CELEBS FACTORY

After endorsing a watch brand, an airline company and a camera series, model/actor Deepika Padukone has now been roped in to be the face of pens!

The dashing diva has been named brand ambassador of Pilot, a known brand from writing instruments company Luxor, with whom she has signed a two-year contract for its multimedia campaign.

Deepika was zeroed in on due to her ambitious and hardworking attitude, which has helped her tread a successful Bollywood career starting from "Om Shanti Om" in 2007 to her last release "Desi Boyz", released earlier this year.

"Deepika comes across as a go-getter who has made it on her own. She is confident of her choices and works hard to achieve what she desires from life," said Pooja Jain, executive director, Luxor Group, said in a statement.

"Deepika rightly represents the youth, who are passionate and seek excellence in their endeavours. Luxor range of writing instruments is exported to 110 countries worldwide thus we also wanted a face that would be internationally recognised," she added.

The ad campaign for Pilot will be created by filmmaker R. Balakrishnan's Lowe Lintas.

"Deepika is a confident person and represents the youth which is aware and determined. The ad campaign for Pilot will keep this synchronicity in mind and will have a young feel," said Balakrishnan, popularly known as R. Balki.

If we talk about hot bods in Bollywood then Deepika Padukone definitely falls in the top 5 of this very short list and the actor's above seen bikini sequence in the trailer of 'Cocktail' has become the talk of the town.

The actor has given an important tip to people seeking for a fit body:
“If you don't like the gym, get involved in a sport, take dance lessons or do the kind of physical activity that interests you," said Deepika Padukone who portrays Venocica, an impulsive and care free personality in Cocktail.

“Being skinny is not 'hot and happening' at all; rather, a toned, athletic body is the way to go!,” she added.

Cocktail starring Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty is directed by Homi Adajania of 'Being Cyrus (2006)' fame. It is produced by Saif Ali Khan, Dinesh Vijan and Sunil Lulla  and is expected to release in July, 2012.

It's going to be Love Aaj Kal again for Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in their latest offering, Cocktail, directed by Homi Adajania.

The film, which is a story of three friends, also stars model Diana Penty. Homi had made his directorial debut with Being Cyrus, starring Saif and Dimple Kapadia.

The trailer reminds you of Saif's Dil Chahta Hai days. He plays Gautam, who is a flirt, and Deepika plays the party loving Veronica.

The film has been produced by Saif Ali Khan's production house, Illuminati Films.

Here's a look at the film's first trailer:

Rajnikanth, whom his fans believe can do the impossible, doesn’t want to do what is really possible by even an amateur in the industry- to romance a girl.

Just imagine who wouldn’t want to romance a beauty like Deepika Padukone. Starting from the smallest star to the most powerful star would queue up to romance her for a life time, but not the Superstar.

If reports are to be believed, Rajinikanth had made a request to his daughter Soundarya, to keep the number of romance sequences to the minimum. It seems that he feels bad to romance a girl half of his age. This incident is said to have happened when Saroj Khan, the film’s choreographer had composed a dance sequence that involved moves that were very rich in romance. 

Initially, when Superstar was planning to do Rana, he had objected to bring in Sonakshi Sinha as the film’s heroine as he felt it wouldn’t be nice to romance the daughter of his very good friend Shatrughan Sinha.

There is no doubt that Superstar Rajinikanth's Kochadaiyaan directed by his daughter Soundarya is one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

The film’s two schedules in London and Trivandrum has been successfully completed and the postproduction is in full swing.

Superstar Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone shot for a dance number recently in which they both had performed bharathanatyam, boasts the team.

The film is scheduled to hit the screens only in September but the team is already done with most of the shooting parts and have announced of releasing the teaser of the film very soon.

Looks like director Soundarya R. Ashwin knows her job pretty well.

Deepika Padukone was last seen performing a classical dance in her debut film Om Shanthi Om. After that, the gorgeous dame has performed a classical dance along with Superstar Rajinikanth for Soundarya Rajinikanth's directorial debut 'Kochadaiyaan'.

The pretty Bollywood girl, who could not attend the London schedule did her part for 'Kochadaiyaan' in the recently held Trivandrum schedule. A complete profession that Deepika Padukone is, impressed the film's crew by completing the song shoot in just two days.

“Yes, the song shoot was for a beautiful classical song composed by A.R Rahman. Deepika and Rajinikanth rehearsed for three days before shooting the dance sequence and it has come out extremely well,” said dance choreographer Saroj Khan when quizzed about the dance sequence.

The second schedule for Kochadaiyaan has been successfully wrapped up and Soundarya Rajinikanth, the director is very happy with the way the film is progressing. 

