Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Shashi Kapoor was born on this day, in the year 1938, in Kolkata. He was the son of Raj Kapoor and made his career in Bollywood films. He had his first adult role in Yash Chopra's film Dharmputra (1961). After that, till mid eighties he played in 116 Hindi films, amongst them 61 as solo lead role, 55 in multi-starrer films, 21 as supporting actor and 7 films with special appearance. He was a very popular actor in 60s, 70s and till mid-eighties. His favourite actress was Nanda, with whom he acted in 8 films in 60s. Nanda also admitted him as her favourite actor. They played in the films 'Need Hamari Khwab Tumhare', 'Raja Saab', 'Jab Jab Phool Khile', 'Mohabbat Isko Kahete Hain', 'Rootha Na Karo' and a few more. Shashi Kapoor also played opposite several heroines like Babita, Asha Parekh, Mumtaz, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Shabana Azmi, Raakhi, Sharmila Tagore, Mousumi Chatterjee, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi. Sharmilee, Pyar Ka Mausam,...

Madhuri Dixit will fly to London tomorrow to unveil her wax statue on 7 March. Her sons Arin (9) and Rayan (7) alongwith husband Dr Sriram Nene will accompany her to London. Her boys are particularly excited and can't wait to see their mother's twin. Although the details of the statue are still secret, Madhuri will wear desi sari since she will be representing India. The museum already houses the lookalikes of Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. -- A. B.

-- A. B.

Tannishtha Chatterjee, the Bengali actress of international fame, now playing the role of Masha of famous Anna Karenina - director Joe Wright's magnum opus and now busy with the shooting of this film in Russia under unfavourable weather. She is giving her best to make her role look as authentic as possible. Tannishtha had to shoot at -40 degrees in Petrozavodsk, a small town 500 kms north of St. Petersburg. She recalled her experience as "surreal". "Everything turns into ice within seconds. People in this village don't drink water because it turns into ice. The sun rises at around 10am and sets by 4pm. In some of the shots I was just able to expose my lips and nose somehow. It seems like a miracle that we could shoot in that condition. I had no imagination of how it would be like." Petrozavodsk is a place in Khizi Island on lake Onega. The lake, one of the biggest in the world is completely frozen at this time of the year and the temperature r...