The NCPA was razzle-dazzle with stardust on Saturday evening as television’s most popular stars gathered to celebrate one another’s success. The bonhomie, cheer and fun witnessed at this red carpet night was proof enough that off-screen, these saases and bahus don’t hate one another! Amongst the earliest to make an entry (and a very lovey-dovey one at that) were
Kashmera Shah and Krshna Abhishek. Following suit were Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda Sheikh (toying with a stray hair-lock that dropped from her oh-so-60s’ bouffant) were excited about performing with each other for the first time. Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani (back from a bout of illness) made a stylish couple, the credit for which Hiten gave to his wife: “She’s the one who decides what I wear; so the compliments are hers to take!”
Ketaki Dave, looking red-hot in a red sari (that even made her mother Sarita Joshi compliment her saying, “you’re looking ravishing!”) when asked about her intermittent disappearances, was candid in admitting, “As a senior member of the television parivaar, I’m entitled to coming and going out of it.”
Abhijeet Sawant, Rooprekha, Prajakta Shukre and Ishmeet Singh had a whale of a time, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans, even as they indulged in incessant banter. Child actor Aabhas Joshi seems to have become quite used to his celeb status; he was having a gala time as well. Mouni Roy, dressed fit for Cannes in a billowy gown, seemed distracted as she rushed off saying, “It’s time for the show to begin and I’m yet to get ready!”
Suvarna Jha caught up with Gautami Kapoor; Shweta Tiwari made a back-door entry and expressed mock-consternation at being caught oncamera saying, “Arre, I’m not even dressed for the occasion; let me get ready and then you can click to your heart’s content!”
Smriti Iraani, the everso-busy actress-producer was glued to her phone issuing instructions even as she was reading through her script and getting ready. Ali Asgar kept cheering for his bhabhi Sakshi Tanwar who seemed too comfortable in the confines of the vanity van to step out till the last minute. JD Majethia, Naman Shaw, Guddi Maruti (in an astonishingly slim avatar about which she kept joking to anybody who cared to ask the secret), Rucha Gujrathi, a bald Sandiip Sickand (who, when quizzed about the change, remarked, “I’m an actor too, I’m entitled to have a makeover!”) and Avinash Wadhwan were also present.

After promising the PR person that there will be no questions related to the estranged husband, Raja Chowdhary, Jyothi Venkatesh managed to spend an evening with actor Shweta Tiwari, and found out that the latter is striking a fine balance between ‘Kasautii Zindagii Ki’, Bhojpuri films, her latest show, ‘Jhoom India’, and of course, her daughter Payal.

Q. How did you decide to accept the offer to play the lead heroine in a Bhojpuri film?
A. The Bhojpuri language is a tradition that you adapt to, not just a language you learn, and this fascinated me. It is a culture by itself. Watch my latest film, ‘Kab Aibu Aanganwa Hamaar’, where Manoj Tiwari is my co -star, and you will be able to identify with the villager.

Q. Tell us more about your role in this movie.
A. I play Naina, a middle-class girl, who is besotted with the hero. The hero is a loser, and is just wasting his life. The movie is directed by Sanjay Tripathi, and it is a clean, neat family social.

If the audience can accept a scantily-clad heroine, then they will definitely accept a fully-clothed heroine. I am proud to be a part of the film, which, by the way, is distributed by the Rajshris.

Q. Is it true that you ended up bruising yourself while cycling for some scenes in the movie?
A. It was difficult to get into the skin of the character that I play in the film. Naina cycles from the village to college everyday, and I soon found out that cycling was not my cup of tea. Although Manoj offered to teach me how to cycle, I bruised myself.

Q. You do not speak the language. How difficult was it to work on your role?
A. It was hard work – learning the lines by heart and then saying them in front of the camera, and at the same time, trying to understand the meaning and nuance of each sentence. We were shooting in sync sound, which is a big challenge. I almost gave up one day, because it was so tough.

And then I realised that Krishna Bhat, who is a South Indian, had made it a point to learn the language to prepare himself for his role. I was embarrassed, because I am from Allahabad, and it should be easier for me to learn the language.

Q. What was it like, working with Manoj Tiwari?
A. It was a great learning experience. He is such a big star, and he has absolutely no airs about him. He was of great help as a co-star, and also acted like a guardian on those days, when I was going through some personal problems and missing my daughter Payal, who was in Mumbai.

Manoj is an intense actor. He never used glycerin for his tearful scenes.

Q. You have produced a Bhojpuri film before this.
A. I made my debut in Bhojpuri films with ‘Hamaar Saiyya Hindustani’, with Ravi Kissen as my co-star. I produced the film. I have a third film lined up, titled ‘Ye Bhauji Ke Sister’, and Manoj is my co-star, again, in this one.

Q. Are you contemplating Hindi films as well?
A. People ask me why I am not interested in Hindi films. I have always believed in destiny. If I am destined to act in Hindi films, then I will. I am actually keeping my fingers crossed, and I hope that I am offered meaty roles in good films, by big banners. Till that happens, I am happy with my role as Prerna Bajaj in ‘Kasautii Zindagii Ki’.

