A source reveals, “It so happened that the whole unit started looking for a woman called Tina. The locals on the streets of Tangra were very confused and even started helping them look for the woman, not aware that a film was being shot since the director was using street cameras. It was only after the camera stopped rolling that the locals finally realised that Tina was a character in the film played by Geetanjali.

The story revolves around people searching for Tina Ki Chabi. It got transformed on location as people actually started looking around for missing Tina.”

Geetanjali was the winner of the Miss Northeast pageant in 2007. She plays a half-Chinese half-Indian girl in the film and shares a love-hate relationship with Ranvir’s character.

Celebrities laugh their ‘Ice’ off. The special screening of Fox Star Studios India’s highly awaited ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ that is releasing this Friday was marked by an enthusiastic turn out by various celebrities.

The screening was held in 3D at Fame in Malad on Wednesday. One of the first ones to arrive was singer Kailash Kher with his fiancé and a group of friends. Soon walked in Bakhtiyar Irani with his little baby boy, while Mama Tanaz joined them a while later.

Ranvir Shorey walked in with Konkana Sen who was looking uber cool in her yellow Lucknowi salwaar.

Also seen were TV actors Narayani Shastri with a friend, Gaurav Chopra minus girlfriend Mouni Roy, Chetan Hansraj with his wife and kids, Apoorva Agnihotri with wife Shilpa and Rakesh Paul with his wife.

Deepshikha, JD Majethia, Deven Bhojani & Aatish Kapadia were all seen having a great time as their kids enjoyed through the movie.

Singer Shibani Kashyap made it in the nick of time looking pretty in a multi coloured dress. Bakul Thakkar walked in pretty late but was excited about catching up with the remaining of the film.

While Harmeet from the ‘Meet Brothers’ duo came with a friend, brother Manmeet came with wife Karishma and good friend Kishwar Merchant.

Celebrity stylist Aalim Hakim came with his nephew and a couple of friends.

Slumdog actors Tanay Cheda and Tanvi were visibly excited about catching on their favourite flick.

As the crowd poured out for some popcorn during the interval, everyone was taken for a surprise when one of their favourite Ice Age characters ‘Scrat’ walked in with his beloved ‘acron’ (nut).

The crowds went berserk with excitement and everyone was trying to give a hug to Scrat & pose for a snap with him!

Everyone in the theatre was heard laughing their ‘Ice’ off as the 3D experience enhanced the fun and excitement of watching one of the best animation movies ever!

Arshad Warsi, Vaishali Desai, Rituparna Sengupta, Vatsal Sheth, Rosa Catalano, Luke Kenny, Diana Hayden, Raghav Sanchar, Prateik Babbar, Kiran Janjani, Rakesh Bedi, Mouni Roy, Gaurav Chopra, Shibani Kashyap, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Siddharth Kannan, Aslam Khan, Ruslaan Mumtaz, Nethra Raghuraman, Javed Jaffrey, Satish Kaushik, Ganesh Acharya at Terminator Salvation premiere in Cinemax on 24th June 2009.

Ranvir Shorey, Geetanjali Thapa, Amit Saxena, Vandana Sajnani, Rajesh Khattar, Farida Jalal, Sudhir Mishra, Rajit Kapur, Rajneesh Duggal at the completion party of film Tina Ki Chabi in Sun N Sand on 20th March 2009.

Hrithik Roshan, Amrita Rao, Jiah Khan, Deepika Padukone, Arshad Warsi, Maria Goretti, Suzanne Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Neha Dhupia, Zeenat Aman, Sanjay Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Danny Boyle, Freida Pinto, Saira Banu, Dilip Kumar, Sushmita Sen, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rajiv Kapoor, Genelia D Souza, Gulshan Grover, Divya Khosla, Tulsi Kumar, Irrfan Khan, Imran Khan, Avantika Malik, Konkana Sen Sharma, Randhir Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Padmini Kolhapure, Shruti Seth, Sophie Chaudhary, Arjan Bajwa, Loveleen Tandon, Sonam Kapoor, Dev Patel, Ishita Arun, Ila Arun, Jeetendra, Tusshar Kapoor, Ketan Mehta, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Sonali Kulkarni, Sudhir Mishra, Subhash Ghai, Genelia D Souza, Shabana Azmi, Vidya Balan, Raghav Sanchar were present at Slumdog Millionaire premiere on 22nd Jan 2009.

