trying to sabotage his career.Another Khan superstarknown to be acutely meas-ured in his proclamations puthis foot in his mouth by de-claring that he had namedhis dog SRK. Lucky dog!

Then I asked this otherKhan superstar how he couldcompare SRK to ViveikOberoi. “Whom would he pre-fer to be compared with,Viveik or a dog?,” the brattyKhan left me disgusted withhis retort.

But I can understand thejealous resentment. Lastweek I saw how traffic jamsand serpentine queues greet-ed the release of the new SRKfilm. The last two films whereI saw the same rush of fanswere for Devdas and KabhiKhushi Kabhi Gham.

Please don’t ‘Rab’ this su-perstar the wrong way.

(Views expressed by columnists inAhmedabad Times are their own, and not

that of the paper.)

HaydenPanet-tiere

took patientsfrom Los Ange-les’ Children’sHospital on a shopping spree recent-ly. The Heroes star accompanied fivegirls, who are currently being treatedat the medical facility for problems in-cluding aneurisms, strokes, paralysisof the nerves and spine and sickle cellanemia, on a shopping trip. The 20-year-old actress, who is currently dat-ing her Milo Ventimiglia is no strangerto charity. Her determination to savedolphins from slaughter in Japan ledto a warrant for her arrest being is-sued in the country.

Hayden’s shopping

gift

FRIDAY 19 DECEMBER 2008 AHMEDABAD TIMES, THE TIMES OF INDIA

7ENTERTAINMENT

Times News Network

“Glad to be talking toan Indian,” PeteLockett says withunmatched enthusi-

asm in his voice when we greet himon a Thursday morning. AhmedabadTimes caught up with Pete Lockett,first-call session man, multi-instru-mental uber-percussionist for a chat.

Be it capturing the fancy of Holly-wood to performing on his long listof instruments, Lockett truly feelsthe world is his stage. Here’s whatthe tattooed tea-fuelled Portsmouthdrum deity had to say. Excerpts froman interview:

THE FIRST STEP “I used to create ‘sound’ out of knivesand forks as a child. I spent the initialyears of my life in Portsmouth and, at19, while passing by a drum shop Iwas tempted to take up a drum lesson.The lesson ignited a love for drumsthat inspired me. But I didn’t feellike being a one-band musicianand turned to learning about dif-ferent forms of percussion.”

INDIAN SOUNDS“I was at a London fair with afriend of mine while I got at-tracted to the sound of tabla.When I went closer, I discov-ered that the concert was forfree, so I went ahead and en-joyed it. It was only when I start-ed learning tabla, did I realisethat the legendary Ali AkbarKhan and Ustad Zakir Hussainwere playing in the concert. Myjourney so far in the field ofmusic has been great! A R Rah-man creates magic with music!My wife was born in Ahmedabad

and was later brought up in the UK. Inspite of this, I haven’t been to Ahmed-abad yet. But I’d love to explore thecity and perform there!”

OTHER PASSIONS“If not a musician, I would have beena comedian. “I also love to travel and Iam a complete movie buff. I am in aweof Indian cuisine. As I love cooking, Ihave mastered the art of cookingdal!”

WORLD MUSIC “ Iuse drums from every partof the globe, from Indian toArabic and from Japanese toLatin. Music is somethingthat I am fascinated with. It ishard to quantify music.It’s a great sign that a lotof musicians are travel-ling

across boundaries. We are one speciesand thanks to the facilities providedby international travel, we are doingsome good to humanity by fusing mu-sic!”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:“We are born as an original and we

shouldn’t try tocopy.”

JANKIDAVE

RHYTHM DIVINEMulti-percussionist Pete Lockett talks about music and his India connect

‘Reality shows havemass appeal’

AChinese man says he likes torelax by eating live snakesand washing them down with

beer. Wen Xide, 41, of Wangzhuangvillage, says he has been eating livesnakes for 10 years. He started by eat-ing one to win a bet with friends.“From then on I became addicted toeating live snakes,” he said.

Wen demonstrated his habit to avisiting journalist of a Chinesenewspaper by chewing two livesnakes over a bottle of beer.

“It’s a bit smelly, but they’re deli-cious,” he exclaimed. Wen says hisson is now following him and haseaten eight live snakes. Wang Tian-ming, a doctor specialising in diges-tion at a local hospital, said Wencould suffer nerve problems andrisked infection from parasites.

Man eats livesnakes over a beer

The episode tonight ofDancing Queen is allgeared to set the stage

on fire with a double dhamakaperformance by the sensation-al mentors with their aspi-rants. Indeed the battle hasbegun as the judges HemaMalini and Jeetendra expresstheir expectations of an excit-ing and entertaining show.Five jodis including Anita andSonali, Mink and Ada, Ishitaand Anjali, Sanober andMrigha, Shweta andBhoomika attempt to showcase their flair to the celebratedjury. Commenting on her aspirant’s performance Anitasaid, “Sonali needs to work on her looks that includes hercostume, make-up.” However, Mink said, “I am very happywith my partner, she is graceful and a good dancer.”

Mentor Sanober said about her aspirant, “Mrigha is notthat fabulous as a dancer, so there’s a lot I need to teach her.The judges were full of praises for all the jodis and the waythey complimented each other. However, they also men-

tioned that even though someaspirants’ performances werecommendable, some needed toimprove and learn more fromtheir mentors. Judge Jeetendraexplained, “We are not judgingthe jodis merely on dance butalso on the overall look andfeel of the performance, plushow well is the mentor groom-ing their aspirant.” Followingall the jodis performance,mentors asked the judges whothey think is the originaldancing queen.

Judge Hema Malini said, “Vyjayanthimala, her poise, hereyes, her dance are mesmerising. Even now, her eyes seemto have a life and dance of their own. She’s timeless andthat’s who I think is the real dancing queen who can sus-tain over the years and is remembered even now.”

