if they looked incompatible or anything less than made for each other!What would have happened to my film?!”

The trick for Abbas was to leave his wife at home when he came on sets. “The girl I was directing in the film was not my wife. She was the actress chosen because she suited the role. Hats off to John and Pakhi for being such professionals.Yeah initially I was a little apprehensive it. But once the camera rolled Pakhi and I forgot our personal relationship.”

Says John, “Pakhi has come out beautifully in the film. I still remember when Abbas came to narrate the film with this pretty petite girl who was the film’s writer. I didn’t know she was the director’s wife.

The way Pakhi narrated the character I knew she was the best person to play my romantic other in Abbas’ film.Now after seeing the film I know my instincts were right. No one could’ve played the part the way she did.”

The director was gracious enough to let John kiss his wife for the camera.

Reasons John, “It is an intensely romantic film. And the kiss is an integral part of romance. But the film is very clean very sweet and innocent.”

Abbas is not the only director to direct his own wife in intimates scenes.

Hollywood has such examples of artistic liberality

1 John Derek directed his wife Bo Derek in a classic evergreen pose emerging in skimmy bikini from the sea in the film 10 (1979)

2. In a classic case of spousal licence director Blake Edwards gave his prudish wife Julie Andrews a shocking new image in the film S.O.B (1981). He made the Sound Of Music diva reveal her breasts!

3.Sam Mendes takes the cake, though. In Revolutionary Road (2009) he directed his wife Kate Winslet with Leonardo di Caprio in one of the longest and most erotic love -making scenes ever filmed in a mainstream film.

4. Back home B R Ishaara directed his wife Rehana Sultan in many sexually explicit films in the 1970s, their most celebrated collaboration being Chetna where Rehana undressed almost completely for a scene with Anil Dhawan.

5. And then there was Deepa Sahi being directed in a torrid love sequence with Shah Rukh Khan by her own husband Ketan Mehta in Maya Memsaab.

Though all three parties passed off the rather-unconventional level of enthusiastic professionalism as what the script required it later came to light that the love scene had been rigorously rehearsed in a hotel room before it was actually shot. Surely this has to be the most committed team of on-screen passion providers to have ever visited our cinema.

From Priyanka Chopra to Deepika Padukone to Aishwarya Rai, Bollywood actresses are willingly treading on treacherous terrain as they get into action mode like their male co-stars.

"Just because I'm a girl it shouldn't be presumed that I can't enter the boys' territory. I'd do the stunts better than the boys, " Priyanka told.

The actress, who was seen as Abhishek Bachchan's bodyguard in "Drona", learnt the Sikh martial art form called gatka for the film. She also underwent rigorous training and learnt kung fu for her character in Farhan Akhtar's "Don".

"I quite enjoyed the cuts and bruises, " said Priyanka who has replaced action star Akshay Kumar as the host of TV show "Khatron Ke Khiladi".



She will be performing some of the most daring stunts as the host of the show. Currently she is shooting for it in the jungles of Coorg, Karnataka, and a special gym has been set up for her there.

Aishwarya, who turned into a stunt woman for the 2006 hit movie "Dhoom 2", will once again be seen stretching the risk factor in Mani Ratnam's forthcoming release "Raavan" as well as Shankar's "Endhiran".

"Aishwarya suffered all the wounds, pain, fever and insect bites heroically in the forests. For all the dangerous scenes, she hardly ever used a duplicate. She was totally up to the task, " said her "Raavan" co-star Vikram.

Deepika is not far behind. She gave a glimpse of her daring side in "Chandni Chowk To China" where she played a Chinese girl and jumped over walls and did somersaults as a martial art expert.

In Pradeep Sarkar's "Lafange Parindey", she will be seen taking a dip in a deep mud pit even though her co-star Neil Nitin Mukesh was reported to have asked for a body double to do the same scene.

"Yes, I did jump into the hole to make it look like an accidental fall. That's what was required to make the fall look convincing, " Deepika told a website.

Katrina Kaif too is getting into action mode for Zoya Akhtar's "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara". She is learning dirt biking for her role.

