Ever since she arrived by horse drawn carriage and dressed in a stunning golden yellow sari for the premiere of her film Devdas at Cannes in 2002, Aishwarya Rai’s annual presence has added a unique Bollywood hue to the red carpet proceedings. The following year, the Armani-clad Rai was the first Indian actor to sit on the judges’ panel and her 2004 appearance, decked in Chopard and a Neeta Luila skimpy white dress, made waves. Black was her colour of choice in 2004 and last year, she arrived hand in hand with fellow L’Oreal brand ambassador, Andie MacDowell. This year Rai will attend with hubby Abhishek and father in law, Amitabh Bachchan. On May 18th, her historical romance Jodha Akbar will be introduced and speculation is rife as to what the gorgeous Rai will be wearing. My guess is that, in her most important role to date as the respectable Bachchan bahu (daughter in law), the recently married Rai will be adorned in a traditional sari. Designer, of course!

Scoring at Cannes

With the UK’s FA Cup Final taking place on Saturday, Bollywood is set to showcase its first major football film Goal at Cannes on Friday 18. “It’s about a bunch of British Asian lads who the world believes cannot play the game and how they emerge victorious,” the film’s lead, the hunky John Abraham told me when I visited the sets in Green Street, east London last week. “I play Sunny from Southall,” he added. Fans of the beautiful brawn will see Abraham’s new look in the film: he sports a new haircut. Will he be exposing as much of his body as he did in his own John Abraham 2007 calendar? “I am in my best physical shape, so let’s wait and see!” John laughed.

The busy Big B

Amitabh Bachchan is a busy man: he has two major releases, Cheeni Kum and Shootout at Lokhandwala, scheduled for release on Friday, May 25. The former will have its premiere in Cannes on Monday 21 with Bachchan in attendance. He will then hop over to London for the film’s West End premiere on Tuesday 22. This is not the first time Bollywood’s mega-superstar has had two simultaneous releases. Both Aetbaar and Khakee were released on the same day in January 2004. This had the effect of dividing his audience with the effect that one of the two ultimately sinks at the box-office, as Aetbaar did. “This will not be a problem as both films belong to separate genres,” a spokesperson for Cheeni Kum stated. Here’s looking forward to a double dose of the Big B!

Spidey swings into India

Bollywood’s global growth continues but Hollywood has failed to infiltrate the potential one billion plus Indian market. With the exception of the James Bond series and the Jurassic Park trilogy, very few Hollywood films are successful in India. The mass non-English speaking Indian audience appear to prefer the traditional song and dance massala Bollywood formula. This may change: last week Spiderman 3 became the first Hollywood film to be released with over 600 prints and in several dubbed versions across the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the original English, Peter Parker will be heard speaking several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bhojpuri. Will this marketing strategy work? Preet Bedi, CEO of Percept Pictures the film’s Indian distributor is confident: “Spiderman 3 is about a superhero and has universal appeal, the distinction between Hollywood and Bollywood has finally collapsed.”

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