The remaining five jodis, will show their jalwa in tomor-row’s episode of Dancing Queen. So watch the mentorsgroom their aspirants to gain the best scores from thejudges... tonight at 10 pm on Colors.

Who’s missing?The king. That’show I felt aboutthe whole ‘who-

is-the-king’ controversy creat-ed overnight by mediasavvy and cunning selfcrowned superstars , one ofwhom even had the gall toask me to join his payroll.

With a lot of hard work,luck and meager talentthese wannabe kings arecharging exorbitantamounts. Stop it guys!There’s only one king in Bol-lywood and that’s ShahrukhKhan. No two ways about it.

And it’s not just about hisachievements in cinema. It'sabout who he is, what he islike as an individual, andhow he connects with theaudience. I have met all theKhan superstars, spent timewith them and never mindif the hour that Aamirspent with me in his par-ent'’ home was used tonarrate a script of afilm he wanted to makewith Sridevi!

And yes, I haveknown the only non-Khan superstar Ak-shay Kumar prettyclosely. No one canmatch up to SRK’s gen-

uine charm, humour and in-telligence. And I say this inspite of the fact that SRK wasquoted in an interview say-ing that he ‘hated’ me.

We met after that, much tomy dear friend SushmitaSen’s mock-anger. You see, I

stole time away from her tosneak off for a rendezvouswith SRK when he suggestedthat we meet immediately.She has never stopped re-minding me of that betrayal.

The first time I met him hewas shooting at MehboobStudios. He suddenly got up

during a break andquickly took me to

his home next doorwhere I met hislovely wife Gauriand their dearson. The daugh-

ter was notaround then.

Our nextmeeting

wasat

Film City during the shoot-ing of Farah Khan’s MainHoon Na. My daughter whois no one’s fan in the wholeuniverse except SRK’s want-ed to meet him. I rememberShah Rukh’s friend Karan Jo-har who picked us up and

drove us to SRK.My daughter, known

for her ‘I take no non-sense from anyone atti-tude’, including her par-ents was reduced to quiv-ering jelly when she saw

her dream man.That’s the impact SRK

has and no other star sinceRajesh Khanna andAmitabh Bachchan has hadsuch an effect on people;young and old, men andwomen, alike. He connectswith people, especially in away no star of the post-Bachchan generation can.

So would the pretendersplease give up this game?They are not kings and theyshould stop their publicistswho are busy planting pathet-ic stories of their adventuresand daring-do to the press.

It’s just not working. Like Ihad this star, said to have themaximum money riding hisshoulders, whispering intomy ears about how SRK is

Hema lauds Vyjayanthimala

Times News Network

Apart from walking theramp and participatingin the dance realityshow Dancing Queen,

sultry Shweta Menon has severalitem numbers and ad campaigns

to her credit. She might nothave managed to grab atten-tion as other item girls didin Bollywood, but Shweta ismaking a comeback of sortsto burn the dance flooragain. Albeit on small screen.

Shweta believes that danceis all about feeling “happywithin. Moreover, dancersdon’t age.” So was dance thereason for her to take part inthe show? “I didn’t take up theshow for the dancing part.What moved me was the con-cept involved,” she says. Con-sidering it is her first stint inthe television industry, whatconvinced her to switch overto this medium? “Realityshows have a mass appealand are like stage showswhere you get instant feed-back on your performance,”she avers.

Her Bollywood careertook off with Prithvi co-star-ring Suniel Shetty. Com-menting on her debut shesays, “It was a nice film butit wasn’t the launch pad Ineeded. My first film shouldhave been had me playing aleading role rather than aside-kick to the lead pair.Then Ishq, Bandhan, An-narth, Market, and 88 AntopHill landed on her platter.She further confesses withhonesty that, “I am the onlyone to be blamed for thewrong decisions taken in mylife. That’s the way I wouldlike my life to be as I don’t

want to shrug off from takingany responsibility.”

Speaking about the changingperception about models andtheir potential to act, Shwetasays, “Earlier, models were per-ceived to be fit for the roles ofglam dolls and that they can’tact. So they were given thoseflashy roles. And nobody I knowhad the courage to break themyth. They just keep on offeringus roles which fitted well as a so-called ‘selling proposition’. Butnow, these pre-conceived notionsare changing.”

With some upcoming projectslike Jagmohan Mundhra’s Begu-naah, Morning Walk with Anu-pam Kher in her kitty, Shweta ispositive about breaking theclichéd notions. Recounting herexperience while taking part inthe Femina Miss India pageant,where she had a towering andpromising contender like Aish-warya Rai Bachchan, Shwetasays, “I took part in the pageantbecause my friends goaded me. Alot of girls dropped out whenthey saw that Aishwarya partici-pate. But then Ash is Ash. I wasnot bothered whether I won ornot, as I took part for fun.”

Maintaining a curvaceousfigure isn’t tough, Shweta says.She elaborates, “My body lan-guage is not dependent on mycurves. I can put on as muchweight as possible but can stillbe graceful.”

A native of Kozhiokode, Shwe-ta doesn’t possess an accentedlanguage owing to her childhoodspent in Chandigarh. She cameto the city along with her dad,who used to work with the IndianAir Force. That is why she feels,“I’m an Indian,” and signs offhumming the number, I’m an In-dian by Noble Savages.

RACHNA BHUTORIA

Says Shweta Menon in a chat with AT

No oneKhan beat

SRK!

GLAM & GLORYSubhash K Jha

Pete Lockett

Shah RukhKhan’s

box-officetrack record

is impeccable

Jeetendraand Hema

Malini

Hayden Panetiere

ShwetaMenonsizzlesagain

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