Anil helps Farah to get Akshaye to star in his film

Farah Khan believes three is her lucky charm. She has triplets, her production house is called 3's Company and now she has three namesakes in her project Tees Maar Khan.

After casting Akshay Kumar for TMK, she has just pencilled in Akshaye Khanna for a parallel role in her film. To avoid confusion in names, she will refer to them as Akki and Akshu. The unit hands will have to refer to them as Mr Kumar and Mr Khanna. But then, stylist Aki Narula is also on board her project!

"There is bound to be some gadbad at some time when the film goes on floors in March," laughs Farah. "I can well imagine if I am calling Akki and Aki lands up or when I say Akshaye and Akshay arrives."

When her hubby Shirish Kunder and she were looking at options for another hero for Tees Maar Khan, Akshaye was on the top of the list. "I am glad he was convinced and said yes. Akshaye is half-Parsi like me and he calls me dikri! We get along superbly."

Anil Kapoor played a major role in the casting too. He is close to both Farah and Akshaye and put in a word on Farah's behalf.

Adds Farah, "Shirish went to meet Akshaye on the sets of No Problem at Mehboob Studios last week. Now everything is signed and sealed."

Akshaye will have to shed weight for the film and has already started preparing for the role..
Says Farah, "It's the first time that the two Akshays are working together in the same film. Though both have worked in many Priyadarshan films they haven't done a project together with him either. I am glad they are doing it with me first!"

Tees Maar Khan will have one actress, who will be announced by the second week of January.

Boys will be boys

The reason is because Sanju who has a fleet of cars brings a new car to work each day. Just yesterday, he was in the studios with his red sports model fancy car. And, in between shots all the others ‘boys’ — Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal were apparently just hanging around Sanju’s car, touching it, feeling it... and wanting to take it out for a ride. What’s it with men and machines yaar? “I find them more irresistible than even women,” said one of the actors.

Farah signs Akshaye for Tees Maar Khan

Farah confirms the news. She says, “Akshaye Khanna is playing a pivotal role. We needed a big name and an established actor, who had a good comic timing. Khanna fitted the bill perfectly. Moreover, Kumar and Khanna have never worked together so this is a fresh combination of co-stars. It is a very unique role and the second most important character in the film. Kumar is playing the title role, while Khanna is playing Atish Kapoor.”

Ask her if there is any actress opposite Khanna, she says, “There is just one actress opposite both the Akshay(e)s. It is a strange script and I cannot divulge details about it.”

Glad to know Farah considers Akshaye as a big name for she kept dissing him in the past. I am relieved Akshaye will be seen in a new movie after all.

Akshaye on speed

If you are ferrying your way to Alibaug this weekend, do not be surprised to see Akshaye Khanna zooming ahead in his own speed boat. The actor has the unique hobby of collecting speed boats, and recently put it to good use. While shooting for Anil Kapoor’s No Problem, Akshaye offered the use of his speed boats.

The cast and crew of No Problem were to shoot 2 kms off the sea shore. So Akshaye suggested that they should use his speed boats to travel for the shoot. And that’s exactly what they did, use ‘Freedom’ and ‘Freedom II’, for the shoot. Freedom is a white and yellow boat, while Freedom II is white and blue.

Rajat Rawail, one of the producers confirmed, “Akshaye owns two huge speed boats. One of the boats is 27 feet long, while the other is easily 32. In fact, he just bought the larger one two months ago. I was discussing the two-day shoot scheduled at the Yellow Gate, Fort with my team. Akshaye happened to come and sit next to me, and he figured that I was planning to book speed boats for our travel. He promptly said that we could use his boats and that he has two of them.”

“The boats, I must say, are lovely and we have been using them for the last two days. Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut and Anees Bazmee, all traveled in the boats. I believe Akshaye uses them to travel to Alibaug, which is one of his favourite spots,” Rajat added.

Akshaye attends Anil's b'day

It was a quiet birthday night for the actor who celebrated his big day with Bollywood pals. Kapoor, who was last seen in the worldwide super-hit, Slumdog Millionaire, was dressed casually and spent the evening interacting and celebrating. Attending the event were his Mr India co-star, Sreedevi, Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna, who chose to stay away from the cameras for most of the evening.

Old candids

No Problem first still

Akshoo loves vadapav

Yeh Kehne Se Pehle Tumhari Zaban Kyon Nahi Jal Gayi

No one can take a 'vada pav' away from Akshaye Khanna. He loves it so much that you cannot even call it junk food without getting into an argument with him, "Vada Pav is not junk food. It's got this aalo patties which is placed between the bread. How can it be junk food?" Go for it Khanna! Anyways 'junk food' is nothing but silly 'gora' concept!