And last but not the least, Kareena Kapoor, who scorched the headlines for her size zero, will be in a full-on action role in "Agent Vinod" opposite beau Saif Ali Khan.

Commenting on her role, Saif said: "She does play an undercover agent from another country. Kareena will do everything I do in the film, and she'll do it even better. She will kick butt better than all the other girls in our industry; that's for sure."

Last year Lara Dutta turned into action heroine for the thriller "Blue" and performed stunts 70 feet under water with sharks.

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan's daughter Shruti gave a glimpse of her courage in her very first film, "Luck", opposite Imran Khan. She was seen doing everything - from flying down a parachute, to escaping killer sharks underwater to being tied to a speeding engine.

Stunts no longer remain a male dominated territory.

acqueline Fernandez sizzles on Vogue India's June cover. In the accompanying interview, the Aladin actress reveals, "I'm really quiet.

I go into solitude; I won't even have the TV on. And I can do this for days and days." About her B-Town outing she says, "I turned up for the audition wearing glasses and chappals.

I travelled by local train and lived in a guest house at Churchgate." The former Miss Sri Lanka, who grew up in Bahrain, also revealed that initially she wanted to be a mermaid!

Life has come a full circle for Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 16 years after he started his career in cinema directing the songs for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942: A Love Story, he has once again choreographed an entire song in his forthcoming Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Bachchan starrer Guzaarish.

While he did provide inputs through a vital step here and a pirouette there in his various films, Bhansali has never fully choreographed a number in any of his earlier films, which had pivotal dance scenes.

Incidentally, Bhansali has also turned into a full-fledged music composer for Guzaarish. While he became a music composer by design, choreography happened by accident.

A source close to the director says, “It happened last week while he was shooting a dance sequence with Aishwarya. Sanjay wanted her to do an impromptu and spontaneous dance. Sanjay wanted it to look as if Aishwarya was not dancing for the camera.”

But the movements that the choreographer showed them were somehow not working out. Sanjay found the whole effect too rehearsed and premeditated.


The source adds, “Time was running out so Sanjay finally decided to take matters into his own hands. Since he is also the film’s music composer, he understood the song’s core rhythm and soon began demonstrating the steps to Aishwarya. Everyone eventually suggested that he choreograph the entire song. Within four hours the song was done.”

The director says, “In the course of a film one often encounters any number of hurdles. It’s a director’s job to be equipped to handle any eventuality on the sets. Actors often get stuck in situations that they can’t get out of on their own. It’s the director’s job to guide them. That’s all I did.”

The handful of people who have watched the rushes of Guzaarish Dance Of Life (the song’s unofficial title) say it’s one of Aishwarya’s most brilliantly choreographed and executed dance numbers ever.

Now that Bhansali, a devotee and follower of the Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj, has reconnected with his love for choreography, he is seriously thinking of doing all the choreography of his future project Heera Mandi, a film based on classical dancing. And this time it would be official.

Kareena Kapoor had to wake up at an unearthly 3.30 am and board a flight to Goa with friends director Lovely Singh and Tusshar Kapoor.

Bebo was in Mumbai to complete the patch work on the Hindi version of Step Mom, and then she had to fly to Goa really early because another unit was waiting for her to start shooting.

Naturally, one spotted her rubbing sleep from her eyes as she boarded her plane.

Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone were open about their relationship while it lasted, and discreet after their break-up happened. Now, they've been seen together at a movie theatre in Mumbai watching her recently released 'Housefull', and we're wondering if they might be getting back together.

It seems Ranbir and Deepika sat next to each other as they caught 'Housefull' at a late night show in a multiplex on the weekend, and caused quite a buzz among audiences.

Just a few days ago Deepika had said that now she'd think twice about revealing private matters in public, like she had when she was seeing Ranbir. "We were young and in love and I didn't see anything wrong in being vocal about that. I thought being honest would work well but yes I'd think twice (about being so public) again," Deepika had said.

So has Deepika changed her mind about being public? Or was she just catching up with her ex? Are the two getting back together? We'll keep you posted!