There is no doubt that Kabir Khan?s Salman-Zhu Zhu venture, TUBELIGHT, was expected to set the box-office on fire, ending the first half of 2017 on a joyous note. However, the film tanked badly and a pall of gloom descended. But that was not the only injury that the industry suffered!

MUNNA MICHAEL

July was expected to bring loud cheers via Anurag Basu directed Katrina-Ranbir starrer, JAGGA JASOOS. It was widely believed that the families and especially the bachcha party would lap up the fun and frolic film and throng the cinemas. But alas, that was not to be, as after a decent weekend (33-34 crore), the film could not sustain during the weekdays, and the best case scenario appears to be a final tally of 65 crore from India. The overseas too appears to be struggling for a final tally of $2.50m.

Having said that, Bollywood is all set to fire a relatively unknown salvo in the shape of the Tiger Shroff and Nawazuddin venture, MUNNA MICHEAL, this Friday itself. The film carries a buzz, the audio is getting popular and the biggest chunk of the cinema going audience, the campus crowd and the youths are finding the promos appealing and the trade feels that the film will embark on a reasonably good start, thus soothing the box-office wounds, fingers crossed!

Bollywood lovebirds Bipasha Basu and her husband Karan Singh Grover are busy with their holidays in the US.

Bipasha has continuously shared images from her trip on social media to keep her fans updated.

As per her post on a photo-sharing portal, Bipasha and Karan even visited the Universal Studios in the US recently. They are currently in Miami.

Miami Baby ?? #monkeylove

Miami has a natural rhythm… loving it?????? @thelabellife

The power couple visited the US to attend the IIFA awards recently.

Since then they have been traveling in the country and spending some nice time together.

Meghna Gulzar’s next based on Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat will star Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal. The film revolves around a Kashmiri spy (Alia Bhatt) who gets married to a Pakistani Army Officer (Vicky Kaushal). And keeping the plot in mind, Kashmir forms an integral part of the narrative. However the makers have been unable to get the required permissions to shoot in the Valley, given the state of unrest there.

A unit member informs, "The original plan was to start the shoot in the Valley. However, Kashmir has been knocked off in the first schedule. Rumours are rife that Ansarul Khilafah Jammu Kashmir (the Indian facet of the IS) is threatening the local police with violence and, in such a situation, it's in everyone's best interest to not shoot the film in the state."

ALIA BHATT AND VICKY KAUSHAL

Considering Kashmir is an important element in the film, the makers have now decided to recreate Kashmir in studios of Mumbai itself. To make sure that the audience gets the impact of the movie, each and every aspect of Kashmir is being recreated. A large set will be erected in Film City where most of the indoor sequences will be shot. A few local Kashmiri workers are building the set. Since the decor of the homes has to be authentic, local Kashmiri artworks and curios will be flown down by the producers. The set will take a few weeks to be complete. From workshops to creating the perfect environment, the team of RAAZI has been laying all its efforts and thus it will be interesting for the audience to watch the outcome of the movie.
 
Meanwhile, the makers will kick-start the film's shoot in Punjab. Alia and Kaushal will begin shooting by the end of this month. After their schedules in Punjab and Mumbai, the team will head to Delhi for another leg of shoot.

The B-town beauties Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are reigning queens in Hollywood. 

Deepika Padukone made her Hollywood debut with Vin Diesel’s XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE, while Priyanka is garnering accolades for her role in BAYWATCH!

If Priyanka is a member of prestigious Oscars, Deepika is honoured to be the academy member.

Deepika was pleased to share this news on social media.

Check out her post below:

HONORED TO BE A NEW #ACADEMYMEMBER. @THEACADEMY #CLASSOF2017

Kartik Aaryan’s claim to fame film was PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA series. He was last seen in GUEST IIN LONDON and now he will be seen uniting with the PKPN team yet again for his next SONU KE TITU KI SWEETY, which stars Nushrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh and Kartik.

The actor left for Dubai recently to begin shooting for Luv Ranjan's next. This is his fourth film with the director. Kartik who is super active on social media shared his travel pictures where we see him en route Dubai.

SONU KE TITU KI SWEETY announced their film title last month and it instantly caught everyone's attention. The quirky title has worked wonders for Kartik's fans and soon people began talking about it and it went viral. Kartik Aaryan's fans surely can't wait for it especially since the actor is going to flaunt his surfboard abs in this film.

Good times ahead for Kartik Aaryan!

Check out his post below! #SonuKeTituKiSweety ??First Stop #Dubai

Bollywood has always been surrounded by serious allegations like nepotism, racism, casting-couch among others.

Another actor hinting at racism prevalent in Bollywood brought forward how discriminating someone on the basis of his color or looks can be hurting for that person. Yes, we are talking about Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s latest social media post in which he poured out his heart.

The actor wrote, “Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that.”

This came in when casting director of BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAZ Sanjay Chouhan apparently said in an interview that fair and handsome people cannot be cast opposite Nawaz. However, Sanjay denied having ever said that and stated that his comments were misconstrued.

