Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara dominates IIFA Awards nominations list!

Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) film has bagged 14 nominations at the 13th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards and is currently leading. Vidya Balan’s ‘The Dirty Picture’ follows closely, bagging 13 nominations. .

“Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” has been nominated for the best picture, Zoya Akhtar for best direction, Hrithik Roshan for best actor in a leading role, Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar for best performance in a supporting role, male, and Kalki Koechlin has been nominated in best actress in supporting role, female.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for music direction, while Javed Akhtar for best lyrics for “Khaabon ke Parindey”. The film has also been nominated in the best story category. Other nominations include technical categories.

“The Dirty Picture” grabs 13 nominations which includes best actress, best picture, best direction, best performance in supporting role male for Emraan Hashmi and Naseeruddin Shah. Naseer has also been nominated in the best actor in a negative role category, best story, best lyrics and best playback singer male for Kamaal Khan for “Ishq Sufiyana”.

Actors competing for the leading role male category include, Hrithik Roshan for ZNMD, Amitabh Bachchan for “Aarakshan”, Salman Khan for “Bodyguard”, Shahrukh Khan for “Don 2″, Ranbir Kapoor for “Rockstar” and Ajay Devgn for “Singham”.

Actress nominated for the leading role female include Priyanka Chopra for “7 Khoon Maaf”, Kareena Kapoor for “Bodyguard”, Mahi Gill for “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster” and Kangana Ranaut for “Tanu Weds Manu”.

Actors in the supporting role female are Parineeti Chopra for “Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl”, Swara Bhaskar for “Tanu Weds Manu”, Sonali Kulkarni for “Singham” and Divya Dutta for “Stanley Ka Dabba”.

Best performance in a negative role, and the nominations are, Irrfan Khan for “7 Khoon Maaf”, Boman Irani for “Don 2″, Vidyut Jamwal for “Force” and Prakash Raj for “Singham”.

Sabbas Joseph, director, Wizcraft International Entertainment said in a statement, “We at IIFA take pride in announcing the nominees for IIFA Awards 2012 which celebrate the best work done by the Indian Film Industry over the last year.”

“We are thoroughly pleased with the nominees a result of the film industry’s secret ballot; and we hope the audience will make a worthy choice in deciding the winners of this year’s IIFA accolades,” he added.

Akhatar’s boycotts Colors Screen Awards over Sanjay Gupta’s nasty remark!

A scene from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

At the 18th Annual Colors Screen Awards on Saturday, ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ shared the Best Film award with ‘The Dirty Picture’. However, the whole ZNMD team barring Katrina Kaif, boycotted the Award function. Reason: One of the jury members, Sanjay Gupta comments on the film being a copy.

A source close to the Akhtars, reveals, “They stayed away after they heard of this ridiculous scheme to keep two filmmakers and their teams happy by putting them both up for Best Picture.”

The comment coming from Sanjay Gupta has mainly hurt the Akhtars.

The source discloses, “The guy has made his career out of filching foreign DVDs. And he accuses Zoya of copying some movie that no one has heard of!”

After all this, the relations between Farhan Akhtar and Sanjay Gupta have absolutely gone sour.

Amitabh Bachchan praises Honey Irani for investing well in her children Zoya and Farhan

Amitabh Bachchan

Farhan Akhtar, Director Zoya Akhtar

Honey Irani

Amitabh Bachchan has announced 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' (ZNMD) a 'delightful' movie and has admired not only the entire team but also Honey Irani, the mother of Farhan and Zoya Akhtar for investing well in her children.

'It is a delightful film, different and presented in such a novel manner. Male bonding over a travel trip and some of the most natural performances recently seen. Farhan and Abhay Deol were a delight to watch and of course Hritik moved like a dream,' Big B wrote on his blog.

'Honey, Farhan's mother has invested well in her children. Zoya, Farhan's sister has directed the film in a most easy and natural manner. Congratulations!!' he included.

Honey Irani was wedded to lyricist Javed Akhtar but they later divorced.

The film, released Friday, also features Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin and has received a warm response from the audiences.

'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' starcast at Cinemax

Farhan and Ritesh decides to donate Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’s profit for 13/7 Mumbai blast victims.

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, producers of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, have decided to share the film’s profits with the victims of 13/7 Mumbai blasts.

