India to have its own take on the Razzies
New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) In a spin-off from Hollywood's Golden Raspbery Awards (also known as the Razzies) which recognises the worst in cinema, India will have its own version of the same, Golden Kela Awards, to be held March 7.
Launched by Random magazine, the ceremony will take place here on the same day as the 54th Filmfare Awards 2009 are held in Mumbai.
"The Golden Kela Awards is the first of its kind to be held in India on the lines of the Razzies in America. It'll be very funny and entertaining for the audience and we hope to make it an annual event just like the one in the West," Jatin Varma, founder of Random magazine that is launching the award ceremony told IANS.
While Himesh Reshammiya, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan to name a few fall in the worst actor category, actresses like Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Katrina Kaif compete for the worst actress award.
"As compared to Hollywood, Bollywood comes out with a lot of movies annually and not all of these do well. So, we have already made it clear that we are just poking fun at them with no personal remarks," Varma said.
The Indian version will also be honouring comedian Jaspal Bhatti, who is also the "Godfather of the ceremony" with the lifetime achievement Kela award.
Varma was, however, not deterred by the missing celebrity quotient from Golden Kela.
"We have invited the celebrities but we haven't heard from them yet. We might get overshadowed by the Filmfare Awards this time but we will still have a lot of humour quotient and stand-up comedians to spice up the ceremony," he said.
"Our celebrity quotient might be a bit less but hopefully we will have celebrities themselves attending the awards in the coming years to receive their trophies themselves just like in the West," he added.
The categories and the nominees have been selected by the editorial board of the magazine and will be selected via an online poll for the public on the website www.goldenkela.in
Amitabh Bachchan to pen foreword for father's magnum opus
New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) Religiously dutiful about maintaining an e-diary with regular posts everyday, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan will now be writing the foreword for his poet father the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan's highly acclaimed work "Madhushala".
"I have a task, it is to write the foreword to 'Madhushala', since the book needs to get to print (again). This is a daunting task," Amitabh posted on his blog www.bigb.bigadda.com Thursday from Hyderabad.
"How many son's have been asked to write foreword to the great genius of their father? Limited, I believe. I find myself among those limited few. I have made a shaky start and shall need all my faculties at my command to be able to accomplish this huge responsibility," he added.
The new edition of the book is a large coffee table sized version - it will have the original verses of the late poet accompanied with English translations by Marjorie Boulton of the Oxford University.
The book will also have paintings by Amitabh's niece Namrata Bachchan.
"The proof is looking very good. The paintings are unique and hopefully with the written foreward should form a fitting tribute to my father's 101st anniversary (Jan 18, 2009)," Amitabh posted on his blog Feb 13 from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.
The 66-year-old actor also has plans to share the introduction to the book of poems with his readers before it hits the stalls.
"If it works out, I shall share it with you (the readers). Maybe you can give me some reactions," he said.
First published in 1935, "Madhushala" is considered to be Harivansh Rai's greatest works. Still sold briskly, it got him fame through his self-recitations of the poems at poetry symposiums at that time.
