Rani, Priyanka join Playboy founder as guests

Bollywood directors Ashutosh Gowariker and Anurag Singh and stars Rani Mukherjee, Priyanka Chopra, Lisa Ray and Harman Baweja will rub shoulders with George Clooney, Demi Moore, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) next month.

The 34th annual mega-film show will run here from Sep 10-19.

Anurag Singh’s “Dil Bole Hadippa” and Ashutosh Gowariker’s “What’s Your Rashee?” will make their world premiere at the festival.

Announcing the names of 500 guests, including directors, producers, and actors, the organizers also included daytime TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson in the final list.

Other big names are Nicolas Cage, Sir Ridley Scott, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Spacey, Michael Douglas, Penelope Cruz and Keanu Reeves.

Apart from Gowariker, Anurag Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Baweja, Rani Mukherjee, and Lisa Ray, the guest list also includes actor Abhay Deol, filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Deepa Mehta’s brother Dilip Mehta, and documentary maker Vikram Jayanti.

Set for release September 18 in India, “Dil Bole Hadippa” is a hilarious drama-comedy with Shahid Kapoor (Rohan) and Rani Mukherjee (Veera Kaur) in lead roles. It also features Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil, Rakhee Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra.

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Akshay is the answer to all Hollywood action heroes

Hollywood action director James Bomalick of The Fast and The Furious and Tokyo Drift fame was so stunned by Akshay Kumar’s passion for action that he could not stop singing praises of the Bollywood star.

James, who worked with Akshay in Blue, noticed that Akshay was always hungry and enthusiastic to do action scenes.

A unit member said, “James felt that Akshay was the answer to Hollywood action heroes. What impressed him further was Akshay’s meticulous dedication to performing action scenes in the film.

The way Akshay took interest in knowing details about the action scenes and how he always was more interested in making it safe for unit members, rather than himself.

James was also completely bowled over with Akshay’s confidence in doing some of the most dangerous stunts that main heroes would not do otherwise.”

James also felt that Akshay was one of those rare actors who performed his own stunts. The efforts that Akshay put in his stunts really impressed James.