A small village in China is terrorized by one cruel gang lord, Hojo (Gordon). Fed up of his tyrannies, the hapless villagers consult an astrologer who tells them that China’s most famous ancient warrior Liu Sheng has re-incarnated and he is the one who will kill Hojo. Two villagers go in the hunt of this re-born Liu Sheng which happens to be one staying in the famous Chandni Chowk of Delhi in India. This bloke Siddhu (Akshay) in real is anything but their warrior they are in the look out for. Working in a paratha shop, as a vegetable cutter, the portly Siddhu is forever chasing dreams of a luxurious life without wanting to do hard work to achieve it.

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shorey, Mithun Chakravorthy, Gordon Liu
Rating: 2.5/5
Direction: Nikhil Advani

His foster father, Dada (Mithun) is fed up of his lethargic ways and always tries to make him realize his hidden potential. The two Chinese villagers finally find Siddhu and with the help of a fraud Chinese astrologer Chopstick (Ranveer) manage to take him to their village in China. Chopstick too tags along as Siddhu’s translator.

During the journey, Siddhu encounters Sakhi (Deepika) a popular model and falls for her instantly but soon his hopes come crashing as he comes across her lethal side of that of a thief. But little does he know that its not Sakhi but her long lost twin Suzie aka Meow Meow (Deepika again) whom he has got confused with.

What happens when Siddhu arrives in the remote Chinese village and how Hojo reacts to his arrival and what it leads to forms the rest of the film!

There had been lots of expectations raised from the slick promos of the film but unfortunately, the film doesn’t really end up being the joy ride it promises to be. The biggest flaw of CC2C lies in its predictable script which packs in all the 70s masala including lost and found, revenge drama, the triumph of good over evil just that the setting is changed from India to China.

The film begins well with a superbly shot fight on the wall of China but then the pace dips as Siddhu’s daily life is introduced. Then again post the interval any average cinegoer can predict what is in store at what intervals and there is where boredom starts creeping in. You keep looking at your watch hoping it to end. Also, despite a good built up given to Hojo’s Kung Fu expertise and hopes raised about the one on one fight between him and Siddhu, the climax fight ends up being very short and disappointing.

Amongst the most redeemable factors about CC2C is Akshay Kumar. He makes you laugh, cry and cheer for him but then again he is let down by an average script. But it’s a great treat watching Akshay going back in the action mode and doing some really breathtaking Kung Fu stunts.

Deepika Padukone in a double role does well but the chemistry between her and Akki is clearly missing. Gordon Liu as the villain is simply superb. He manages to bring out terror just with a stare. Ranvir is good as usual whereas Mithun impresses in the few sequences that he gets.

The music of the film appears better when watching the songs onscreen as they have been very lavishly picturised, especially the title track. The film scores full marks on the technical front. But we wish we could say the same about the script!

The film is a must see for hardcore Akshay Kumar fans, for the rest well one can only say that if you want to get nostalgic about the 70s cinema with some humor mixed with it then going for this 2 hour 40 minutes film won’t be a bad idea.

Konkana sen Sharma, Koel Puri, Imran Khan, Avantika Malik, Ranvir Shorey, Rohan Sippy, Ramesh Sippy, Kiran Juneja, Nina Manuel, Ira Dubey, Purab Kohli, Shernaz Patel, Kunaal Roy Kapur at the Film President is Coming bash in Salt Water Grill, Bandra on 6th Jan 2009

Imran Khan, Avantika Malik, Neha Dhupia, Ranvir Shorey, Sushma Reddy, Poonam Dhillon, Ramesh Sippy, Rohan Sippy, Anu Ranjan, Sashi Ranjan, Nausheen Sardar Ali, Prachi Desai, Shenaz Treasurywala, Payal Rohatgi, Rajit Kapur, Mini Mathur, Tanaz Currim, Bhaktiyar, Poonam Sinha at President is Coming premiere in Fame Adlabs on 26th November 2008. The highlight of he premiere was the T-shirt worn by Imran Khan.

Anil Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Nandita Das, Arjan Bajwa, Ranvir Shorey, Kunal Kapoor, Aditi Gowitrikar, Arzoo Gowitrikar, Suvarna Jha, Javed Akhtar, Jatin Grewal, Paresh Rawal, Ashutosh Rana, Ashwini Kalsekar, Smita Thackeray, Prakash Raj, Shailendra Singh, Sushma Reddy at Priyadarshan_s movie Kanjivaram premiere in Cinemax on 25th November 2008

Dasvidanya tells the the story of simpleton, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak) who works as an accounts manager in a pharmaceuticals company. Amar’s only excitement in life is making a to-do list every morning and then ticking off everything that he accomplishes at the end of the day. But unfortunately, destiny has some other plans stored for him. He comes to know through his doctor that he is suffering from stomach cancer and now only has just three months left to live.