Deepika Padukone, the reigning Queen of Bollywood who plays the lead opposite Superstar Rajinikanth had joined the team in Kerala for the first time as she was not present for the first schedule that took place in London.

Soundarya praised Deepika Padukone to the skies and said that she is a darling and went on praising the actor of her professionalism and said that it was great working with her.

It may be recalled that the actor was in news for all the wrong reasons of having abandoned the filming of Abbas Mustan's Race 2. Although the actress has excused herself from Race 2 due to unavailability of dates, it is believed that she was just proactive in accommodating to star opposite Superstar Rajinikanth. 

The Superstar is known more for his style than his dance. However this time, he is all set to display his ability as a versatile dancer in Kochadaiyaan.

Word is that there is a 3 minute song sequence that will see him perform the Rudra Thandavam or Lord Siva's dance of destruction.

For those who have forgotten their Hindu Mythology, Siva performed the Rudra Thandavam when his  consort, Sati immolated herself at her father Daksha's yagna. The fury of his dance would have destroyed the world if the other Gods had not intervened.

Rajini will be recapturing the magic of this fabled dance in Kochadaiyaan. Needless to say there are some intricate moves involved, and Rajini has pulled them off with aplomb.

According to insiders, this particular sequence is simply amazing and fans are going to love it.

 Bollywood lass Deepika Padukone, who is presently shooting for the much awaited 3D film Kochadaiyaan, has been approached by director Shankar for his forthcoming film.

The rumour is that the leggy actress seems to be quite interested in the film. But the news hasn’t been confirmed yet as the talks are still in its initial stages.

Though his previous film Nanban is still going strong in theaters, the Endhiran director isn’t interested in laying back and enjoying the success of the film. Instead he has started working on his next flick. The buzz around the industry is that this untitled flick might even feature Surya or Vikram.

Early in the morning at 4 a.m. might not be a time when the airport is abuzz with reporters trying to get a few bytes. But, it was so on Saturday morning as the principal team of Kochadaiyaan arrived to board their flight to London.

Rajinikanth was in high spirits and said a few words. He said that the team was off on a 20-25 day long schedule during which they will be shooting a couple of songs and some talkie portions. The next schedule would be in Chennai itself, he added.


Rajini expressed confidence that Kochadaiyaan would come out as a good product and said that the film should hit theatres sometime after Diwali. Finally, he said that after Kochadaiyaan’s completion, Rana would definitely take off.

Superstar saying that Rana is sure to happen after Kochadaiyaan lays to rest many rumors that Kochadaiyaaan is in fact a reworked version of the original Rana script. Also, with Rajinikanth saying that Kochadiayaan will release only after Diwali, the nearest possible date is Pongal 2013 because of the new Producer’s Council regulation which allows major releases only on 5 occasions in a calendar year.

The team that took the flight to London today consisted of Rajinikanth, Soundarya and K.S. Ravikumar. Another part of the team consisting of Sarath Kumar and a few others is set to take a flight to London on the 21st.

Kalki Koechlin is finally moving into the commercial movie zone. After Daayan, she has been roped in for Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, which stars Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.

"Yes, I have signed for Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and I am leaving for the shoot tomorrow," said Kalki Koechlin to a tabloid.



'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani' is Ayan Mukerji's second film as a director after Wake Up Sid, which was also produced under Dharma Productions and for the first time producer Karan Johar has roped in Pritam to compose music for the film.

As per the reports, 'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani' will go on floors March 18 in Manali.

Katrina Kaif was the initial choice to play Rajinikanth’s pair in Kochadaiyaan.

The film’s director Soundarya had said that she was in talks with Katrina Kaif to get her onboard. Eventually, the offer fell on the hands of Deepika Padukone.

Talking about missing the opportunity to share the screen space with Rajinikanth, Katrina said that she has agreed to star in a film alongside Shah Rukh Khan and had given a 10-month call sheet for this film. Therefore, she was not in a position to allot the call sheet that Soundarya had asked.

While Deepika Padukone has made it clear that she will not be a part of Race II as the producer has wasted her call sheet last year, producer Ramesh Taurani is set on having none other than Deepika playing the female lead.

As a result of this, Ramesh had filed a complaint at the actors’ association in Mumbai.

Replying to the complaint, Deepika said that her dates have been wasted by the producer several times before and she has no intention of starring in Race II.

The actress, however, maintained that she has due respects for the producers but cant do anything about the crisis now.

Who could say no to Rajinikanth?

At least Deepika Padukone can’t!

Earlier, when Deepika was approached for Rajini’s Rana, she walked out of Housefull II to spare dates for the Southern Superstar. Now, Deepika has apparently ditched another Bollywood film Race II and yet again it is to star opposite Superstar Rajinikanth.

