Prepare to catch our own Ash Rai on the celebrated, Emmy award winning show CBS’s 60 Minutes. Bob Simon and the 60 Minutes team traveled to Mumbai to interview Ash. Mark your calendars folks. The program will be telecast on CBS on Sunday January 2, 2005.

The famed cricket bat that hit a six on the last ball of the match in the film Lagaan fetched Rs. 6 million at an auction in Lahore, Pakistan. The event was held to raise funds for a cancer hospital built by former cricketer, politician, Imran Khan. Aamir carried the bat with him on his recent trip to Pakistan. The bat was bought by Ali Imran, a builder in Pakistan.

  John Abraham and Nana Patekar have been signed up for Milan Luthria’s next film. Even though Luthria’s previous venture Deewar: Let’s bring the heroes home did not sizzle up the Box Office, this new film is generating a lot of interest in the industry.

  When Swades (Hindi and the Tamil dubbed version), hits the theaters tomorrow, we may hear SRK mouth his lines in Tamil. Rumors are afloat that SRK has dubbed his lines himself! AR Rahman’s tunes remain the same but the lyrics for the Tamil version are obiviously, in Tamil!

  Abhishek Bachchan will appear on Television in a cameo role for the serial ‘Kareena Kareena’. Cricketers Nav Joth Singh Sidhu and Bret Lee have both appeared on this show.

  Xinhua reports that no one has yet claimed responsibility for the Bomb blast at Shah Rukh’s concert in Colombo, that killed two and injured many. The Colombo crime division of the police is handling the investigation. No arrests have been made so far.The concert was held despite protests by Buddhist monks, who said the musical show coincided with the first death anniversary of a popular monk.

The latest casualty on Broadway? Bombay Dreams.  Producers announced recently that the lavish Bollywood-inspired musical will close Jan. 1. The organizers are planning  to continue with a U.S. tour of the show in 2005-06.

Since it debuted late April debut, Bombay Dreams has received some scathing reviews and has constantly struggled with ticket sales. The original British version – which was popular and profitable – was the brainchild of composer-producer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Indian movie director Shekhar Kapur. It debuted in June 2002 and featured music by A. R. Rahman.

  The recent MTV IMMIES (Indian Music Excellence Awards) saw the Bollywood blockbuster ‘Main Hoon Na’  winning big, including the Best Film Album, award.

Held at the Tulip Star hotel in Juhu, the ceremony was attended by the chchottas and Motas of Bollywood that included Shilpa Shetty, Sonali Bendre, Diya Mirza, Hrishita Bhatt Kim Sharma. Biggies from the South Indian cinema scene, Kamal Hasan, Vasundhara Das and Prabhudeva were also present.

Hrithik won in the male category for the song 'Main Aisa Kyon Hoon' from the film ‘Lakshya’, while Sushmita bagged the Best Female Performance in a Song (Film) award for 'Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha' in the film ‘ Main Hoon Na’.

Sonu was named best Male Singer for his playback ‘singing in Main Hoon Na’ and Sneha Pant was named the Best Female Pop Singer for ‘Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar’. Kumar Ganjawala got the nod for ‘Bheege Hoth Tere’ from ‘Murder’ and the great Naushad was honored with the Inspiration Award.

Jagjit Singh's 'Close To My Heart' won the Best Ghazal Album award while Pritam won the Best Composer award for the song 'Dhoom Machale' from 'Dhoom'.

In the international category, Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias and Tata Young were awarded. Strings, Fuzon, Sukhbir & JoSH rocked the audience along side musicians like Apache Indian, Jay Sean and Falguni Pathak. Bollywood stars Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra also joined the show.

International artists Alanis Morrisette and Darius also performed at the show.

Urmila Matondkar has signed director Pankuj Parashar for his new film Banaras, and shooting begins in February 2005. The film also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Raj Babbar.

Shaad Ali's film Bunty Aur Babli will feature a qawwali composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, written by Gulzaar and sung by Alisha Chinai. Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan will dance together for that number and runors persist that Ash Rai will be shaking a leg with the father-son duo!

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