Rai before she was pregnant with daughter. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)After baby. (Yogen Shah/India Today Group/Getty Images)Not every woman can be like Victoria Beckham and back down to a size 0 just weeks after giving birth. These days in Hollywood, a lot of pressure is put on its female stars to snap back into shape in an incredibly unreasonable amount of time, especially considering that it takes nine months to gain the weight. The latest example of this is Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai — dubbed The Most Beautiful Woman in the World — who is being slammed by critics in India for not upholding her “duty” of returning to her pre-baby figure nearly six months after she gave birth to daughter Aaradhya.

“Aishwarya is like a goddess,” explains Indian columnist Shobhaa Dé. “She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation on her to look perfect at all times.” But not everyone has been so tactful when discussing the weighty matter. Some detractors have posted videos online depicting photos of Rai, 38, pre and post-baby with elephant sounds playing in the background. “She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty to look good and fit,” one commenter blasted, while another wrote that the L’Oreal model, who was Miss World 1994, “needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size zero weeks after their delivery.”

Regardless of the controversy, Rai still plans to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival this week and proudly show off her curves. Although she hasn’t responded directly to her critics, she did say after the November birth of her first child that she was not concerned with losing the weight and planned to “enjoy motherhood” — as she should be allowed to do without strangers making her feel badly for it.

Howard thin. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)On Mother’s Day. (NATIONAL PHOTO GROUP)

Earlier this week, photos of “Twilight” actress Bryce Dallas Howard caused a similar uproar. On Mother’s Day, the 31-year-old was snapped in her sweats carrying her 4-month-old daughter — as well as much of the baby weight she gained while pregnant. Many websites mercilessly ridiculed the mother, with one even comparing her size to a “village,” a play on the 2004 movie in which she starred. After the birth of her first child, Howard, the daughter of director Ron Howard, was very open about her struggle to lose the 80 pounds she gained with her now-5-year-old son. “Before Theo was born, I had been in good humor about my 80-pound weight gain, but I was now mortified by it,” she wrote in a post for Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP blog. “I felt I was failing at breast-feeding. My house was a mess. I believed I was a terrible dog owner. I was certain I was an awful actress.”

Duff pre-baby. (Lester Cohen/WireImage)Today, after a workout. (Splash News)

New mommy Hilary Duff faced similar scrutiny less than a month after she delivered son Luca on March 20. Although she almost immediately returned to the gym and her favorite Pilates and yoga classes, people still found something to criticize. “I like working out since it makes me feel more clear-headed and positive,” she told Parade last month. “[But] then I read comments on my Twitter page about how I’m waddling into Pilates and I go, ‘Wow, that’s a really mean thing to say. I just had a baby three weeks ago!’” Duff, 24, adds that it helps she has no projects in the works “that I have to bust my butt to get into shape for, so it’s more about how I feel … There is a little bit of pressure, but most of it comes from me.”

Do you think there is an unfair pressure put on women to lose baby weight quickly?

Article source: http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/goddess/bollywood-star-aishwarya-rai-blasted-not-losing-baby-215834295.html

By Clare Kane

LONDON |
Thu May 17, 2012 9:44am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – A Chinese junk, Venetian gondolas and a boat rowed by Olympic champions will be part of the 1,000-vessel flotilla on London’s River Thames as part of a pageant to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee next month, organisers said on Thursday.

The queen, who is celebrating 60 years on the throne this year, will also be accompanied by a host of musicians playing everything from Bollywood songs to James Bond theme tunes when up to a million spectators gather along the Thames on June 3.

“This will be a historic event in the life of London and indeed the nation, really without parallel in scale and vision,” Michael Lockett, chief executive of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation said at briefing in central London.

London mayor Boris Johnson was in Greece to collect the Olympic torch, but sent a video message saying he expected the flotilla to be “like Dunkirk except more successful”, a reference to the evacuation of British troops from France during World War Two.

Olympic and Paralympic champions including five-time rowing gold medal winner Steve Redgrave will lead the flotilla in a vessel also manned by soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first Chinese junk to visit London since the Great Exhibition in 1851 will join the flotilla, as well as several gondolas, passenger ships, kayaks and lifeboats.

The flotilla will be over seven miles long and travel 25 miles of the Thames, passing every bridge in central London, some of which will be open to spectators.

The cost of the pageant will be about 10.5 million pounds and organisers are “virtually there” in reaching their target through private funding, said Lord Salisbury, former conservative politician and chairman of the Foundation.