Q. Tell us a little about ‘Jhoom India!’
A. It is a very interesting concept by Sahara One, and is based on the reality show on Zodiak Television, called ‘Stars on Stage’. Ten soap stars will be coached by popular playback singers to sing and perform in front of a jury and a live audience.

Each performance will be a duet, where guru and shishya will perform together. Suresh Wadkar is my mentor in the show. I cannot sing to save my life, and I have to try to do that in front of Shabana Azmi, Anandji and Mahesh Bhatt. - Jyothi Venkatesh

That’s what Mehboob Studio turned into, when Shweta Tiwari arrived five hours late for a shoot while several top actors waited for her

Back to Section Stories Posted On Saturday, October 27, 2007

Vickey Lalwani

Shweta Tiwari

Shweta Tiwari (Prerna of Kasautii Zindagii Kay) shot for a new show Dhamaal Express (made under the banner Eternal Dreams) for 9X new show on Wednesday, but not before infuriating top TV actors - Sakshi Tanwar, Mona Singh, Urvashi Dholakia, Tasneem Sheikh and Shabbir Ahluwalia.

Says an insider, “Shweta was supposed to report on the sets (Mehboob Studio) at 8 am, when she did not report until 10 am the actors started getting restless and enquiring if she was coming at all. Producer Boney Jain kept reassuring them that she would arrive very soon. However, that did not happen. By the time she arrived, almost everybody on the set was furious.”

Finally Shweta walked in 5 hours late and did not even apologise. “She did not even say why she was late,” says one of the actors. Apparently, Shweta has three prjects at hand and she seems to have taken more than she can chew. She is shooting for Kasautii…, Jjhoom India and now Dhamaal Express.

The actor who complains, endorses, “Why has she taken up so many assignments? Why were we asked to cool heels and wait for her for six hours? Even after she arrived, she kept doing a lot of gimmicks and wasted more time. This is just not done.”

When contacted, producer Boney wanted to know who told us about the fiasco. Initially, he laughed but perhaps wanting to kill the story, he said, “Every actor was given a different call time.”

Tiwari remained unavailable for comment. We sent her messages, but she did not bother to revert.

personally i think she is piling on so much work just 2 escape her personal traumas but really she should not over stress herself

Shweta Tiwari recently performed a classical dance on a TV programme and the actor did a great job of it.

In fact, many of her colleagues pointed out that if she could have got a better partner for Nach Baliye, she would have definitely won the contest.

However, since hubby Raja wasn’t much of a dancer the couple was out of the dance show pretty early. But now Shweta seems to know all her moves very well. Good going, Shweta.

Ekta Kapoor’s television awards event to be held in December in the United Arab Emirates will be the grandest TV event ever as she has roped in Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan to perform at the function. If that isn’t all, her entire Balaji brigade from small to big stars will be present at the function interacting with fans and even performing on stage.

Among the top names participating in the show are the new Tulsi Gautami Gadgil, Parvati aka Sakshi Talwar, Anita Hassandani, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Swetha Tiwari, Prachi Desai, and many more will entertain audiences on stage at the Balaji Global Indian TV Honours 2007. Ekta surely wanted to make this event international and as big as the film awards. And to add that dash of extra glamour she has roped in her friend and filmmaker Karan Johar who will be felicitated at the awards and will also host a segment of the awards.
Source: Deccan Chronicle - TV Guide

The SaharaOne reality show has already had its share of hiccups.

Though SaharaOne has launched the promos of Jjhoom India, its new music-based show, it has not been playing sweet music backstage. This desi version of the Western show Stars On Stage has already had its share of in and outs even before the show goes on air.

This reality spectacle, produced by the Optimystix duo of Vipul D Shah and Sanjiv Shama (the names behind Comedy Circus, Ye Meri Life Hai), has a singer teamed with a non-singer celebrity who grooms the latter in belting out popular numbers.

Wishlist

Several names from the television and music world have been and are still being approached. The names finalised include Chhavi Mittal with Jatin, Varun Badola with Akriti Kakkad, Shama Sikander with Zubin, Shweta Tiwari with Suresh Wadkar, Roshni Chopra with Vinod Kumar Rathod, Apara Mehta with Parthiv Gohil (who makes his playback debut with Yuh shabnami in Saawariya) and Shekhar Suman with Sanjivani (of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame).

It is learnt that Babul Supriyo was initially pencilled in with Shweta Tiwari. Says a source, “Babul had already shot for the promos of Jjhoom India and the channel was keen to include him, but then he had something interesting coming up with the soon-to-be launched NDTV Imagine. As a result, Babul opted out.

Judge kaun?

As reported earlier in “Papa na kehte” (September 21) Shreya Ghoshal was also considered but was not too keen on the show. Meanwhile, Asha Bhosle and Bappi Lahiri have been finalised as the judges, and talks are on with Mahesh Bhatt.

However, the forthright Bhatt says, “They have been in talks with my daughter Pooja about the show. She is negotiating with them. As far as I know, I am not doing it. Now they have approached my brother, Mukesh Bhatt.

Says producer Vipul D Shah, The third judge will be finalised in a day to two. We had approached Subhash Ghai but he was busy shooting for his film Yuvraj in Europe. The rest of the contestants, too, will be clear soon.