Salman's sweeping gesture
Salman Khan has been displaying his generous nature again.

During a 10 Ka Dum episode which was shot last week, he gave away Rs 1 lakh to a sweeper, from his own pocket. The BMC sweeper, who participated in the reality show, was heartbroken after he was eliminated. Sallu noticed how upset he was and after hearing about his financial problems, asked his driver to get Rs 1 lakh for him.

An eyewitness says, “The sweeper was very excited about being on the show, but his face fell after he was eliminated. Salman approached him and asked him what was wrong.”

The sweeper poured out all his financial troubles to Sallu who heard him out. The eyewitness adds, “I saw the sweeper telling Salman that he earns Rs 3,500 per month, and is finally left with only Rs 1,000 since he is repaying a loan in installments of Rs 2,500 every month.”

Salman told him not to worry. He called his driver and asked him to get Rs 1 lakh. The driver arrived with the money within an hour. The sweeper could not believe his eyes when Salman handed over the huge amount of money to him. The eyewitness says, “He touched Salman’s feet in gratitude.”

Shaan is back, Abhaas remains too
Shaan is back as a host in the upcoming season of Voice of India Chhote Ustaad.

The singer had taken a break during the last season and at the time there were rumours that Shaan would not return to the show. So what happens to young man Abhaas Joshi, who hosted Chhote Ustaad in Shaan’s absence?

Well, we just found out that Abhaas too will be part of the show.

Apparently, he has been roped in to shoot for the promo as he has been a participant earlier. He will speak about the auditions and the show in general.

A 'Zara hatke' reality show
After the popular Nach Baliye, there will be another reality dance show called Zara Nachke Dikha.

The similarity ends here because this time couples will not compete with each other nor will there be any voting or elimination. “This show will entirely celebrate the spirit of youth and set trends, targeting young audience.

There will be no eliminations, no voting and no wild card entries,” said Ravi Menon, executive vice president of the channel.

To be aired from July 14, the show will be judged by Malaika Arora Khan and former Bollywood star Chunkey Pandey. “Zara Nachke Dikha is not going to be like usual shows where couples compete with each other.

This show is the battle of the opposite sexes on the dance floor. The ground is set for 16 television artistes,” explains Malaika. “I enjoy the concept of reality shows and it is going to be great fun,” adds Malaika, who also judged first two seasons of Nach Baliye.

Hosting the show would be TV actor Karan Singh Grover, who plays doctor Armaan Mallik in the comedy-drama Dill Mill Gayye, and Shweta Gulati.

The show will see the TV’s popular actors Ali Azgar, Amit Tandon, Bhaktyaar Irani, Gaurav Chopra, Manish Goel, Vikas Sethi, Chaitanya Chowdhury and child artistes Amey Pandya competing with their female colleagues Karishma Tanna, Rupali Ganguli, Delnaz Paul, Narayani Shastri, Jennifer Winget, Maninee De, Mouni Roy and Swini Khare.

Child actors Amey and Swini are expected to pack in a little extra punch to the show. “The kids today are much better dancers than the elders, and I am really looking forward to judge them,” says Malaika.

A chance to star in Ekta's film
Ekta Kapoor's reality show Kaun Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket is set to hit television screens from 6th July.

Winners will get to do a film that will be jointly produced by Ekta and Suniel Shetty's Popkorn Entertainment titled Generation Next.
Peeya Rai Chaudhary and Salil Acharya are hosting the show.

Youngsters across the country have this bright opportunity before tham. But, yes, Ekta's favourite Tv stars have lost their chance. Sorry Prachi, Ram and Ronit!

Amrita is back on TV
Personal questions are strictly a no-no with her now. Stray beyond questions relating to her professional life, and Amrita Singh chides you with, “I thought this was going to be an interview about what I am going to do on TV in a few days.”

Well then, what is she going to do? “I will be the mentor of a team in a reality show on 9X called Kaun Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket ,” she says promptly. And what does ‘mentoring’ entail?

“I am not sure, exactly. The details have to be worked out between me and the channel. But I presume it’s going to be about encouraging new talent to think out of the box, not to go by the text book and be daring,” she says.

Will that mean she’ll mould them to portray a certain image? After all, the channel has promised that the winning team of this reality show will go on to star in a big budget movie. “I do not know how anyone can mould anyone. What I like, and want to be like, the others may not want to follow. So, at the most, I can be the coach, a sort of teacher – play a supporting role, in filmi parlance. After that, it’s up to the youngsters to show off their talent and win.”

Amrita says she is all for the reality shows one sees in abundance these days. The more, the merrier, she feels. “It is a great platform for youngsters to come forward and display their talent. These shows have shown us that there’s no dearth of talent in our country. We just haven’t been looking for it,” she says.

But hadn’t she decided that there’ll be no more TV for her, after her role as the manipulative mother, Nitya Nanda, in Kkavyanjali , some time back? “I really don’t have an answer for that. I did say that I won’t do TV back then. But that was because daily soaps demand so much of you. It takes over your life. This time, it’s different. I just have to dedicate a small amount of time to it. Plus, the format of any reality show limits its on-air time. It has to converge into a semi-final and a final and then end. It can’t go on and on like a serial.”