The pageant’s music will start with a peal of bells, followed by performances from a number of groups, including an ensemble that will play Bollywood tunes and Scottish songs on bagpipes.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra will tailor their repertoire depending on their location, playing the James Bond theme tune as they pass the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency.

Last month a protester disrupted the globally televised annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race on the Thames. But organisers said they were confident of the flotilla security arrangements, with all 20,000 participants being vetted.

“The Metropolitan Police will be there to create the right atmosphere, policing in an unobtrusive but alert style,” said Stephen Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of London’s police force.

More than 5,000 police officers and 7,000 of the Foundation’s stewards will keep an eye out for any protests in the style of elitism protester Trenton Oldfield, who swam into the middle of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race course, forcing the crews to halt and then restart the race.

David Phillips, the chief harbourmaster of the Port of London Authority, said there would also be a safety lane along the length of the flotilla to ensure quick action in case of an accident.

“The object is this – it is to thank the Queen for 60 years hard labour,” said Lord Salisbury. “She makes it look easy, and as anybody who has tried to do anything professional knows, that is an indication of being very good through much hard work.”

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/uk-britain-jubilee-flotilla-idUSLNE84G03220120517

May 17–NEW DELHI — Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan faces a lifetime ban from Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium after getting involved in a brawl, officials said Thursday.

Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) treasurer Ravi Sawant said the actor misbehaved and manhandled security guards and cricket officials after an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Wednesday night, and a police complaint was filed against him.

Police officer Iqbal Shaikh told reporters, “Shah Rukh Khan was drunk … He was also abusing and threatening officials when I intervened and separated him from the crowd.”

Khan has denied the allegations, and said he had gone to the stadium to pick up his children but found that stadium officials were “manhandling” them.

“They should apologize to me,” he said. “I was being bullied. I was angry, but I was not drunk.”

Khan, the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders team that won the fixture, wanted to celebrate after the prize presentation ceremony but was not allowed to do so, the IANS news agency reported.

He allegedly pushed an elderly guard. When MCA officials intervened, he allegedly abused them.

MCA president Vilasrao Deshmukh said, “There is a proposal before MCA to ban the actor from entering the stadium. We will go by whatever the majority decision is.”

IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said: “I will take the version of the MCA, Shah Rukh Khan and the police before a decision is taken on the ban.

This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © dpa 2012

Article source: http://india.nydailynews.com/article/aa7896ddeb35ff55ed5c81aad1af0984/bollywood-star-shah-rukh-khan-faces-mumbai-stadium-ban-after-brawl

Aishwarya Rai is no stranger to Cannes. The Bollywood actor and former Miss World has attended the film festival 10 times, but her appearance on the red carpet next week is set to be her most talked about. The cause of a controversy raging in India lies not with her latest film – Rai is there to promote a  cosmetic brand rather than a new movie – but instead, bewilderingly, with recent photographs which suggest that, six months after giving birth to a baby girl, Rai has yet to regain her pre-pregnancy figure.

Many in India are asking whether the woman routinely referred to as the most beautiful in the world, and who occupies a place in Indian popular culture akin to Kate Middleton or Victoria Beckham, has an obligation to her fans to lose weight.

Born on 1 November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka, in the south of India, Rai was the second child of a merchant navy officer. Her modeling career began while she was still at school; at 18 she won the Ford supermodel contest, which led to her being cast in a television advertisement for Pepsi. In the 1993 commercial – which also featured future Bollywood heart throb Aamir Khan – Rai appeared for only three seconds but her pouting cameo brought her national fame. The following year she won Miss World. “That contest is seen as a bit of a joke in the west but Rai winning really mattered to India,” said Rachel Dwyer, professor of Indian cinema at the University of London.

Rai then made the predictable move into acting, but with a surprising debut: Iruvar was a Tamil political thriller rather than a Bollywood blockbuster. She went on to star in more mainstream films such as Jeans, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and, most notably, Devdas, which brought her global attention. Unlike heroines from the 70s and 80s who were often healthily curvy, Rai’s popularity rested on a body that was supermodel lean.

“Most of the films she has appeared in – with a few exceptions – have been critically trashed,” said film critic Mayank Shekhar. “Her prime talent – if not her only one – is that the west perceives hers to be the most beautiful face to have come out of India.”

“She is an icon because of her extreme beauty,” said novelist Kishwar Desai, “and also because she has broken through to the international market and that means a lot to Indians.”

