The Berlin Popularity Contest

The Berlin Popularity Contest • Hrithik Obsession Roshan • The Award for Best Blackmail…

Anyone who ran into Aamir Khan in Berlin this week will tell you he’s lost his shyness. The actor-director is currently in the German capital as a member of the jury for the 61st Berlinale Film Festival, and in between attending film screenings he appears to be going out of his way to indulge his fans.

The once-reclusive star who avoided the press dutifully and kept a respectable distance from autograph and photograph seekers, happily stayed out on the street in the bitter Berlin cold earlier this week, chatting with fans who mobbed him. Dressed in a thick coat and monkey cap, sporting a moustache and stubble, Aamir may have thought he’d be hard to spot, but that would amount to underestimating his fans.

Not only did he cheerfully agree to participate in a television interview walking down the street outside, he also didn’t complain or ask his security to intervene when he found himself suddenly surrounded by over a hundred White fans. After wrapping up the interview, Aamir sportingly posed for dozens of pictures with the excited girls who’d gathered around, and spent almost fifteen minutes chatting with them about everything from the restaurants he was dining at in Berlin to his upcoming role in Dhoom 3.

Word on the street (pun not intended) is that Aamir’s acceptance of jury duty at the Berlinale may not be as innocent as it appears. The actor might be challenging rival Shah Rukh Khan’s popularity in the German capital. Shah Rukh, of course, has had two of his films screened at the Berlinale in previous years (Om Shanti Om, My Name Is Khan), and has a faithful German fan-following that showed up in droves at every location in Berlin where he shot Don 2 last year.

After smashing his box-office records at home, could Aamir be preparing to upset Shah Rukh’s enviable position in the consciousness of overseas audiences? Watch this space.

Hrithik Roshan will be the celebrity judge on a new dance reality show on television called Just Dance. The star, one hears, was being relentlessly pursued by the channel and show producers to take the gig, but he took forever to commit. Assistants working on the show say his level of commitment borders on obsession, and he can spend hours getting a single step right. Nobody’s complaining about his perfection, but the producers are reportedly stressed that the show is taking longer to shoot than they’d budgeted for, because Hrithik won’t quit till he’s entirely satisfied with his performance.

Having already negotiated his fee for the show, they can’t exactly ask him to take a cut because he’s ‘too good’ for the show, but they do wish he were a little less exacting!

Bollywood award ceremonies have become the breeding ground for controversy. The organisers of one recent awards show were surprised when they received a late evening call from a senior actress (also wife of India’s most respected movie star), beckoning them to her Juhu residence to discuss “an important matter”. The actress, who had consented to being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award the following day at their ceremony, insisted they show up without any delay. So off they went, unclear what to expect. Perhaps she wanted to suggest who she’d like to receive the award from. Perhaps she wanted to discuss her acceptance speech. With such assorted thoughts, two senior representatives of the ceremony landed up at the actress’ home around 11 pm. They were promptly ushered into her private meeting room, where the actress appeared and asked them quite directly without any warning: “Who is winning the Best Actress Award?”

The lady hadn’t had a film out in years. So it couldn’t be that she wanted to be awarded in that category. What was it then? Well, they didn’t have to wait long to find out. The actress is believed to have made it quite clear that if her daughter-in-law, a popular leading lady with multiple movie releases last year, wasn’t being awarded Best Actress, there was no way she was going to turn up to collect her Lifetime Achievement Award.

She demanded that a call be made to the top boss. The call was made. The actress was told that votes were still being counted, but her daughter-in-law wasn’t a frontrunner.

“Then you can present my award to someone else,” she said with finality. The following day, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to another senior star who reportedly agreed to accept at the last minute.

About The Author

Rajeev Masand

•