The Year So Far

Time flies, seasons change, months come and go and nothing so eventful happens. I am joking :D

Actually lots of thingies happened from January till now. The year kicked off with the release of HNY's poster. The team presented it in a really special way which allowed fans on twitter to get personalized signed posters. Virtually of course. I myself got like 6 of them. :P

Now with the awards...since we had Chennai Express release last year that created a huge uproar in India and abroad, there was no way we would not have had anything to cheer about this award season. Deepika won the maximum awards for us as she was epically fantastic in the film. Must say, the promotion up in the credits have done wonders for her...thank you Tata Tea! :P Another notable winner this year was RCE's VFX team who picked up numerous honors for their excellent work in Krrish 3. Keep up the great work RCE VFX, give your boss a run at getting awards!

Shah Rukh's monthly astrological articles kept on winning hearts until April. Sadly, we have not had any articles for neither May or June. :( Maybe it is because he has been busy with shooting and of course the tension of IPL...

Yes, throughout the whole year, he shot for HNY continuously AND met with one scary accident as well. A door fell on his shoulder and the man carried his arm in a sling. Due to this injury, he could not attend the Filmfare Award function. He was really missed, I did not even bother watching it. But that didn't deter him from shooting and other activities. Just like it is impossible to move a mountain, it is impossible to stop Shah Rukh from working. Datuk Shah Rukh went to Kuala Lumpur with other performers and gave Malaysia a memorable night, in spite of pain. A true showman he is.

Even the President of Mexico dropped by on the sets of HNY to meet Shah Rukh. Now see how awesome Mexico is doing at the FIFA World Cup? Okay off topic. Coming back to Shah Rukh, the South Korean government appointed him as their goodwill ambassador. Obviously, he is the first Indian to receive such honor from South Korea. More recently, he graced the cover of Forbes Middle East since they featured him as one of the top Indian leaders in the Arab World. From the far east to the middle of the world to north America...SRK proves to be a global King. There has never been a king like him and there shall be no other king like him either.

Now onto Indian Tension League we go...

IPL 2014 had begun with lots of expectations when KKR won their first game against MI in the presence of Shah Rukh. Then a Lynntastic win against RCB kept those expectations doubling and tripling. But defeats against KXIP, DD, CSK and RR (twice) raised a lot of questions and those expectations turned into frustration and anger in no time.

Fans questioned how potent was our captain Gambhir's leadership, who struggled to get runs on the board. He had to be dropped. Plenty of fans had never agreed with the players we picked up from the auction before the tournament commenced. Umesh Yadav is expensive. Robin Uthappa never put up good performances. Piyush Chawla is another expensive bowler. Blah blah blah. Biggest disappointment was Yusuf Pathan. Why on earth we had retained him when he is good for nothing? The whole KKR management should be changed, they are idiots. Tips and jokes spread faster than people could see and feel the despair on the team members' faces after that string of 4 losses.

But things had a historic turnaround. Teams forget how it feels to win again but KKR had forgotten how it feels to lose again when they ended up becoming champions for the second time in 3 seasons with NINE wins in a row. The captain was the same, Gautam Gambhir. Umesh Yadav kept playing. Robin Uthappa was also playing. So did Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Pathan. In fact each of these players, who were frequently under the attack of critics, had a good role in each of the 9 wins. Robin Uthappa went on to win the orange cap because he scored the most runs in the tournament. Piyush Chawla hit the winning runs for us in the final and ended the much hyped Glenn Maxwell's innings before he even begun on two occasions out of the 4 times we played against KXIP. Umesh Yadav helped ease our nerves in the semi-final and in the last game against SRH. Yusuf Pathan? His fiery innings in the same game as Umesh against SRH helped us knock CSK off their second place and take it over like a boss.

Even the useless men became much handier than those men we thought would see us through. Even if anyone wants to hate KKR, they just can't because purple is a pretty color. Okay besides that, it is because people cannot hate on sheer hard work and self belief. KKR happily proved that cricket is a team game and it does not fully thrive on one man's performance.