We hear that the amount collected from selected theaters of the Thursday evening show, will be donated to the blast victims. The chosen theatres include PVR in Mulund, Goregaon and Juhu, Fun Cinemas in Andheri, Chembur, Kandivali, Vashi and Kalyan, Cinemax in Sion, and Inox in Nariman Point.

Ritesh Sidhwani confirmed the news telling, “We were all in a very low mood after the blasts. That is when we decided that it is time to do something for the city.”

He included, “Since the film is doing well, we can contribute significantly. We have selected 9-10 cinema halls across the city and the proceeds of the evening show on Thursday will go to the blast victims. Also, some of the multiplexes have come forward to offer a percentage of their share as well. Let’s hope we can do our best.”

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara triumphs at the Box Office!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is doing overwhelming at the box office. This is an another achievement from Bollywood in the month of July. The graph is just going higher and higher, with Delhi Belly doing excellently well, followed by Murder 2 and now ZMND adding to it.

Well, ZNMD had an outstanding first weekend, with an opening collection of 8 crore on Friday, Saturday saw a hike of 9.25 crore while Sunday saw a roaring peak of 11 crore. The total weekend collection summed up to 28.25 crore nett.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is on its way to become a SUPERHIT!!!

This Friday, Ajay Devgan’s Singham is all set to release and it is absolutely expected to open well.

Film 'Zindagi Na Milege Dobara' Review

Movie: 'Zindagi Na Milege Dobara';
Director: Zoya Akhtar;
Actors: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akthar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif;

Zoya Akhtar is a sensitive director who takes us on the trip of recurring themes of friendship, love, coming-of-age and travel.

'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' takes the cheerful voyage of a fun, all-boys road trip through Spain to give you a deep and heartfelt message on why we should live life by seizing the moment and following our hearts. Director Zoya Akhtar, who proved with her superb debut 'Luck By Chance' that she has a sensitive eye for relationships and an assured storytelling style, uses the same tools to tell a fresh story.

It's the characters and their constant conversations, jabbering oftentimes, that lift up Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to a higher grade.

Zoya and Farhan's biggest achievement with this movie, in all honesty, is that they stay true to what they have often expressed, of how significant friends are to them and how their friendships fulfilled the need for other significant relationships a man must have.

Their main characters, Kabir, Imran, Arjun, Natasha and Laila, are the people you are or may have seen or may have hung out with. School friends, Kabir (Abhay Deol), Imran (Farhan Akhtar) and Arjun (Hrithik Roshan) had made a deal to try out an adventure sport of their choice when they meet next. With Kabir getting married to Natasha (Kalki Koechlin), they take off for Spain in the faith that you are blessed with life only once and there won't be another time.

Three old friends - Arjun (Hritik Roshan), Imran (Farhan Akthar) and Kabir (Abhay Deol) - go on a three-week bachelor's road trip through Spain before Kabir's marriage, only to come face to face with their own fears and insecurities.

During the trip, their outer shells are peeled off and their true lives are exposed to one another. Emerging stronger from the experience, they are prepared to live their lives moment by moment, taking pleasure in what they have than bother over what they don't. 

The story doesn't examine their lives in detail, so we are not privy to much information except for maybe Imran's lifelong dream to meet his biological father. Kabir's mom and dad are the standard stereotypes of affluent parents while Arjun mentions his dad passed away quite early. Which is why, he argues with Laila (Katrina Kaif), he thinks of money as his greatest joy.

In a life changing moment, Laila prods him to ask himself if this is what gives him happiness and whether he's missing out on the joys life has in store for him. For Imran, a similar epiphany strikes when his father, throwing his paint-dripped hands up in the air, refuses to accept him. For Kabir, it's whether he's getting wedded too early -- more significantly, is Natasha the girl he really loves?

Zoya keeps it straight, as far as the dilemmas of her characters are concerned. The conversations between characters are laced with real humor, it has a mock-you sense of fun without being critical or slight. When they mimic their teacher, hum the Doordarshan tune in drunken abandon or perform the Diamond biscuit parody, they aren't acting -- just going along, being themselves as friends usually do. 

The dialogue are moderate, they won't make you boring. The real achievement is that the characters are real and life-like.

Overall, it is an above average film. It is praiseworthy to watch once.

KatrinaKaif wows box office and critics with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

WhileZindagi Na Milegi Dobara opened to rave reviews the country over , Katrina Kaifwalked away with impressive feedback for her role as Laila.

