Living up to its hype, the Amitabh Bachchan-led Unforgettable Tour opened to an unprecedented response.
Billed as the biggest-ever Bollywood live show abroad, the three-hour inaugural kept the 10,000-strong audience at the Rogers Centre riveted.
Torontonians could not have asked for more as the Big B, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Ashwariya Rai appeared together at a live show for the first time on Friday night.
And it turned out be a spectacular debut for the Bachchan clan as they kept the audience on their feet with their solo and collective performances.
Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta too threw in equally brilliant performances in this song and dance extravaganza, as did Ritesh Deshmukh and Vishal Shekhar.
Opening the evening, Preity set the tone with a couple of breathtaking numbers, including Pretty woman (from her film Kal Ho Na Ho ), before calling on stage "the sexy and gorgeous and unforgettable dude" Abhishek.
Abhishek popped up somewhere in the crowd and had to be escorted to the stage. Once on stage, he raised the tempo further by belting out hit songs from his films such as Dus and Bunty Aur Babli .
The Dus bahane karke le gaye dil left his female fans hysteric. Old timers tapped their feet when he sang his dad's Khai ke paan Banaras wala from Don .
And as expected, Ash drove the audience crazy with her super hit "Crazy kiya re". For his part, Big B had something for everyone - from "Rang barse" ("Silsala") to "Roop hai tera sona, sona" ("Kabhi Kushi, Kabhi Gham") to "Kajra re" ("Bunty Aur Babli").
However, the evening belonged to Akshay, who literally set the Rogers Centre on fire with his exciting and interactive performance. Having lived here on and off and known the pulse of the city, he opened with hit song from his yet-to-be released film "Singh Is Kinng", followed by "Dil da mamla hai dilbar" and "Tere roop di ho gayee balle, balle".
A virtual stampede broke out near the stage when he offered any girl to come on stage and sing a love song with him. Having chosen a smart girl, he offered her a gift box before singing with him. And when she unwrapped the box, out came a nightgown!
Before the sheepishly smiling girl could recover, he wrapped his arm around her and launched into Bheegay honth tere from the film Murder . Indeed, Torontonians could have not asked for more.
Nomination Aamir Khan's directorial debut film ‘Taare Zameen Par' has been chosen to represent India at the Oskars. Aamir himself had produced, directed and acted in this film. It must be borne in mind that after a many years of gap a film was made in which a child was in main lead. Aamir himself had paid the supporting role in the film. Before it, his first home production ‘Lagaan' had been nominated for the Oscars in 2002. In that film, too, Aamir himself had played a role. Taare Zameen Par was released last year in December. Since then it was widely appreciated and had won various awards in the country. During the selection process ‘Jodha Akbar' and two Marathi films ‘Valu' and ‘Tingya' had given a tough challenge to the ‘ Taare Zameen Par' but in the end it won the support of all the selectors.
Controversy Last year, ‘Ekalavya' had been selected to represent India in the Oscars and this decision had triggered a controversy as some sections of the Indian entertainment industry termed the selection as unfair and biased. Even a filmmaker had challenged Film Federation of India's (FFI) decision in the high court following which High court had set up some guidelines regarding the selection of the films to represent India at international levels. Because of such controversies Aamir has always kept himself away from the award ceremonies held in India. Universal Appeal Taare Zameen per has a universal appeal as it deals with the problems faced by a dyslexic child. Educational as well as the social systems rejects him as a failure. The hero of the film, a school going child is rejected by his parents as well as by the educational system but his teacher (Aamir Khan) understands the problem faced by the dyslexic child. Whole of the story revolves around the child and his teacher who defeat all the difficulties and the artistic qualities of
the child student are brought to surface by the motivation of the teacher. Everyone had ridiculed Aamir's new idea of making a child-centric film but when it got released, every section of the society had appreciated it. Amitabh Bachchan had rebuked Aamir Khan when he had not done any effort to send his film to participate in an international event.
Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is on a signing spree and accepting new projects at a price he never commanded before - a staggering Rs 15 crores/150 million per film.
Even at his new price Sanjay is now booked till the end of 2010 for 28 assignments, so much so that director Rohit Jugraj will be able to start his bio-pic with the actor only in 2011.
The new rate is thanks to good friend and colleague Suniel Shetty, who generously hiked Sanjay's price when he signed on the actor for a multi-film deal for his production house Popcorn Entertainment.
Dharam Oberoi, CEO of Sanjay Dutt Productions confirmed, "It is true Anna (Suniel) raised Baba's (Sanjay) price in the market. Before that Baba was being taken for granted price-wise by all and sundry. Anna was adamant about Baba's price and started a new precedent by paying him far above what Baba got from others."
