Entertainment

Genelia beats Katrina!      

By Hindustan Times

Mumbai, Oct. 22 -- Trust Ekta Kapoor to do the unthinkable. For the first time in the history of Hindi films, the producer has the producer has used consumer research as a tool to make casting decisions for her upcoming biggie, Rock The Shaadi. But although lead actor Abhay Deol's pairing with Katrina Kaif was high on the rate charts, it was Genelia D'Souza who topped the like ability test amongst other options.

And Ekta is content with the results. "Genelia was one of our choices even before we did the research. We're glad the sample's choice matched ours," says the TV czarina, adding that Genelia is "extremely popular with the youth and families". "It's proven by the number of brands she endorses."

Ekta's Balaji Telefilms, which has its own research cell to monitor responses for its TV serials on a weekly basis, conducted the research in eight major Indian cities. The sample size of audience was around 600 in each city in the age group of 15 to 25. Abhay was a constant since he had already signed as the male lead.

According to Ekta, the idea "came up during a brainstorming session with our coproducers and senior members of the Balaji Motion Pictures". "We often use research for pre-release marketing, so why not extend it to casting as well?" she says. Among several parameters, the on-screen pairs were rated on the excitement to watch them together, how they look and their appeal among the youth. "With this, you're actually engaging your end-consumer in helping you to decide what they are going going to eventually pay for," says Ekta, adding that it enables you to "make a more informed judgment, so the call is not based entirely on gut."

Although Ekta is happy with the results, she isn't really planning to make it a regular affair: "There's no rule of thumb. For some films, casting is a no-brainer. Films that are designed for a specific kind of audience or in situations where one is not entirely sure whether A works better or B, research comes handy."

Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor will be paired for the third time with the Hindi remake of superhit Malayalam film, ‘Bodyguard’. The film will be directed by Salman Khan’s brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri. First, Katrina Kaif was approached to play the lead actress but she failed to give dates as Atul is determined for the Eid release of the film next year and Kat’s diary is totally blocked.

Atul clarifies, "See, we have already decided to release our film during the Eid week next year. Since Katrina has committed her dates to other projects, we decided to cast an actor whose dates would match with Salman's and would facilitate the release of the film during the festive week next year."

Atul approached Kareena and she readily agreed. If we remember, Bebo and Sallu was associated with two flop films in the past like ‘Kyon Ki’ and Main Aur Mrs Khanna’. When asked why he chose Salman, Kareena pair as they were not a hit pair, Atul quips, "It all depends on the film and how the audience takes to it. Why blame a pair for its failure? Besides, they may be third time lucky with my film".

‘Bodygurad’ will be directed by Siddiqui and the music of the film will be composed by Pritam.

Read more: 
Sunny Leone in India

Sunny Leone, born to Punjabi parents hailing from New Delhi, from getting married. Born in Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada, Sunny moved with her family to California as a teenager. She studied to be a nurse and tried modelling but didn`t succeed because of her height, only 5 ft 4 inches.

Now this star Sunny Leone has been crowned India's most googled celebrity beating Bollywood divas Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

She is in  Bigg Boss house,which has certainly helped to propel her to the top of the charts with obsessed fans searching for her five times more than Kaif, twice as many as Bachchan and nine times more than Kapoor.

Data collected from Google Trends show that her biggest fans are in Noida where surfers have clocked up the most number of searches downloading photos and videos followed by Bhubaneswar, Ludhiana and Bhopal.

Filmkaer Mahesh Bhatt, who met Sunny inside the house and offered her a role in his next film, Jism 2, said he was not surprised by her popularity.