We have seen the clash of stars on Silver screen.  How about the clash of Concert Tours?

‘The Unforgettable Tour’ conceptualized and promoted by Wizcraft International boasts of huge star cast Including Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Ritesh Deshmukh. Thats not all. The tour will have celebrity guest performer in every city that the Tour travels. Akshay Kumar will perform in Toronto(oh! what a terrific performance he had given at the IIFA awards). Bollywood Diva Madhuri dixit will create magic with her performance in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Atlantic City, New York and Vancouver. Shilpa Shetty will enthrall the audience in London. The performance would be choreographed by Shiamak Davar and the Music will be provided by Vishal and Shekhar.

The Schedule of the Unforgettable Tour : Toronto - 18 July at Roger Centre,Trinidad - 20 July at Queens Park Cricket Club, Los Angeles - 26 July at LA Sports Arena, San Francisco - 27 July at Oracle Centre, Houston -2 Aug at Toyota Centre, Atlantic City - 9 Aug at Broadwalk Arena, Chicago - 10 Aug at Sears Hollamin Centre, New York - 15 Aug at Nassau Coliseum, Vancouver - 17 Aug at General Motors Place, London - 24 Aug at O2 Arena.

For more information on The Unforgettable Tour you can log on to http://www.theunforgettabletour.com/

On the other hand, Highest grossing Bollywood tour to date, King Khan’s Temptations Tour has been entertaining us since 2004. This year Temptations Reloaded will feature Shahrukh Khan, Kartina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Anusha Dandekar, Arjun Rampal, Javed Ali and Ganesh Hedge.

The Schedule of  Temptations Reloaded :  Amsterdam - 12 June, Holland - 21 June. Shahrukh will announce more worldwide dates soon.

While Temptations is not new on the block, The Unforgettable Tour is fresh. With so many big names and so many places to cover, looks like The Unforgettable Tour will be the winner.

Shahrukh Khan Fans may not like this. Rumours are doing the round that Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain? is going off air from July end.

It’s a know fact that Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain? opened to a lukewarm response. IPL was blamed for poor TRP in the initial weeks. By then, audience had seen enough of SRK on the field and they lost the interest in the show. Producers opted for the tried and tested formula to revive the show with celebrity episodes.

Sadhana and Ragini, lead actresses of TV Serial Vidai, Television actors Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani, Shahrukh’s best friend Karan , Rani Mukherji, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan graced the sets and added glamour to the show and SRK did his best to keep the show lively with humour and pranks.

All these could not hold the interest of the audience for long. Sadly the show is going to end mid-way. But before the show ends, we get to see few more celebrities. In a run-up to the grand finale, Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra will appear on the show to promote their forthcoming film Love Story 2050. Grand finale of the show will see Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav play the game and win Rs. 1 Crore which he promises to use for railway works.

SRK put his all in Kolkatta Knight Riders and Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?. Both failed to live up to the expectations. King Khan is going through the bad phase and we pray for his good times. Fighter that he is, he has started his work on Kaun Banega Crorepati 3 as per his prior commitment. Though shooting of KBC3 will start only around November. We may not see him on Small Screen for some time but Silver Screen is gearing up for his two big releases - Priyadarshan directed Billo Barber and Aditya Chopra’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

A Superstar as the host of game show on small screen sure helps to lure the audience and increase the TRP’s, at least in the initial few weeks. Television Industry is cashing in on this and audience loves it. Big B started the trend, SRK followed and Salman takes the same road. You got it right. Sallu Bhai is all set to make his debut on small screen as the host of new game show Dus Ka Dum.

Dus Ka Dum is a game inspired by the US game show ‘Power of 10’, in which the contestant who predicts most accurately how the public would respond to poll questions walks away with millions. Dus ka Dum is produced by Synergy Communications Pvt. Ltd. The show will begin on Sony Entertainment television on June 6. It will be telecast every Friday and Saturday between 9 to 10 pm.

