What a whirlwind of week have we had - its been hectic shectic yaars!
A big Raj&Pablo thanks for all your words of support - you all rock!
Well, London is awash with Bollytastic fabolousness - The Tongues On Fire - The 12th London Asian Film Festival launched in complete fanfare and honoured two members of the First Family of Bollywood - the ever dignified
Jaya Bachchan and the irrepressible
Abhishek Bachchan.
The Festival opened with a gala screening of Jayabrato Chatterjee's
Love Songs which stars Jaya Bachchan, Om Puri and Mallaki Sarabi.
Abhishek was honoured at BAFTA and everyone was ecstatic with his Masterclass - followed by a screening of
Guru on Saturday.
On Sunday there was A BAFTA Interview with
Shyam Benegal followed by a screening of
Well Done Abba.
We had the honour to hook up with both Abhi and Jaya Aunty on Friday afternoon and it was brilliant to catch up. Jaya Aunty is one of the most dignified stars we have ever had the privilege of meeting and she made us so relaxed that we felt like part of the family - Jaya just
exudes a quiet dignity but there is a twinkle in her eyes that is infectious. You can hear exactly what happened on next Sunday's show just in time for Mother's Day. Abhishek of course always berates us - we never bring him the chocolates he loves!
We also caught up with
Vidya Balan earlier in the week and congratulated her on her Filmfare Award win, and she revealed that she almost didn't go to the awards ceremony because she was filming in Delhi. It was a last minute rush to the airport, and once she arrived in Mumbai she
changed and zoomed straight to the awards. Vidya's currently busy filming with Rani Mukerjhee on a hard hitting film about Jessica Lal. But we were overjoyed when she told us that
Ishqiya will be out on DVD in couple of weeks. Can't wait!
The one person we kept missing this week is the lovely and extremely talented Shibani Bhatija - we think she is one of the best writers in Bollywood. She was in London for a private visit and we were determined to celebrate the success of MNIK, but kept missing each other. Next time!!
A big Raj & Pablo thumbs to the songs of Vivek Oberoi's forthcoming movie
Prince. We love all the tracks - do check it out and let us know what you think. We were lucky enough to meet one of the actresses from the film on Sunday's show; British actress
Aruna Shields popped into the studio to tell all about what it was like working with Vivek on the film. She was lovely so make sure you check out this weekend's podcast to hear the best bits of our chat with her!
Jaya Aunty told us that her all time favourite actor is the legendary Dilip Kumar and so this week our
Raj&Pablo's Rewind In Time has to be Bimal Roy's
Madhumati starring Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimala and Pran. It won eight Filmfares in 1958 and is a gothic film noir that deals with ghosts and reincarnation. It's a classic and Dilip Kumar is brilliant.
The music is brilliant and includes Lata Mangeshkar's classic ‘Aaja Re Pardesi’. Grab the DVD, curl up on your sofa , with lots of munchies and lose yourself.
Love Us, Love Bollywood
Raj&Pablo xx
Catch us every Saturday and Sunday - the BBC Asian Network - Love
Bollywood 9 -12pm