What a royal snub, Deepika!

It is said that Deepika Padukone has opted out of Race II to give dates to Rajinikanth’s upcoming film Kochadaiyaan, but kept the makers of Race II in the dark about the real reason for not working with them. However, this has gone down well neither with Ramesh Taurani, the producer or the film crew of Race II who are quite upset with Deepika Padukone.

“Deepika's manager Anirban said that she has bagged a big Hollywood film and it is a lifetime opportunity for her. So we had to let her go,” said Taurani.

But sources claim that it was later found out that the actress opted out for the Rajnikanth film and not for any Hollywood film. Apparently, this sudden exit of Deepika has caused a lot of trouble for the makers and that also includes monetary losses.

In fact, Deepika Padukone had even shot for two days for Race II. But reportedly she wasn’t happy with the slow progress of the film.

According to a source, who is close to Deepika, the actress didn’t leave Race II because of Rajinikanth’s film. She was just waiting for Race II to wrap up soon, as her dates for December and January were already wasted due to delay. Now, the makers of Race II required Deepika’s new dates because of Sanjay Dutt, who was recently roped in for the action thriller. And that created problem for Deepika as she couldn’t allot fresh dates to the film because of her prior commitments.

Whatever be the reason, producer Ramesh Taurani of Tips is not in a mood to take this lightly. Last it was heard that Taurani is lodging a complaint against Deepika Padukone with the Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA).

Deepika trumped the other favourite Katrina Kaif to romance Rajinikanth in Kochadaiyaan.

Rubbing off the rumors that were reported earlier, Soundarya Rajinikanth has confirmed that Deepika Padukone will be pairing up with her dad Rajinikanth in her directorial Kochadaiyaan.

There were rumors that Katrina Kaif would play the female lead in this film along with an ensemble cast but now now Deepika has been roped in to play the lead opposite the Superstar.

Interestingly, Deepika Padukone was roped in to pair with Rajinikanth for Rana last year that was halted after Rajini's health conditions deteriorated.

It is worth mentioning here that Superstar Rajinikanth was later hospitalized and regained his health.

Soundarya Rajinikanth, who has decided to direct Kochadaiyaan before filming Rana with her Superstar dad is now making progressing quickly under the supervision of K.S Ravi Kumar, the director of Rana who is penning the story, screenplay and dialogues for this film.

It was reported earlier that soon-to-be-married actors, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, have made a pact of sorts that they will not shoot intimate scenes with any of their co-stars in future.

The report came soon after Kareena’s next big ticket film, Heroine went on floors, and reports about Saif having to do steamy scenes with Deepika Padukone in Race 2, came out.

Bring this up, and Madhur Bhandarkar, the director of Heroine, says, “Kareena is a thorough professional. She won’t ever disappoint her directors. She never asks for alterations in scenes. She suggests ways to make them better and participates in discussions. She got into the skin of her character from day one last week. So, I don’t know anything about any news story, but I know my heroine is doing a fabulous job.”

The controversial movie, which was first offered to Kareena, followed by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and then to Kareena again, went on floors last week at Film City, Goregaon. Over the last week, scenes have been shot at different locations across the city, including malls and beaches. After a 20-day schedule, the shooting will take a small break and resume in January with the second schedule.

“We started with a bang. It was a buzzy song, followed by a photo shoot that Dabboo Ratnani, who is playing himself in my film, will be seen doing with Kareena and Arjun (Rampal). Their chemistry and energy was fantastic,” says an elated Madhur, who will shoot portions of his film, based on Hollywood and Bollywood actors, in Delhi and a couple of locations abroad.

“Over the last week, we have shot a lot of intensely dramatic scenes with Kareena. She, as I had thought, is a dream to work with.”

Apparently, the actor broke down on the sets a couple of times while shooting the emotional scenes. “It’s true,” says Madhur. “We didn’t have to provide her with any additional help. Once we got rolling, after a detailed discussion of the scene, she actually had tears in her eyes while delivering her lines. I couldn’t have found a better heroine for Heroine."

Nargis Fakhri says she spent hours in the dubbing studio and hoped to hear her voice onscreen.

Nargis might have been linked to actor Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star in her debut Bollywood film, but when asked about the veracity of these reports, Nargis Fakhri maintains that she has no time for a relationship and brushes off queries about being romantically involved with the Kapoor scion. What's even more surprising is that the 31-year-old New Yorker had no idea who actor Ranbir and director Imtiaz Ali were before she signed up for the film that shot her to stardom.

"I had no idea about either of them. For me, doing the film was more like an art project. I just fell in love with the script the moment I heard it," said Nargis.