Siddiqui in an interview to PTI was quoted saying, “People have their own perceptions. If a casting director thinks that he can’t cast a fair and handsome actor opposite me, it is his problem. I don’t focus or get bothered by what others think about my looks. But such things do hurt me.”

The actor further added, “It is not only about the film industry. This is the mindset of our society. In my village, whenever I said, ‘I want to be an actor’, people would say, ‘Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror?’ I have always been told that. But if you are focused, these comments don’t matter.

“People say get a fair wife… Why? Aren’t dark girls beautiful? In our society, there is this weird concept of beauty and good looks. This perception of conventionally good looking is forced on us.”

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari who gave us NIL BATTEY SANNATA is ready with her next film titled BAREILLY KI BARFI. The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao in lead roles.

Rajkummar took to a micro-blogging site to share the second poster of this film. The actor captioned the poster as:

??? ??????? ??? ??????? but not in this case. Presenting the 2nd poster of 'BareillyKiBarfi. Trailer out today. #BareillyKiBarfi #18thAug

In the new poster, all the lead actors are seen together. While Kriti is seen giving her beautiful and enchanting smile, Ayushmann looks totally mesmerized by her smile and Rao is facing the camera giving some attitude-filled looks.

All three actors are wearing color-coordinated outfits in the poster. The trailer of the film will be out today. Till then stay tuned for more updates.

B-town flaunting their babies is a new trend in Bollywood. Each and every actor posts glimpse of their offspring on social media.

After Shahid Kapoor’s daugther Misha’s toes, feet and hands and now full pics, we saw baby Taimur’s pics flooded with adorable comments.

In fact the latest to join the bandwagon is Karan Johar. He was busy with IIFA 2017 New York, back here in Mumbai he was missing his kids Roohi and Yash and posted a cute snap on social media, and showed the world their tiny fingers and hands.

From director to daddy Karan is missing his kids and why not? Aren’t they adorable?

We are eagerly waiting for the full snap now!

Check out his posts below.

I miss my babies!!!! #roohiandyash

Ever since her childhood, Athiya Shetty was drawn to the world of movies and she always nurtured the dream to play a quintessential Bollywood heroine.

The gorgeous and talented actress who grew up watching her father Suniel Shetty as an actor was deeply influenced by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Athiya is a great admirer of Aishwarya’s beauty and acting talent.

ATHIYA SHETTY

The talented actress who will be next seen in the forthcoming family entertainer, MUBARAKAN saw the former beauty queen on the sets of J P Dutta's UMRAO JAAN. “I was Aishwarya's poonch! I followed her on the set. I would just watch her getting ready for the shoot. And that's when I decided I wanted to be a part of this beautiful world of Hindi movies.”

“That's the first time I ever went to a set. Papa was shooting BORDER. I know this today but back then, I had no clue what was going on. I just have a picture of my father and me riding a horse. Probably, I was meant to be on a set. And here I am,” Athiya recalls.

MUBARAKAN releases on 28 July!

The story behind director Ashwiny Iyer locking the subject of her upcoming film BAREILLY KI BARFI is quite interesting.

When Ashwiny was returning to Mumbai from the final schedule of her directorial debut, NIL BATTEY SANNATA, she was whiling away time at a bookstore at Delhi's international airport. She picked up an English translation of a French book, titled ‘Ingredients of Love out of alacrity’.

BAREILLY KI BARFI MOVIE POSTER

Ashwiny was totally captivated by the story of that book; she completed the book in a couple of days and also ensured that her husband, writer-filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari reads it.

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari shares, “I was tired, but I couldn't put the book down. I even made Nitesh read it and he agreed that the basic story could become the theme for a film.”

She further added, “I was so excited, I even told my producers, Abhay Chopra and Juno Chopra (late filmmaker BR Chopra's grandsons) about the story immediately. They put in a lot of effort to contact the publishers in France and procure the rights to the book."

Starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao, BAREILLY KI BARFI will have Ashwiny team up with her writer-director husband Nitesh Tiwari for the second time post NIL BATTEY SANNATA.

Nitesh, who has directed the blockbuster hit film DANGAL has adapted the book into the script and has changed the setting of the story from France to Uttar Pradesh.The film has been co-written by Shreyas Jain along with Nitesh Tiwari.

“It's difficult to adapt any book into a film. The French settings are alien to us, so we've only retained the basic theme and infused our own colours, quirks and characters into the story. The parents, friends and lovers, their professions and their basic habits have all been adapted to our culture. I got time to work on the script because Ashwiny was caught up with the post-production of her first film. I just hope that the audience likes my first tryst with breezy cinema." says Nitesh.

When asked if both of them were under pressure to deliver, as both their previous films were praised, Ashwiny admits, “I'd be lying if I said no. I don't want people to say, `Yeh kyun kiya!' Though Nitesh is a harsh critic and has not been too critical in his views so far, I'm still anxious about what the audience would think. I hope I have done justice to his writing. The team was excited at the very thought that Nitesh was writing it."

BAREILLY KI BARFI is scheduled to release on August 18 this year.