Julia Roberts, in a quote endlessly recycled but never substantiated, is reported to have described Rai as the most beautiful woman in the world and it was the interest from the United States – where Rai was invited to appear on both The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Late Show with David Letterman – and from Britain – where she starred in Bride and Prejudice – that made her Bollywood’s biggest star. In 2003 she was invited to join the Cannes jury alongside Steven Soderbergh and Meg Ryan. The decision, critics suggested, was motivated more by marketing than qualification – a suspicion not entirely laid to rest by Rai’s comment on arriving at Cannes: “I am here to learn.”

Shekhar said: “One has to make a distinction between her career as a public performer and as a film actress. Her career as a public performer is more successful than her film work.”

This public role included not only acting but also brand endorsements, charitable work and a high-profile marriage. Rai is said to earn more than $16m annually for endorsing such brands as Longines, Lux and L’Oréal – for whom she is appearing in Cannes. Alongside the commercial endorsements, she also lends her fame to social causes. She has committed to donating her green eyes to blindness charity Eye-Bank after her death. Last month it was announced that a school named after her is being built for girls in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh.

She also stays in the headlines because of her eventful love life. Before her marriage she was in a relationship with actor Salman Khan, which ended acrimoniously with Rai releasing a press statement saying: “I have endured his alcoholism and misbehavior, and I have been at the receiving end of his abuses – verbal, physical and emotional, infidelity and indignity.” Khan denied the allegations.

In 2007 she married another actor, Abhishek Bachchan, the son of Amitabh Bachchan, India’s most loved film star. Human rights groups criticized Rai for promoting a Hindu tradition associated with the caste system by ‘marrying’ a tree ahead of the wedding – apparently to overcome astrological differences with her fiance. On the wedding day 300 policemen were stationed around their Mumbai home and one young woman, who claimed she was Bachchan Jr’s former girlfriend, slit her wrists on the street outside and required 40 stitches. The wedding sealed Rai’s admission into the Bachchan dynasty. “She had it all,” said Desai. “Picture-perfect looks, winning Miss World and then marrying the most eligible bachelor in India by marrying into one of this country’s most respected families: it is a fairytale life.”

The criticism of Rai’s post-pregnancy figure has been fierce . “Aishwarya is like a goddess,” said Showbusiness columnist Shobhaa Dé. “She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation on her to look perfect at all times.”

The image that sparked the storm in India showed Rai in the back of a car on her way to a party being thrown for the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, where Ban is believed to have asked her to be the global face of the UN’s girl child campaign. The Indian media, though, was less interested in the job offer than the fact that Rai looked like a 38-year-old woman who had recently given birth.

One website posted a video, complete with elephant sound effects, entitled “Aishwarya Rai’s shocking weight gain”, which has been seen more than 500,000 times. “She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty to look good and fit,” suggested one commenter. Another added: “She needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size zero weeks after their delivery.”

The criticism has started a debate about Bollywood’s attitude towards women and motherhood. “There is a glorification of motherhood in India and Indian cinema,” said cinema professor Shohini Ghosh. “But people are confused because they don’t know whether to glorify Aishwarya in her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway model.”

India has long grappled with the question of what beauty means, but in an age of global media Indians are familiar with western celebrities and how quickly some of them appear to regain their pre-baby bodies. “The role models being held up are Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham,” said Dé. “But our body frames are different – we have wider hips and curves – so this whole business of looking desperately skinny two weeks after giving birth is a western import.”

The career trajectory of female Bollywood actors has been downwards after they married and had children. From 50s star Nargis to Rai’s mother-in-law Jaya Bhaduri, who largely retired after marrying Amitabh Bachchan, the assumption was that Indian audiences were not willing to accept as a screen heroine a woman known to be married and a mother. But there are signs of progress: this month two other women – Madhuri Dixit Nene and Karisma Kapoor – are making film comebacks after having children.

Rai’s appearance at Cannes could be an important cultural moment. “It could be a turning point in making us stop and review the absurd expectations we have of our female celebrities,” said Dé.

“The timing is right for us to start learning to accept women with a few more curves and appreciate that gorgeous women do age,” said Desai. “But the question is would Aishwarya want to age gracefully in front of us and will we let her?”

Born: 1 November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka

Career to date: model, Bollywood actor, humanitarian

High point: winning Miss World 1994, winning FilmFare best actress award twice, besting David Letterman on his US TV chat show

Low point: after ending her relationship with fellow actor Salman Khan she told the Bombay Times: “There were times when Salman got physical with me, luckily without leaving marks. And I would go to work as if nothing had happened.”