He added, "Suniel is one of his dearest friends and responsible for initiating the remuneration that you've quoted."
Having completed EMI with Suniel, Sanjay has now signed another big project with his company that will feature the two actors as warring heroes locked in a dramatic conflict. The big-budgeted Sanjay-Suniel action drama is to go on the floors soon, all thanks to Sanjay who magically accommodated the new assignment into his schedule even if it meant working a little harder.
"Anything for Suniel is Baba's motto," said Oberoi. "Yes, Baba has accommodated a new assignment with Anna into his schedule at a time when he couldn't afford to. It means he has to work harder."
Suniel is co-producing EMI with Ekta Kapoor and the film is being directed by debutant Saurav Kabra.
Sanjay recently suffered a leg injury in the gym, but he left for Bangkok to do action scenes for director Anthony D'Souza's Blue against doctors' orders. He was advised by doctors to let the limb heal itself out.
"Baba can't afford to delay any project. In fact, he was really concerned when he had to cancel a small portion of the dubbing for Anna's EMI on the day he injured his leg. While he was on the cycle something gave way in his leg and Baba was in acute pain. In his typical way, he tried to brush it off as no big deal. But then the pain got unbearable and it came to a point where he could barely walk. With his tight schedule and his typical attitude of bravado, Baba refused to take the injury seriously. But he was forced to undergo tests. It was revealed that there was severe swelling in his leg that would take quite some time to heal," he said.
Disregarding doctors' diktats Sanjay zipped off to Bangkok to join the already-waiting cast of Blue even if the stunts slowed down the healing process of his legs.
"That's Baba for you. Even when going underwater was potentially harmful to his already weak lungs he went 40 feet under for Blue in the Bahamas. And now he's doing stunts in Bangkok with his injured leg with Akshay Kumar," he added.
Saawariya girl Sonam Kapoor will walk the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani's Levis collection at the spring-summer edition of the five-day Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai.
"I have designed some exclusive collections for Levis and it will be a great experience to have Sonam walking the ramp for us," Tahilani said.
Sonam will also be signed by Levis as its brand ambassador at the fashion event.
About 75 designers from across the country displaying their collections at the event in three categories: established, generation next and emerging.
The grand finale Friday will feature renowned designer's Sabyasachi Mukherjee wedding collection.
Ira Dubey, Lilette Dubey's younger daughter, is all set to make her debut in Rohan Sippy's The President Is Coming.
Welcome to the Beti Foundation. Lilette Dubey joins Babita and Tanuja as the mother of two acting-oriented daughters. After Neha Dubey who was seen as a battered wife with her mother Lilette in Pritish Nandy Communications' Bow Barracks Forever, it's Lilette's second daughter who's making her quiet movie debut.
The proud mother can't stop beaming. "After Neha, it's my younger daughter Ira who's making her screen debut in Rohan Sippy's The President Is Coming. She played the lead in a play Wedding Album written by Girish Karnad which opened on 10 May. Ira is just 21, and she still has a long way to go before making up her mind about a career in films," says Lilette sounding like Hema Malini when she speaks on her undecided younger daughter Ahana's future.
"Neha is currently doing her Masters in the US. Though we're constantly in touch, I miss her like hell. As for Ira, she did her graduation from Yale University in the US…she majored in theatre studies. Ira has been acting on stage from the age of 4. She has done many plays in the university in the US as well as with me and other directors in Mumbai. Rohan Sippy's film is her first feature."
Living up to its hype, the Amitabh Bachchan-led Unforgettable Tour opened to an unprecedented response. 
Nomination Aamir Khan's directorial debut film ‘Taare Zameen Par' has been chosen to represent India at the Oskars. Aamir himself had produced, directed and acted in this film. It must be borne in mind that after a many years of gap a film was made in which a child was in main lead. Aamir himself had paid the supporting role in the film. Before it, his first home production ‘Lagaan' had been nominated for the Oscars in 2002. In that film, too, Aamir himself had played a role. Taare Zameen Par was released last year in December. Since then it was widely appreciated and had won various awards in the country. During the selection process ‘Jodha Akbar' and two Marathi films ‘Valu' and ‘Tingya' had given a tough challenge to the ‘ Taare Zameen Par' but in the end it won the support of all the selectors. 
Saawariya girl Sonam Kapoor will walk the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani's Levis collection at the spring-summer edition of the five-day Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. 
Ira Dubey, Lilette Dubey's younger daughter, is all set to make her debut in Rohan Sippy's The President Is Coming.