Starring: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Purbi Joshi, Sarita Joshi.
Director: Shashant Shah
Rating: 3/5

This news makes Amar wake up to the reality that how till now he has wasted his life. Never mustered the courage to express his love, never brought a car or never ever traveled abroad, Amar has so many unfulfilled dreams left! He then sets about making a new to do list of 10 things. His last list of all the things he has to do before he dies. From making a foreign trip to telling his childhood love about his affections for her to meeting his school best friend with whom he has lost contact. The film then follows Amar’s journey towards fulfilling his wishes which also take him nearer to his death.

Completely, character driven, the charm of the film lies in its simplicity of its theme and its wonderfully etched characters. The screenplay is well woven with some moments that carry the power to remain etched in your memory even long after the film is over. The only spoke in the wheel is the Russian girl’s track as it slows down the pace of the film. There are moments however that instantly bring tears to your eyes such as a few scenes between Vinay and his mom played by stage veteran Sarita Joshi and Vinay finally expressing his love on a rainy night to Neha Dhupia. First timer Shashant Shah has handled the subject with a rare maturity.

The film is a must see for Vinay Pathak’s absolutely brilliant performance. One can easily rate it above his Bheja Fry act. Rajat Kapoor is good and so is Sarita Joshi. Neha Dhupia shows remarkable improvement as an actress while Ranvir Shorey appears completely disinterested. Saurabh Shukla is good as Vinay’s boss and Gaurav Gera as his brother.

Watch it for some really good bitter sweet moments, the film is definitely not a waste of your time and money.

At the music launch of Dasvidaniya at J. W. Marriot, Ravir made a dashing entry when the whole event was on the verge of getting over. The dude came in with spiked hair (looking cute) paired in a jeans and a simple tee. He had in his hand a cute helmet which girls mostly use while riding their
scooty.

So the question is – does Ranvir actually ride the bike or is it Konkana who gives him a life everywhere (referring to the helmet, incaseyou are puzzled)
–(SAMPURN)

J.W Marriot witnessed the music launch of the movie Dasvidaniya. The event started by a live music concert by Kailash Kher. Kailash performed on two songs from the movie itself. One of his songs titled, ‘Maa’ got great appreciation from the crowd.

The crowd was entertaining all the time. Stars present at the event were Vinay Pathak, Gaurav Gera, Suchitra Pillai, Sarita Joshi, Suresh Menon, Purbi Joshi, Ranbir Shourey.

Everyone got a chance to say something to the crowd. The story writer Arshad Sayed and director Shashant Shah had also spoken little about the film.

Dasvidaniya is a bitter-sweet situational comedy about a man Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak). His innocence and his obsession for making his daily ‘to-do-list’ every morning is what motivates him to look forward to the next day.
–(SAMPURN)

Malaika Arora Khan, Jiah Khan, Shriya Saran, Sophie Chaudhary, Upen Patel, Dipannita Sharma, Rahul Khanna, Nina Manuel, Arjun Rampal, Mehr Jessia, Dino Morea, Yuvraj Singh, Lara Dutta, Shobha De, Ranvir Shorey, Konkana sen Sharma, Pia Trivedi, Chunkey Pandey, Raveena Tandon, Anil Thadani, Tara Sharma, Rocky S, Zaheer Khan, Manish Malhotra, Alina Wadiwalla at GQ Magazine Launch in Four Seasons Worli on 27th September 2008

Writer-director-actor Rajat Kapoor who plays a mentorial role in Ranvir’s career has put poor Shorey in a quandary. Ranvir has been asked to put on at least 12 kg, and fast, to play the protagonist in “A Rectangular Love Story”.

Everyone knows Ranvir Shorey thinks the world of actor-director Rajat Kapoor and can’t say no to him, no matter what.

“Rajat wanted me to put on weight fast for his new film. This came up when I was still shooting ‘Ugly Aur Pugli’ where I needed to look leaner than I usually am. So there I was gaining weight for one role while I needed to look leaner for another.”

At last count Ranvir has already lost 12 kg for Rajat’s film. “And still losing some fast. He’s someone for whose film I can go more than an extra mile.”

