Raising Dad

After ushering in the big day with his family on Sunday night, Shah Rukh Khan spent more or less the entire morning of his 50th birthday waving to fans who’d gathered outside his Bandra bungalow. It was his 2-year-old son AbRam who woke up the superstar after himself spotting—and waving to—the bloating crowd below the balcony. Shah Rukh revealed that AbRam practically dragged him out of bed, repeatedly muttering the words, “Papa, [they’re] calling…” Later that afternoon SRK dropped off his older kids Aryan and Suhana to the airport as they head back to school in London.

The actor said he’s visited both his kids on their respective campuses, and while Aryan’s (gora) friends don’t recognise him as an actor, they do know him as the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team. At his daughter Suhana’s school, however, her German and Polish girlfriends are aware that he’s a top movie star, “and they thought I looked pretty cool with long hair.”

The little guy, for his part, has recently become familiar with papa’s job. Ask AbRam what his father does, and ‘Actor’ comes the prompt reply. “I’ve taught him to say that,” Shah Rukh explained, joking “Doosre bhale kahe acting nahin aati isko, mere bete ko maine sahi samjhaya hai. (Doesn’t matter that others think I can’t act, I’ve taught my son that I’m the real deal)”

Westward Ho?

Deepika Padukone—during a live interaction with film critics Anupama Chopra and Yours Truly at the MAMI Movie Mela last weekend—revealed that she is now open to the idea of pursuing acting opportunities in Hollywood. Her admission came immediately after co-star and boyfriend Ranveer Singh declared—in a video message that was played for DP and the audience—that she was so talented, “she ought to go West”.

The actress said she didn’t regret turning down an offer to star in the last Fast & Furious film because it was important for her to promote Ram-Leela at the time, but she felt ready now. Asked what Ranveer would do if she did in fact decide to go West, Deepika cheekily replied: “He’ll tag along with me.”

While on Deepika, later the same evening she ran into her Piku co-star Amitabh Bachchan at a party, and much to the disappointment of the paparazzi who were expecting the actors to snub each other following their rumoured falling out, they greeted each other warmly and embraced like old friends. There were rumours doing the rounds that Big B had refused to work with DP in Dhoom 3, director Vijay Krishna Acharya’s Hrithik Roshan-starrer (although everyone involved vehemently denied the same), after the actress had embarrassed Bachchan by ‘accidentally forgetting’ to invite him to a party she threw to celebrate the success of Piku. That led to incessant tabloid reports of problems between the two…but their comfort with each other last weekend appears to have finally put those stories to rest.

Common Enemy

If a prominent leading lady is to be believed, a bunch of female actors have got together and decided they will not engage with another top actress, so as to stop her from gaining publicity and attention from riding on their shoulders. This actress explains that they were “frustrated” by the way their rival’s publicists would stir up controversies to make their client look good… at the cost of running down a different actress each time. When this began to happen too frequently, my source reveals, a bunch of the scarred ladies took a stand that they would just stop engaging with the heroine in question hereon.

It’s not unusual in the messy business of PR to run down a rival to make one’s client look better in comparison—and frankly, no publicist in Bollywood could claim to have never indulged in the practice. But as this incident seems to indicate, some spin-doctors take their roles a little too seriously, often investing more effort in sabotage than propping up their clients.

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Rajeev Masand

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