In ‘Dus Ka Dum’ the contestant will be asked a question, whose answer is an average percentage of a mass opinion poll conducted across India. If the contestant’s guess is close to India’s collective opinion, the contestant begins to win, starting from Rs.10,000. Thereafter contestant wins or losses by the power of 10 depending on the right or wrong answer. Unlike other game shows where one has to answer number of questions to win the prize money, ‘Dus Ka Dum’ allows you to win a whopping amount of Ten crore Rupees, the biggest prize money on Indian Television, by answering just 5 questions.

Salman is giving his best to make his show popular. Music video, Mock Rehearsals (He played one with David Dhawan) and Blogging. He has done it all. With so much of hard work that Salman is putting in, we just hope he gets the desired result since he is not alone in the race. Another superstar making it to small screen is Greek God Hrithik Roshan who has been signed on as the goodwill ambassador for NDTV Imagine’s new musical show ‘Junoon - Kuchh Kar Dikhaane Ka’.

‘Junoon - Kuchh Kar Dikhaane Ka’ is a musical show that will decide the country’s most popular genre of music, namely Folk, Sufi and Filmy. Each team will have 6 contestants and will be mentored by an eminent personality from the music industry, namely, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for the Sufi Team, Ila Arun for the Folk Team and Anand Raj Anand for the Filmy Team.

This show will be aired from June 6, the same day when Salman’s ‘Dus Ka Dum’ will begin on Sony TV. Both Salman and Hrithik are seen in the Music videos promoting their respective shows. TRPs of both the shows on June 6 will decide who has more Star Power. Whom will the TV audience choose, Salman or Hrithik? Let’s wait and watch!

Love him or hate him but you just can’t ignore this Badshah of Bollywood. And if you thought King Khan is out of action from big screen and you are not going to see any more of him for some time, then think again ‘Picture abhi baaki hai dost!’. Advertisements, Game show, IPL and now in Paris. SRK knows how to make his presence felt. Audience does not have any choice except to bear him. SRK, don’t mind you are not bad but as the saying goes too much is too bad.

Pepsi, thanda thanda cool cool Navratna Oil, Videocon, Sunfeast Biscuits and what not. Small screen is bombarded with advertisements featuring Shahrukh. And if this was not enough, Friday, Satuday, Sunday is when you get to play with SRK for one whole hour. Must say King Khan is doing a great job as the host of this new game show ‘Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?’ I am glued to my TV set during this show. What more, I religiously make phone calls and answer the questions which are for the audience sitting at home. I know, my money is going down the drain but that’s the magic of this show and that’s how SRK and Synergy Adlabs would make big bucks. Contrary to the expectations ’Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?’ has managed a rating of 4.61 (TAM ratings) compared to Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 which opened with a TRP rating of 12.33 (TAM ratings).

Is IPL to blame for the poor rating? May be, may not be. One thing is sure SRK will need lots of money to keep his Kolkatta Knight Riders going in IPL. Irrespective of whether the team wins or not, SRK distributes gifts like laptops to his team members after every match. Sadly after winning the first two matches his team is losing its form. SRK is known to have that Midas touch. Seems like its not working in this case.

While Shahrukh in not busy with IPL he is in Paris to unveil his wax Statue at the Grevin Wax Museum. Guess what, Mahatma Gandhi is the only other Indian honoured with a statue in this museum. There’s no stopping King Khan!

Bhang, Colors, white dresses, drums, song and dance…..blend all these together and what you get is colorful recipe called holibolly (that’s Holi in Bollywood). Frankly can you imagine Holi in Hindi films without any of these? I dedicate this recipe to Bollywood that has portrayed the mood of Holi time and again.

Holi is the only festival in India where one has the open rights to flirt and do all the nasty things. And it’s the Bhang (I shall call it the energy drink) that sets the mood right. It’s only after gulping down glasses of Bhang, the hero of film gets charged up to get up close with his heroine. Don’t agree with me? What propelled Amitabh to flirt ? Bhang! Again it’s the Bhang that increased the energy levels of sh…sh….sh shahrukh and he scared the hell out of Juhi in Darr. Hope you are convinced now.

