Celebrating two decades in Bollywood on Monday, Shah Rukh Khan reflected on his famed career, posting on Twitter: "Twenty uninterrupted years, even if I don't have enough talent or the looks. Thank you all. I guess I got lucky. Lucky to be working all the time." The actor debuted in the Hindi film industry on June 25, 1992, with the release of the romantic drama Deewana, where he played a supporting character that only appeared in the film's second half. For his performance, he received that year's Filmfare Award for best film debut for a male actor. Khan, 46, will next be seen on the big screen in a film directed by Yash Chopra and co-starring with Katrina Kaif. * IANS
Deepak Tijori announces two new films
The actor-filmmaker Deepak Tijori, whose last directorial venture was the 2009 thriller Fox starring Sunny Deol and Arjun Rampal, announced he will direct two projects this year. "One film will be produced by Vikram Bhatt, who has written the script for it. It's titled Love Games, a thriller. The cast of the film is yet to be finalised," he said. "I'm also making a film with [producer] Denis Selarka. We will start shooting for the still untitled film this August. Auditions are going on and we are looking for the leading actress." * IANS
Chennai band to play at Olympics
The Chennai-based band Staccato have been chosen from among 10,000 entries to perform at the Olympic Park in London during the Games. They were selected following a four-month screening process during which they sent in tapes of performances. "Since we experiment with different genres of music, our songs have an international flavour, though they are composed with a South Indian base," Vandana Srinivasan, the lead vocalist, told the Times of India. Staccato's tracks include originals as well as remixed numbers of compositions by the famed musicians A?R Rahman and Ilayaraja. Performances at the Park have been scheduled all throughout the Olympics and the band have been allotted a pair of two-hour slots.
Big B praises Gangs of Wasseypur
The Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan says he was impressed by the newly released film Gangs of Wasseypur and its "painfully real" portrayal of the coal and scrap trade mafia in India. "I had the great privilege to see it. Indian cinema at its best – honest, stark and as painfully real as possible," Bachchan wrote on his website. "For one that has been born and lived a major portion of his life in an almost similar environment, I found so much that I could well relate to." He also praised the director Anurag Kashyap for "allowing the visuals to flow". "More importantly though, the film educated us on a social issue which most of us may never have heard of," Bachchan added. The film, which premiered at last month's Cannes Film Festival, stars Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda and Piyush Mishra. * IANS