As far as for me, I did get upset by their times of struggle but not so much that it would have taken on the face of hatred. I have been calm throughout the tournament, much calmer than I have ever been! Distrust was on my lips but my heart bled purple for the team. It is a norm for any SRK fan to support whatever Shah Rukh does...if not what he supports himself (the man supported Ghana over USA...not me :@)

Now we welcome the upcoming few months with hopes of rewriting box office history with HNY. Should start saving money as I would like to break my personal record of watching an SRK film for 4 times in theater :P

Till next time...

Get on the train baby!

Well well well...I never imagined that I would be writing this post when there is less than 70 days left for Mr. Khan's upcoming release. Either I was hibernating or it's been a very eventful year so far. Well who cares anyway, it's party time!!! I'd like to jump start this party with a short recap...yes I have a pretty good memory.

On the day of late Yash Chopra's 81st birthday, the shooting begun. Sarita was kind enough to share the picture of the clapboard

Rohit Shetty begins shooting for Chennai Express with Shah Rukh Khan today twitter.com/SaritaTanwar/s…
— Sarita Tanwar (@SaritaTanwar) September 27, 2012

Then the shooting continued. Shah Rukh tweeted often about it as well. It seemed like he had a lot of fun working on this film. Did you know that Rohit Shetty is the 58th director that is working with Shah Rukh? Yeah he is.

 After a short schedule in Mumbai, the train shifted to Goa, followed by a long schedule in Wai, then Munnar, and Hyderabad. During the shooting, Shah Rukh also injured his right shoulder while doing some high octane action, resulting in surgery that he went through just a few days back. He is still recovering although highly in pain. :(

Of course we had enough pictures from the sets to cherish while they worked hard day and night to complete the film. My personal favorite happens to be this one.

Heroine ko bhagana SRK se seekho! What’s going through the minds of SRK & Deepika in this #ChennaiExpress shot? twitter.com/ChennaiExp2013…
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) May 19, 2013

The shoot fully wrapped up on May 30th, 2013. Wow, impressive huh? From September 27th to May 30th. That's a long time. You can imagine the amount of hard work put in this film!

So when did the official promotional campaign start? On January 2nd (as in 1st for me), we got a few posters of the movie. It was a bloody slow day. At first, my friend shown me the official twitter of the film at about 6 in the morning my time. I was too excited but I didn't follow them because it seemed like a freshly made account, a chuck of gold in a public gold mine. So I eagerly waited and waited until people started following it. But no one knew about it. Oh God I couldn't hold on anymore and I pressed the damn follow button. Then my other friend sent me the Facebook page for them, LIKED THEM LIKE A BOSS!

At 9 in the morning, the genie came out from the lamp! OMG! I mean a tweet from the account

King of Romance @iamsrk meets the Maharaja of Action Comedy @rohitshettyfilm. #ChennaiExpress 1st look set to be unveiled at Midnight (IST)!
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) January 1, 2013

Now the fun began on twitter, the news spread like wildfire that first look of CE is gonna be released!!  The waiting game had officially started. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tring! It is midnight! The poster is coming just about now....now...now...now...oh wait -_-

Now that you have boarded the Chennai express, it is running 2 hours late...will arrive on the platform at sharp 2 AM (IST)!
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) January 1, 2013

Hahahahahaha. We forgot this is not Subway or Bullet train we are talking about, this is Chennai Express! Train is bound to be late. How can we forget the stereotype about Indian trains being late? Ehm...anyway. After dozing off here and there and plenty of curses later, the first poster was out!

And……finally! Here comes the Chennai Express. Make sure you’re #ReadySteadyPo! twitter.com/ChennaiExp2013…
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) January 1, 2013

 O_o looks fun! That was my first reaction seeing the confused-shocked-cute-hot expression of Mr. Khan who seems to have found the South Indian pit of hell. But this was not it. We met Yo! already but where is Aiiyo? O_O

#Yo meets #Aiiyo. #ChennaiExpress @iamsrk @deepikapadukone @rohitshettyfilm twitter.com/ChennaiExp2013…
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) January 1, 2013

 Ah there she is.  This poster seems to have a lot of symbols of this film. It looks like mad fun. I am starting to like it now. I love these kinds of film and I can feel there is a sweet innocence in it too. Hold on buddy, there is M.O.R.E.