The former model admits that making the switch from the ramp to the big screen wasn't very easy either.

"It was very difficult initially; acting is a very intense job. It was difficult to adjust to the acting environment. Moreover, I had to get used to being in a new environment without my friends or family. But I enjoyed it," she says, adding, "I remember spending 10 hours in the office, from Monday to Sunday, dubbing for my own scenes. I did 5-10 scenes, but I don't know why they weren't taken. I was very upset that I didn't get to dub for myself."

While Nargis is aware of the appreciation that has come her way for her role, her greatest admirer so far has been Ranbir. "He has seen how hard I worked on this project, and it's great if your co-star gives you credit," she says.

And though the actor is just one film old, she has already bagged three endorsements and kickstarted a brand war of sorts. Quiz her about snapping up deals for which actors Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone were also under consideration, and she says, "I don't think I am taking over from anyone. I have been doing ads for some time and this is not new to me."

And if B-town buzz is to be believed, the newbie Nargis has been signed up to play the female villain in Rakesh Roshan's sequel to Krrish. "I am not doing this right now. At the moment I am just taking my time," she clarified.

Imtiaz Ali’s film Rockstar may have drawn mixed responses from critics, but almost everyone agrees that Ranbir Kapoor has delivered a terrific performance in the film.

Well, that seems to be the case with Deepika Padukone.

Buzz is that Deepika Padukone, Ranbir’s ex girlfriend as the world already knows, was in tears while watching Rockstar at a special screening hosted by Ranbir himself at Yashraj over the weekend.

Ranbir really values the opinions of his peers in the industry and therefore held a special screening of the film to which the likes of Deepika, Anushka Sharma and even Katrina Kaif were invited.

Onlookers say that Deepika got so involved in the film that at one point her eyes welled up and she wept.

We don’t know if Ranbir knows about Deepika’s extreme reaction, but if he does he should realize that there’s no compliment bigger than this.

What's common between Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone and Anushka? Well, besides the fact that they are super famous and powerful, they all hail from Karnataka.

With their stupendous success in movies, Sandalwood certainly seems to have lost out on cashing in on their charm and popularity. Here are a few well known stars whose names are synonymous with beauty and popularity

Aishwarya Rai:This dancer-turned-model with the most attractive eyes hails from Mangalore. She debuted in Mani Ratnam's Tamil biopic Iruvarand did a couple of Tamil and Hindi movies that were not much to talk about. However, her performance in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanamestablished her as a good actress and she was flooded with offers from Bollywood. Her marriage into the Bachchan Khandaanonly enhanced her star power. Sandalwood's dream of getting her to feature in a Kannada movie still remains a distant dream.

Anushka sharma:Another Bangalore beauty who completed her education in Bangalore. However, her modelling career took her to Mumbai and after she bagged the role in Shah Rukh Khan's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, she's been on a roll. Her popularity has grown by the day and looks like she too will join the list of others who made a quiet exit from Bangalore and will always remain elusive to Sandalwood.

Anushka Shetty:This Mangalore-born bunt beauty like others did her schooling and college in Bangalore. However, her entry to tinsel town was with a Telugu movie. The rest, like they say was history. With her mind blowing performances in movies like Arundhati, she's now become the queen of Tollywood. No talk of her doing any Kannada movies yet.

Deepika Padukone:This long legged Konkani lass is the most sought-after actress in the film industry. Deepika did her schooling and college in Bangalore and started modelling when she bagged her first movie. Even though her debut was in Kannada with Upendra's Aishwarya, she has always been considered a hot Bollywood babe. Deepika too hasn't had the time to look back since then. It's Hindi movie all the way for this Bangalore chick! Her only connection to Bangalore right now is her link-up with the liquor Baron's son Sidhartha Mallya.

Lara Dutta:Nobody expected this Bangalore-bred former Miss Universe would enter films. However, even after her debut with a Tamil film Arasatchi, Sandalwood gave her a royal ignore. Post that, Lara starred in many Hindi movies that went on to become a hit. And now, with her expecting a child with tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi, it isn't likely that she will act in movies any time soon. Hard luck again!

No. 1 director David Dhawan's son, Bollywood's newest entrant Rohit Dhawan makes his directorial debut with the sizzling multi-starrer Desi Boyz with Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, Chitrangada Singh and Bollywood's Khiladi Akshay Kumar.

Desi Boyz is said to be an action-comedy based on two extremely competitive men played by Akshay and John who lose their jobs only to find themselves pitted against each other as - Pole Dancers!

With the underlying promise of topping Dostana on the laugh-o-meter, the film is slated for a November 25 release.

Till then, we'll just have to wait and see if it lives up to our expectations.