Sanjay Dutt enters politics

It was a surprise announcement from Samajwadi Party on Thursday when it came out that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt would be its candidate from Lucknow for the Lok Sabha elections “subject to clearance by the Supreme Court and the Election Commission.” Mr. Dutt, who had been sentenced by the High Court under the Arms Act, would be the party’s star campaigner in the elections.

Announcing the party’s first list of 29 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections after a meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board here on Thursday, party general secretary Amar Singh said, “Like a BJP MP, who is a known cricketer, was allowed to contest despite being convicted, we too will try our best to field Sanjay Dutt. If we fail, he will certainly be our star campaigner.”

He also claimed that Sanjay Dutt had agreed to contest. “Dutt told me you are like my elder brother. He said he would do anything I ask him to though he said he was not a political person,” Singh said.

Mr. Singh also said that recently the United Nations made him their global ambassador on malnutrition. “Since we are an ally of the Congress and Sanjay’s sister Priya is a Congress MP, we hope the party would be happy.”

A peek at Dabbo Ratnani’s 2009 calendar

New Year calendars with Bollywood celebrities adding glaour and glitter to it are the most awaited part of any oncoming year. Among the most awaited ones is the calendar of Dabboo Ratnani. This time Dabboo has come up with his calendar featuring the brightest Bollywood stars like Akshay Kumar, Kangna Ranaut, Sushmita Sen, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kajol, Riteish Deshmukh and Deepika Padukone.

The calendar has Kajol in her ‘bindaas’ self atop a Mumbai taxi in a flaming red dress. Deepika Padukone is an all different look with her warrior queen avatar with a designer sword. Riteish Deshmukh looks awesomely striking with his Beatles-inspired sixties’ black and white look. Sajnay Dutt looks deadly behind the wheels of the gleaming red Ferrari.

Says Dabboo about his work, “I have not restricted myself to any dramatic theme for 2009. Some are in black and white, some are in reds while the rest are in vivid colors,” says Dabboo who begins work on his annual ritual in September every year. “Initially, I used to collect snaps of the stars I had shot and put them together for the calendar. But later, I began shooting them exclusively for it.”

Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan patch up!

Salman Khan has finally patched up with his long time buddy Sanjay Dutt who he acknowledged as his role model in life. For some odd reason things went sour between the two long time ago but now they are buddies again.

I

t all happened at Film City where both Dutt and Khan were shooting for their respective films. Salman was shooting for Anil Sharma’s Veer and Sanjay Dutt was shooting for Bunty Walia’s film. When Salman heard Sanjay is shooting closeby he decided to pay him a visit. When he reached the sets he got to know that he is shooting for Bunty Walia who Salman Khan is no more friends with.

Salman didnt want to see Bunty’s face so he returned back to his sets without meeting Sanjay. When Sanjay got to know about this he took charge of the situation and walked up to Salman’s sets the next day and spent a good 45 minutes with his old friend.

Confirms a source, “They met like nothing had gone wrong between them. And have promised to meet up regularly.”

Wonder if we would get to see the same with Shahrukh too… what say Sallu miyan!

Pogo Amazing Kids Awards 2008 on ‘Chandani Chowk to China’ roller coaster

It was a complete fun filled roller coaster ride for the winners of the Pogo Amazing Kids Awards 2008 that was held on Saturday night at Vrundavan Studio in Malad, Mumbai. Bollywood’s brightest stars- Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone descended upon the function to promote their film, ‘Chandani Chowk to China’ and to reward the winners of The Pogo Amazing Kids Awards 2008!

Deepika looked stunningly hot in blood red dress with a black patent headband; while Akshay performed an elaborate stage show with children decked up in chock-a-block Chinese gear. Flaunting her voted best body curves- Sexy siren Shilpa Shetty and ever smiling Mahima Chaudhary donning a black and orange mini; along with singing sensation Sonu Nigam also graced the occasion.

The Pogo channel developed by Turner Entertainment Networks Asia (Tena); awarded the kids a certificate for their wonderful achievements along with a benefit policy worth 500,000 rupees! Twenty four children chosen from Delhi, Hyderbad, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Allahbad, Bangalore and Mirzapur across eight categories including music, arts, singing, dance, genius, leadership, sports and entertainment were featured at the award ceremony. This was the fifth season of the show where more than three thousand kids of 6-14 age groups entered the competition!

The impressive panel of judges included- choreographer Ashley Lobo, politician Priya Dutt (Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’s sister), renowned Bollywood singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan, artist Brinda Miller, actor Vinay Pathak, commentator Charu Sharma, and manipulative genius Shakuntala Devi. That sure is some sound jury! Thus, kiddos had pretty rocking time. Here are some pictures of star studded Saturday show:

Sanjay Dutt voluntarily reduces his price

Sanjay Dutt has taken a considerate step towards scaling down of rising star prices in Bollywood at a crucial time with crippling recession, plus the big terror blow that Mumbai suffered on 26/11. Sanjay, who had recently increased his remuneration by a good 60 percent to Rs.15 crore (Rs.150 million) has realized that there is no wisdom in unnecessarily charging a prohibitive fee that brings projects down even before they hits the theatres.

“After the attack on Mumbai, people have cut down drastically on their visits to shopping malls and movie theatres. So the situation has got even worse. We in the film industry are part of one big family and we’ve to make our family survive this worst-ever crisis,” Sanjay said

Sanjay Dutt Productions CEO Dharam Oberoi said, “He thought it would be unfair to hike his prices at a time when the industry is struggling with recession.”

Sanjay is currently shooting for Rahul Dholakia’s Lamhaa. Oberoi said the prices would be effective on films that he signs in 2009.