What she says: “I always knew I would be successful. So there was no element of surprise.”

What they say, allegedly: “The most beautiful woman in the world” (Julia Roberts)

<!– Guardian Watermark: world/2012/may/15/aishwarya-rai-body-india-women

2012-05-16T00:02:02Z

d08524a9f70311cc1af5309b2e3d6704f4dc3e3f –>

This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © The Guardian 2012

Article source: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/4fb3df17b7445c3d4e000001/aishwarya-rai-s-post-baby-body-forces-india-to-confront-its-attitude-to-women

New Delhi, May 17 — For all those who say Bollywood is scared of big ticket releases during the Indian Premier League (IPL), it’s time for a rethink. Undeterred by the enthusiasm for the cricket extravaganza this season, Bollywood released big-budget projects like “Housefull 2″ and “Ishaqzaade”.

It also bowled its promotional plans to mid-wicket by bringing its stars to “Extraaa Innings”, the cricket-based TV show telecast on the sidelines of the IPL matches. A bevy of stars, including Emraan Hashmi, Karisma Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Sharman Joshi and Sanjay Dutt, recently made an appearance on the show to talk about their projects.

Hosted by Samir Kochhar, Gaurav Kapoor, Shibani Dandekar and Archana Vijaya, “Extraaa Innings” occasionally features B-town celebrities sharing tidbits about their forthcoming films.

Cinema and cricket have always had a symbiotic equation. And the IPL tournament has only taken it further with the association of Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta with the teams. Plus there is the glamour quotient with biggies such as Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra performing at the grand opening ceremony of the fifth season.

As trade analyst Taran Adarsh puts it: “IPL is no opposition to films.”

“IPL or no IPL, a good film will always work at the box office. Films like ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Ishaqzaade’, ‘Housefull 2′ and ‘Jannat 2′ have proved that with their success. Besides that, perhaps IPL is a good platform for film promotion. But, in the end, its fate boils down to its content.”

“Bollywood and cricket are twin passions in India. They are ultimate forms of entertainment. When the IPL was launched five years ago, it united the two worlds in a big way and it is indeed a lovely mix,” Gaurav Seth, senior vice president (marketing), Set Max, told IANS.

In his view, IPL does not just draw traditional cricket viewers.

“It gets as much viewership from non-traditional viewers like women, children and older males, which also make a great market for Hindi films. So promoting films on such a platform is a great way to reach out to all sorts of audiences,” added Seth.

Emraan came on the show to promote “Jannat 2″, which has turned out to be a hit, while Karisma spoke about her comeback film “Dangerous Ishq”, which hasn’t received a favourable response at the box office.

Arjun came with his co-star Parineeti to create a buzz for his debut film “Ishaqzaade”, Sharman even danced to promote his “Ferrari Ki Sawaari” and Sanjay spoke of “Department”.

“IPL is the greatest marriage between cricket and Bollywood. You not just get to see the emotional side of stars like SRK and Preity Zinta when their team wins or loses, as well as their passion for the game; a whole lot of actors get to promote their films thanks to the game’s high viewership,” host Vijaya told IANS.

“And it’s not just their films that we focus on while talking to them on ‘Extraaa Innings’, it’s also about what they think of cricket, and the IPL too. So it’s not totally distractive for viewers,” she added.

Before the IPL series ends May 27, Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra will be seen promoting their “Teri Meri Kahaani” on the show. Subsequently, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan might take the IPL route to spread a word about “Rowdy Rathore”, “Ek Tha Tiger” and “Bol Bachchan”, respectively.

Earlier, the Hindi film industry refrained from scheduling its big-ticket releases during IPL as many feared the cricket fiesta would keep the audience away from cinema halls. But the fear has clearly waned.

“IPL takes place seven weeks in a year. As Bollywood has started producing a larger number of films a year, the industry has realised it can’t compromise on these seven weeks, and keep its crucial releases away. They have to take a conscious call and take the risk. There’s not much room in the calendar to say that IPL is not a conducive period to release films,” explained Seth.

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in)

IANS

This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © IANS / Daily News 2012

Article source: http://india.nydailynews.com/sportsarticle/4097dc3e1ea4281f0bb2be14caeb7a18/bollywood-and-ipl-industry-rides-on-india-s-twin-passions

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