Sush hugs Akshoo

Both women dressed in designer saris (costing the producer a few lakhs) were in perfect tandem. What is notable is that Kangna who seems petite could actually measure up quite well to the tall Sushmita. Both women wore flat slippers, exposed their flat bellies and shook their hips so seductively that the men who were watching — Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Khanna had their tongues hanging loose.

Akshaye Khanna the youngest guy of the lot also got rewarded by a nice bear hug from sexy Sush... and after she finished, the actor was strutting around looking very pleased. Well, not everyone gets such benevolence from the ex Miss Universe after all.

Akshaye gets best villain award

Apsara Award for Race.

And the next flick is.....

ChaiGaram?

On Location of No Problem

Akshaye's Hungama

Hopefully, more such Akshaye TV spots will turn up soon.

Akshaye's astrological forecast

Akshaye will remain in the limelight because of his performance in the films in 2009. This year will also see him work hard on honing his skills as an actor.

Akshaye heads to gym

For his role in Priyadarshan’s hard-hitting tale of honour killing in Bihar Ajay Devgan needs to have a specially toned-up physique.

Priyan tells us why. “I’ve turned the horrific tale of an actual incident in Bihar of an inter-caste romance into a full-on actioner. See, I wanted to keep it real. At the same time I wanted to make it riveting for the audience. So while shooting on an authentic location (Karaikudi is like a small town in Bihar) I’ve made my two heroes Ajay and Akshaye Khanna into full-on action heroes. This film has the kind of real stunts never seen in Hindi cinema.”
Priyan has roped in his old action director B Thyagarajan and a stunt director from South Africa , Frances to devise action scenes which would take the director’s Bihari drama into the region of riveting realism.

Says Priyan, “When I say real action I mean fight scenes that are the opposite of cable-wired flips somersaults, jumps and leaps. This time Ajay has gone as raw as it can get.”
The action sequences have both Devgan and Khanna locked in hand-to-hand combats, and other very basic forms of physical aggression that went out of vogue with the old Kung Fu films.

For this Devgan needed to get into a different shape. And so did Akshaye.
In fact, Akshaye is a new convert to the gym . Till this schedule in Karaikudi started. And Ajay persuaded Akshaye to head for the gym.

“Yes, we’ve a set up a terrific gym in this wilderness. It’s been set up in an under-construction building. It has all the equipment,” says Bipasha. “We all work out in it. Ajay and I, of course. Paresh Rawal also works out. Akshaye Khanna only used to play squash for exercise. Now he’s started going to the gym. They need to get into a specific shape for this film.”

Before producer Arbaaz Khan can shift Bihar to Vai near Mumbai for the shooting of Abhinav Kashyap’s Dabangg, Priyadrashan has relocated a village of Bihar in Karaikudi, a Tamilian small-town 80 kilometers away from Madurai to shoot for his very real headline-derived intercaste love story that shook rural Bihar some time ago.

Doesn’t the film take Priyan into a space completely different from his award-winning Kanchivaram?

“Not at all. That was a different kind of reality. This is different,” says Priyan.

A substantial movie for Akshaye after a long time. Can't wait.

Best Villain Award

Akshaye wins a best Villain award for Race

Akshaye out of Basra?

Akshaye not in Basra anymore.

Priyadarshan's movie's shooting on

Every director has a favorite heroine and most often, for inexplicable reasons, like David Dhawan's casting of Rambha or Priyadarshan of Rimi Sen. Well, now Priyadarshan has changed loyalties and his current favorite is Rituparna Sengupta, another Bong sensation.

Sengupta said, "I was first cast for Priyan sir's film with Percept Picture Company, Bum Bum Bole with Atul Kulkarni and Darsheel Saffary. After that film was complete, I got a call from his office offering me a role in his latest political thriller, which is yet to be titled."

Priyan is currently shooting his film on the Kerala Karnataka border with Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna and Bipasha Basu. Rituparna added, "The film is based on the caste war of North India and I play an integral part of the film, whose character is helped by Akshaye Khanna."

Priyan had first cast Sen in Hungama. He was impressed with her commitment to work and therefore cast her in his other films like Garam Masala and Kyon Ki. But it now appears that his loyalties have shifted to Sengupta, who also has a National Award for Best Actress to her name. Additionally, Priyan has also cast another Bengali beauty - Bipasha Basu - in the main lead.

Akshaye to be a judge in beauty contest

In South Africa

Akshaye dances in live concert

Found it on youtube. Is it recent or is it old? Either way its nice.