The last actor who put on weight for an author-backed title role was Abhishek Bachchan for Mani Ratnam’s “Guru”. “I’ve been first-hand witness to Abhishek trying frantically to add tyres around his waist gorging on sandwiches and pastries,” he said.

“I know that feeling,” Ranvir grins, rubbing his swollen belly. “The worrisome part is I’ll have to lose all this weight after ‘A Rectangular Love Story’ in August. I planned my schedules so there would be time for quick gain and loss of weight.”

For Abhishek it wasn’t easy to shed the “Guru” girth.

“I’ve given myself a year to get completely in shape,” Ranvir says, fingers crossed.

As for “Ugly Aur Pagli”, Ranvir maintains he enjoyed that very much. “It was a lot of fun. And though Mallika and I had our differences it was finally a scream.”

The specially difficult part for Ranvir was dancing. “I had never done filmy dancing before. And I was nervous. There was no time to rehearse. I went and did whatever I could. Believe me I was more nervous dancing than cycling down Mumbai in a petticoat or gaining so much weight for Rajat’s film.”

Dino Morea, Ranvir Shourey, Yukta Mookhey, Sammir Dattani, Konkana Sen, Narayani Shastri, Gaurav Chopra, Pooja Misra, Siddharth Kannan, Delnaz and Rajeev Paul, Shweta Salve, Shruthi Seth, Vandana Sajnani and Rajesh Khattar, Alex at What Happened in Vegas premiere in Fame on 4th September 2008

A romantic comedy that starts with a fart and a puke joke can only get better as it progresses. Sure enough, “Ugly Aur Pagli” brings us a kind of detoxicated sex comedy where the gender war is telescoped into a vivacious tongue-in-shriek war of words between an outwardly mismatched pair.

Film: UGLY AUR PAGLI
Cast: Mallika Sherawat, Ranvir Shorey
Director: Sachin Khot
Rating: 2/5

Suparn Verma’s dialogues have a lived-in quality. Yup, two young people who are in love but don’t know it would speak this language and probably feel some of the emotions too. If “Ugly Aur Pagli” looks so believably all-there, it’s because of Ranvir Shorey’s ability to remain normal and wimpish even when the world around him is exploding into little amusing atoms of undefined chemistry between the lead pair.

But lead pair is more like the ‘misled’ pair. Often you wish Ranvir and Mallika wouldn’t get into those sweaty pubs and dance floors, which have become a staple diet of all ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ films in recent times. Why must even a deviant comedy like this one seek a comfort zone by travelling the sing-sing-swing-swing route?

“Ugly Aur Pagli” has the guts to take its lead pair into avenues that are infrequent in Hindi cinema. The poor hangdog man is a bit of a timid docile lamb constantly being bullied by the sassy forever-inebriated girl who’s so zonked she re-defines brassy burlesque on celluloid.

Mallika is a very limited actress and an even more limited dancer. She swings from loud boorish bullying to pseudo-snivelling in a rapid-fire of uneven emotions. She wobbles, but never falls. A lot of the scenes – some clever, others not quite – are held in place by Ranvir’s amazing ability to make the mundane look super-interesting.

Here’s the ideal effortless working-class hero. An Amol Palekar with a lot of chutzpah and world weary charm. Ranvir steps back to watch Mallika cavort at the highest shrillest pitch and makes sure she doesn’t stumble over and fall. And we aren’t just talking about the character’s constant state of inebriation. Ranvir holds up a lot more than his co-star’s drunken ceaselessly slumping figure.

The film is a series of well-crafted chance encounters between two Mumbaiites who are in search of companionship. The sequences are shot with a kind of unobtrusive flamboyance(if that isn’t a contradiction in terms). Mumbai doesn’t look different but it sure looks indifferent to the feelings of the sensitive. That’s the whole idea of a familiar metropolitan backdrop, right?

Ideally a romantic comedy should converge only on the two love birds. This one takes the rule too its extreme limit. Ranvir and Mallika are so much at the centre of it all, you wonder if the rest of the world is on a sabbatical. But watch out for Ranvir’s encounter with Mallika’s parents – played by Tinu Anand and Sushmita Mukherjee.

Though this sequence belongs to the two character actors, again, it’s Ranvir who gives character to the ambience. Would this sometimes sassy, sometimes sensitive, constantly searching romantic comedy have worked without Ranvir’s penchant for producing pyrotechnics out of pedestrian working-class impulses? Hard to say.