But these days, even reality and game shows seem to be failing to interest the audience. In fact, one much-hyped show – Kya Aap Panchvi Se Tez Hain ? – is on the verge of being pulled off air due to lack of TRPs.

So, has she given the format of the show a thought? “I guess the format is okay. I have been in the acting industry for 25 years, so I can understand a format that scouts for fresh acting talent, at least. I have been told that the participants will be given scripts to shoot, and I don’t want to reveal it all, but this show can guarantee some fresh talent to Bollywood.” Guess, for now, we’ll have to take her word for it.

Ram says no to 'Mahaabhaarat'
Following wife Gautami’s ‘exit’ from Kyunki..., Ram Kapoor has become the third actor to turn down Ekta Kapoor’s Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki.
Sources confirmed that he was approached for Mahaabhaarat... and also that he has refused the offer.

Apparently, Ram has cited the reason that he is busy with Kasamh Se and since the the show takes up a lot of his time, he wants to focus on one show at a time to give it his best shot.

A highly placed source told us, “The husband wife duo ain’t scared of infuriating Ekta. They think that everyone has a false impression of Ekta. She is very understanding and when she had offered Gautami Kyunki..., she agreed to all her conditions. Gautami hopes that Ekta would approach her when she has a role for her.”

Ekta's exception
A Everybody has been wondering why Ekta Kapoor allowed her favourite actress Prachi Desai to work opposite Farhan Akhtar in Rock On when she has been openly opposed to the idea of others leaving her to pursue the big screen.

The reason behind the bending of rules is that Rock On director Abhishek Kapoor, better known as Gattu, is Ekta's favourite cousin. And there's absolutely nothing she would refuse him.

Ekta admits her fondness for Abhishek and said, "Yes, he's my favourite brother after Tusshar. Gattu is my dad's sister's son. So we're very close. We don't meet that often any longer. We're both busy doing our own thing. When we were younger, we used to meet very regularly. We've been on holidays together, just Gattu and me. But he's my coolest brother. And there's nothing I wouldn't do for him."
When Abhishek decided to cast Farhan Akhtar as the lead in Rock On, he was on the lookout for a fresh face for the female lead.

This was when the chaddi-buddy cousin called Ekta and asked for Prachi Desai. "He asked me about Prachi. And I immediately agreed," Ekta revealed.

Even if it meant Balaji Telefilms losing its blue-eyed girl? "Honestly, Prachi is like a part of our family. My father, mother and I have adopted her. But as a producer I tortured the hell out of her. I made her work harder than any of my actors, just because I was so close to her. Prachi feels that was unfair. But I didn't want to be accused of favouritism. Now she's moved on."

And it doesn't even end there. The special favours extend into an open door proposal. "I want Prachi to give films a sincere try. I've told her to keep away from television for six to eight months to focus on films. And if, god forbid, it doesn't work out, we're there for her," Ekta gushed.

Second innings for Abhijeet
The purpose of promoting a reality show was served right with our first Indian Idol Abhijeet Sawant gathering a huge response and attention from Lucknowites for the organisers.

But interaction with the scribes was delayed by an hour. When asked, his publicist said, “Abhijeet wanted to have coffee.” So, here’s a star already, who for his cuppa coffee can extend the boundaries of time.

But once down to chat with LT, he was candid about his three-year gap, his second innings on a reality show and more...

“I wanted to remove the tag of a soft romantic singer from the minds of people,” says Sawant when asked what made him take up a reality show again. But more than this, “It’s a different experience. Plus, every show gives you a different platform and recognition” Participating in such a show the second time has been “quite a reliever. I was very hurt when public’s ire and doubts on the decision of my becoming the first Indian Idol were expressed. But today, when Farah Khan says, ‘Abhijeet, after giving such stupendous performance you have dispelled doubts of all those who were unhappy with you becoming the first Indian Idol,’ I feel relieved and happy.

Back then, when Abhijeet won the reality show, he was a happy man then too, as he had quoted, “The Indian Idol title helped me in getting my love (wife).” And now if he wins the second title, “I will dedicate it to my wife, because it was she who motivated me to go for it the second time.”

But before this while his three year gap was noticeable, Abhijeet used the time to his benefit, “During these three years, I engaged myself in closely observing different genres of music. I even tried to learn Sufi music, actually whole purpose of interacting and feeding on different musical genres was to bring improvement in my own repertoire.”

Not just this, he’s been occupied giving his best to Bollywood dreams too. The film which required only 40-50 days of shoot is, “Lottery by Hemant Prabhu. This film will mark my debut and the actresses of this film will be new faces too.” But even as he says, “This film is a different concept but I will not let out the details.” And why? “Because is mein ek khas baat hai.” But elaborating a li’l on his role, he says, “I play a role of a very reticent chartered accountant in the film, who is a seeker of unexpected fortune.”

What’s more, Abhijeet even has a biography, Aapka Abhijeet. “I made writer Shweta Pradhan write for me so that people know who and how was the first Indian Idol before winning. It’s a tale of rising from anonymity to fame.” More importantly, “What gives me more pleasure is the fact that there are biographies of people like Shah Rukh Khan. And now, I have it too,” he smiles with contentment as he bids us goodbye.