As breathtaking as the exotic location she was placed in Katrina Kaif – Bollywood’sleading lady, adding her charming touch ,stood tall alongside 3 actors and held her own.

Says acclaimed critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh “Katrina is a revelation. Infact, the actress continues to surprise you with her performances in film afterfilm. Besides making an impact as a glamour girl, she's all out to prove hermettle as an actress of substance with ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA”

“Katrina Kaif looks ravishing and she underplays beautifully. Her performance shows that she has matured greatly as an actor”includes Komal Nahata

Keeping to her track record of delivering back to back blockbusters, Katrina Kaif adds another hit to her kitty with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

Zoa Akhtar was in dilemma in casting two leading actresses in 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'!

Zoa Akhtar

Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin

Actresses consumed by their internal politics make it very hard for a director to sign more than one for a particular movie, tells director Zoya Akhtar, but she is happy to have Kalki Koechlin with Katrina Kaif in her upcoming movie 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'.

'You have to understand that in the Hindi film industry it's very difficult to star two actresses in a particular film. Like Katrina is in the movie and she is a superstar, then a lot of superstars you want to approach won't agree to do the kind of role Kalki did in the film. There is too much politics,' Zoya said.

Nevertheless, she has high regard for Kalki's acting capabilities and feels the Indian actress of French descent fitted the bill for the character she conceived.

'Kalki is a very interesting actress. She is very edgy. Kalki had no such notion. She doesn't come from that school. She's a wonderful actress. I met her through Anurag (Kashyap). I saw her in 'Dev D' and also the yet unreleased 'The Girl in Yellow Boots' and she is excellent in it.'

Kalki is married to Kashyap.

'She has got a very different role. She is not the heroine of the film. She has that sense of comedy and not over the top. I needed that balance in an actress who could pull that off. I needed someone with that sensibility and Kalki was perfect,' told Zoya.

'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' is a film on a road trip, which shows how the life of three men, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar and Hrithik Roshan, changes when they go for a holiday. It is set to hit the theatres July 15.

Casting this extraordinary mix of lead actors was intentional as the audience has an absolutely independent image of each of them, and the inquisitiveness on how they gel in the film would make it more interesting, believes the director.

'When you cast actors who usually don't come together or have a different image in audience's mind, there is a new dynamic, there is a new energy. The inquisitiveness of the audience makes a film more interesting,' she included.

Step-mother Shabana Azmi praises Zoya Akhtar’s Direction prowess!

Director Zoya Akhtar

Shabana Azmi

Veteran actress Shabana Azmi is overwhelmed with her step-daughter Zoya Akhtar's prowess as a director, and tells she has loved her latest venture 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara', which will release July 15.

'I loved 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'. Zoya's work is wonderful and all performances great. Feel truly proud. Go watch it and seize the moment,' Shabana wrote on her blog.

The film features Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol and Katrina Kaif. It has been attracting a lot of attention for its songs, as well as fun-loving picturisation.

This is Zoya's second directorial project after 'Luck By Chance', which also featured Hrithik and Farhan.

My lip lock with Hrithik is normal thing: Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif has injured her foot and is being forced to rest at home. The break, unluckily, happened on the sets of a film when Katrina accidentally hurt herself. The fortunate part, as Kaif herself puts it, is that the foot damage occurred when she'd wrapped up two films and was readying to plunge into the third.

Freshly, her 'bikini' issues with Dhoom 3 had gathered momentum, though Katrina has clarified in media that she was never considered for the film in the first place!

Moreover, her personal equation with (reported) former flame Salman Khan has come under the media scanner, since the actress has signed up with enemy Shah Rukh Khan for a film, setting tongues wagging full throttle.

Katrina, however, sees no cause for concern on the issue. "People try to look too much by searching for the fine print, but there are no issues with me doing a movie with Salman, Shah Rukh, Ranbir, Hrithik or any other hero, for that matter. I prefer leaving the personal equation out of the professional one."

Her close scenes and reported lip lock with Hrithik Roshan in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara too isn't a factor that stresses Katrina, as she reveals that "it was part of the scene like any other."

Asserting that she's no adventure freak ("I did learn scuba diving for a couple of scenes, but I don't think that I'd try it again"), Katrina also wishes to set the record straight as regards her turning producer.

"I'm not turning producer too soon, anyway, not even for my sister Isabella who's busy studying now," the actress is quoted to have told.