But then who can say what “Ugly Aur Pagli” has in mind? By the end of it all we don’t even know who is ugly and who is mad. ‘Ugly’ Ranvir even wears a petticoat for one sequence and cycles all the way to pagli’s home.

Care to solve the mystery of the man-woman equation? This film has a go at it. Albeit in swipes of talkative satire that make the film resemble an American sitcom.

– By Subhash K. Jha

Like the Korean film, “Ugly Aur Pagli” is told from the male protagonist’s viewpoint. But Ranvir denies similarities, saying: “To the extent that the girl is a bully and the man takes her bullying meekly. But beyond that I see no similarities between the two films.”

Apart from the lead pair, the film also stars ’70s reigning queen Zeenat Aman in a cameo. She plays a matchmaker in the romantic comedy and will be seen ironing out the gruff spots between the couple on the warpath.

Zeenat reluctantly agreed to come into the plot at the fag end. “That’s right. Zeenat comes right at the end of the film. I had to pinch myself when I saw her. Come on, she’s the ultimate diva! My absolutely favourite crush. I used to dream about being in the same frame with her,” Ranvir told IANS.

Zeenat plays a common friend of Ranvir and Mallika’s families who comes into the picture only to bail the couple out. Apparently Mallika, who has always hero-worshipped Zeenat, couldn’t contain her excitement. For Ranvir, working with Zeenat was like a dream come true.

“After being slapped around by Mallika, I suddenly had Zeenat pinching and patting my cheeks. It was surreal. A dream come true. All my colleagues look at me with envious eyes now.” Commenting on Mallika, Ranvir said: “Mallika and I had a lot of differences. But we also managed to find a comfort level.

The problem is, she had to slap me repeatedly and she just didn’t know how to do it. Either she’d slap and start acting so guilty I had to pacify her, or the slaps weren’t convincing enough. “I had to sit her down and explain the art of slapping to her. I must be the only guy in the world prodding a girl to hit him.”

– Subhash K. Jha

“It is a humorous take on today’s relationships and how the tables have turned – where the men are from Venus and women are from Mars and how they are actually playing each other’s role,” said Khot who directed popular tele-serial “Shanti” for Doordarshan in 1997.In “Ugly Aur Pagli”, which releases Aug 1, Mallika will be seen as an achiever, who knows her mind and knows what she wants from her relationship.

Ranvir, on the other hand, plays a carefree man whose life goes for a toss when he encounters Mallika.Elaborating Mallika’s character, Khot said: “In today’s age, women are doing much better in lots of spheres and why shouldn’t this be touched upon? Mallika plays a dominating character in the film, but I would not literally call her the man of my film. Luckily, both my actors shared a good chemistry ”

Said Ranvir, who will be seen facing Mallika’s wrath in the film: “It is crazy to even think that a girl is making you do the wildest of things and has complete control over you.”One might think that it makes a man effeminate. However, there is an interesting side to it also that how two-unlikeliest people fall in love with each other.”

The film also has 70s glamour girl Zeenat Aman in a cameo.

Mallika Sherawat, Ranvir Shorey at UGLY AUR PAGLI promotional event with Radio One in Vi Lounge on 20th July 2008.

Ranvir would much rather talk about his film with US-based Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Titled “How Can It Be”, it also has Konkona. They’ve worked together before in a wife-swapping film, “Mixed Doubles”, and Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Traffic Signal”.

“But this project is very special. It is a short film – part of a series on human rights made by the likes of Jane Campion, Gus Van Sant and Jim Wenders. Mira’s film is about women’s emancipation and we shot it in New York. Konkona plays the central character, but my role is no less pivotal,” Ranvir told IANS.

The role went to Ranvir after Mira’s favourite Irrfan Khan turned it down. “So I believe,” laughed Ranvir. “I think he refused it. But Mira says I was always her first choice. In fact, I met Irrfan in New York when we shot with Mira. He was doing another short film with Mira co-starring Natalie Portman.”

Konkona was all but signed to play Tabu’s role in Mira Nair’s “The Namesake”. She had opted out because the dates clashed with her mother Aparna Sen’s “17 Park Avenue”. Ranvir says working with Konkona is an easy experience.

“It’s an advantage to work with a friend. You can speak your mind freely without the fear of offending the other party.” But it wasn’t same with his “Ugly Aur Pagli” co-star Mallika Sherawat.

“There were a couple of times when we had ugly run-ins. But overall she has been very nice to me. Once, when I was ill, she got me food. Mallika is the star of ‘Ugly Aur Pagli’. Not me.”

– By Subhash K. Jha