Jannat 2 comes to UAE

Plus, Aamir Khan set to star in TV series, Shilpa Shetty gets ready for the birth of her baby and much more.

Aamir Khan will travel across India hearing stories from real people in the Hindi TV series Satyamev Jayate. Courtesy Star Plus

Several guns lie on the table in front of Emraan Hashmi. He picks up a particularly menacing-looking one and raises it to eye level. There is mayhem. The photographers love it. "I'm playing Sonu Dilli, a very exciting character placed in the world of illegal gun trade," Hashmi says shortly before the UAE premiere of Jannat 2. "The choice of subject was triggered by an incident in my office," says the producer Mahesh Bhatt. "A few years ago, a struggling actor walked into my office asking for a role in a film. When he was told I was not there, he pulled out a country-made pistol and fired at the door. That made us sit up and take notice of how easy it is for a common man to get an illegal firearm and spread terror. We said let's make a film about this subject that can both inform and entertain people." The director Kunal Deshmukh says Jannat 2 deals with a serious subject, but doesn't take itself too seriously. "You can still have fun watching it. The idea is to not make dumbed-down cinema, but to give sensibility and depth to a mass product." Jannat 2 is now showing in the UAE. - Ujala Ali Khan

Aamir Khan makes TV debut

The leading South Asian TV network Star India has tapped Aamir Khan for Satyamev Jayate, a forthcoming Hindi series featuring real stories from across India. The one-and-a-half-hour series will be telecast in the UAE on the Star Plus network on Sundays at 9pm. The title track of the show features video footage of Khan travelling across the country and meeting people from various sections of society. "Over the years I have been approached with various television shows. But none of those really excited me. I work only if I'm excited about it," Khan said. "I want this to be an enriching experience, for me and for my audience. My dream is to impact lives." In India, it will be shown across nine channels, in various languages such as Bengali, Marathi and Tamil. It will also be broadcast to more than 100 countries around the world.

Shirish Kunder blames self for film delay

The filmmaker Shirish Kunder blames himself for the delay in his new project Common Man, a film he plans to make with Amitabh Bachchan. "It has been completely my fault. As a producer, I failed to put things together. Working towards it," he posted on Twitter. The news that Big B will be part of the movie was announced in December last year. Kunder said he waited six years for the right script to approach the megastar. Kunder has two other projects in the pipeline, titled Joker and Kick. - IANS

Shilpa Shetty excited for baby

After her recent baby shower, attended by her celebrity friends, Shilpa Shetty says she is looking forward to a new phase in her life. "A big thank you to all my friends who came and made me feel so special today. Opening baby gifts and looking forward to this new phase in my life," Shetty tweeted on Thursday night. The actress married the London-based businessman Raj Kundra in 2009. She is due to give birth next month. Her baby shower, organised by her sister Shamita Shetty, was held at her Juhu residence. Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora, Raveena Tandon, Sameera Reddy, Manyata Dutt and Farah Khan were among those who came to celebrate with the mother-to-be. - IANS

Composer clarifies Rowdy Rathore score

Wajid, of the composer duo Sajid-Wajid, confessed that a part of the music in their Rowdy Rathore score is borrowed from the original Telugu film Vikramarkudu. "There is a signature tune in Vikramarkudu, which we couldn't avoid. We decided that we needed to incorporate that refrain in the Hindi remake, so we did," said Wajid, adding that there is nothing wrong with the appropriation. "We've taken the rights of the original music. We've also changed the original tune completely. But we still want to draw attention to the borrowed bits before others jump in gleefully and accuse us of plagiarism." Rowdy Rathore, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha, is set for a June 1 release. IANS

Mirchi Review

Take a few pieces of Bollywood's The Burning Train and mix well with Hollywood's Speed. Then slowly boil with redundant action sequences and SFX sound effects, until it becomes unbearable. For the finishing touches, garnish with unnecessary romance, drama and a song number. That's the recipe for Tezz.

The performances of Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani and Ajay Devgn could not compensate for the wafer-thin plot, while Mohanlal is completely wasted in an inconsequential role. So are Sameera Reddy and Zayed Khan, who do nothing but participate in chase sequences. Alas, the two are not fast enough to vanish out of the frame.

Our guess is the film will exit from the cinemas very quickly.

For a behind-the-scenes video of Radio Mirchi's VJs, visit www.thenational.ae/multimedia