What’s Holi without colors? Heaps of colors spread out on the ground make an integral part of the Holi song. And then there are these junior artists who would throw colors in air and kick these heaps of colors to kick off the song. In any other song sequence hero and heroine would have a different costume and the all the other artist would have the same dress code. But what about the dress code for the Holi song? As we know Holi is a festival of unity. So everyone has the same dress code. Though this rarely happens in real life but in reel life if it’s Holi everyone has to be in white dress. Don’t ask me why. Guess it’s more fun to splash colors on white dress. Have you ever seen a heroine with lots of color of her clothes and body especially her face? Naah. Have you gone Insane? Why would she spoil her make up? Sadly it’s only the heroes whom we see with lots of colors over their body and the heroine always has very small patches of color here and there….not fair haan….

Now we have put in Bhang, colors, white dress remaining to be added is drums, song and dance. In India, celebrations cannot be complete without songs….Songs are the essential part of celebrations in Indian culture. Bollywood caught this nerve and there was time when a films success was decided on the success of its music. Films did cash on the Holi songs and till date we have a huge collection of Holi songs. Think of a Holi song. Quick, Quick, I know what you have in your mind. Yes the first song that comes to your mind is Rang Barse. Imagine a Holi party without this song.Oh! Your party would be incomplete without it. Nothing can beat the magic of Rang Barse from the Silsila. Post Silsila Chopras continued with Holi Numbers is many films. Be it O dekho Holi aayi in Mashaal or the Ang se ang lagana in Darr. Aditya Chopra followed the foot steps of his father. His film Mohabbatein had an elaborate Holi song and dance sequence. Holi khere raghubeera featuring Mr.Bachchan and Hema Malini from Ravi Chopra’s Baghban made it to the hit list. Last Holi song that I can remember is Lets play Holi again from Amitabh starrer Waqt - Race against time.

And we are done with the recipe. Add a splash of color of your choice and relish it. Happy Holi!

Holi khere raghubeera……………

If there was a time machine, I am sure many of us would just love to go back to the childhood. Sadly, in today’s highly competitive world children have lost their childhood. Right for the Montessori to the schools and colleges a child has to compete to match his steps with the world. And then there are few who are more talented than the other children whom we call Little Wonders. These Little Wonders do make big in life but at the cost of their childhood.

For instance, Darsheel Safary of Tare Zameen Par rejected the ‘Best Child Actor’ award saying he was the hero of the film and he should be nominated in the ‘Best Actor category’. Absolutely no doubt, Darsheel’s performance in Taare Zameen Par was par excellence and hats off to you Darsheel for such a brilliant performance. But, But, But……. Darsheel is just eight year old child. He is star now and has graduated from a child to the Best Actor in such a tender age. New found success and stardom has outshone his childhood.

Darsheel is not the only one in this race. From past we have seen Tabassum, Sachin, Urmila Matondkar , Aftab Shivdasani, Kunal Khemu, Jugal Hansraj, Hansika Motwani and many others. Everyone went through the same phase what Darsheel is going through now. Leave films alone, with media spreading its wings more children are engulfed in this world of instant stardom. Don’t agree with me? Watch Chotte Ustad on Star plus and Lil Wonders on Zee. Grueling practice sessions, rehearsals, shows and more shows. After the show if the child has performed badly then he has had it from the judges even may be from his family members. The child is showered with praises and what not if the performance is good. He is taken into the dreamland. Life is not a dreamland and when the child opens his eyes to reality it’s too late. He has gone through lot by then. In both the situation it’s the child who suffers. Only the child knows what he is going through. Spare the child please.

The greed for stardom has subdued children’s innocence and their love for small things either by the child himself or by his family or by the mighty media. Whom do we blame? While there are many who cherish their childhood, these ‘Little Wonders’ may remain void of their childhood.