Who’ll dare to stop this Express? @iamsrk and @deepikapadukone in @rohitshettyfilm’s Chennai Express! twitter.com/ChennaiExp2013…
— Chennai Express (@ChennaiExp2013) January 2, 2013

 The damsel and hunk in lungi. Wow, from somewhere I could feel a cool breeze flowing in the lower part of my body. Besides the lungi, they both look like gangsters. You know as a child, I loved wearing a lungi although I am a girl then pose like a dirty villain, not knowing how DIRTY my expressions were. Growing up kills innocence. So where were we? Oh yeah the last poster of the day! Not much different than the first one, except this is more kid friendly, meaning they are not holding guns.

After that day, a long holiday for us fans started. Until March when we got to know about the touching gesture from Shah Rukh. If you read the beginning credits when you watch movies, most of the time, the male actor's name is put first then the female and the rest of the cast. So Shah Rukh has decided to put Deepika's name first then his in the beginning credits. Deepika herself is quite excited about this. While it is not a huge change but it is nevertheless special. I felt proud of Shah Rukh and extremely happy for Deepika.

In between all this, we obviously had plenty of rumors. Especially rumors about the trailer. The trailer was attached with Kai Po Che, Himmatwala, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and maybe more films I am forgetting. The rumors of the trailer were so strong that media decided to write articles based on a few tweets of dumb fans that the "Extraa Innings" show where Shah Rukh made an appearance for the promotion of the film was a flop. Whereas it was quite a good hit. People were in splits over Shah Rukh's numerous jokes on Siddhu Paaji and Shah Rukh's camaraderie with Srikkanth Sir. The show was on May 26th, during the IPL final. On the same platform, Shah Rukh confirmed the release date for the film. It will be releasing on Eid of this year, meaning August 8th. Well for once, the "sources" were right.

This show also had promos. In the promos, we heard a bit of the title track as well. The title track being sung by the legendary, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who has sung his first Hindi song in 15 years, has caught on with many of us. I loved it. I cannot wait for the full song to come out. The music for the film has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar. God, I love those two so much!!

Oh yeah, although I said so much, I forgot to mention what CE is about. Chennai Express is about a man's journey from Mumbai to Rameswaram and what takes place throughout the journey. Quite interesting right? But don't expect it to be a documentary obviously. This is a romantic comedy. Have heard from Deepika that she is romancing Shah Rukh a lot in the film. Now that makes me far more excited. I was upset while watching Om Shanti Om, SRK-DP's last film together, as they didn't have too many romantic scenes. I'm nuts for romance. 

Hope you enjoyed this short rewind of some of the major events surrounding CE. Less than 70 days to go and we all board the Chennai Express at our nearest theater! :D

Before I sign off of here, just a small request. I enjoy waiting for things when I know the real date and I love waiting with my friends as well. But I do not like waiting based on rumors. In recent weeks, I have noticed numbers of rumors spreading online that have come from, as alleged, RCE employees. Please rather than speaking about your information from RCE in public, keep it private because we'd all like to avoid disappointment. Hardly many can keep the disappointments to themselves, so when you write about you being disappointed, haters read it and curse the film and its actors. Let us peacefully and lovingly wait for August 8 because Rohit, Shah Rukh, Deepika, the whole team have made a sweet film for us, we should respect it. Please. Thank you.

Are my readers alive?

Whoa! It's been a month since my last post, I hope my readers are still alive. I'm sorry but I definitely did not disappear, I got lazy. Anyway, I really don't have any organized topic of SRK to talk about. Read the shit I feed you now and be satisfied my...dear...beautiful readers.

He's been hosting award functions and performing as well. Only award function that did not get Shahrukhified, the reputable (definitely pun intended) Stardust Awards 2012. Anyway, this award season is on a spring break till IIFA in summer I think (as usual no?). This year, I didn't really pay attention to awards in general, just knowing SRK is either hosting or performing was enough to gain my attention.

I have been pretty busy building my SRK photo albums to be honest. Doing it for months but I still can't get enough of the man. After going through nearly 5,000+ photos, I have miserably failed to come up with top 10 favorites. All I can say is that, if Shah Rukh's Grandma had said, each time camera flashes on our face, 5 mins of our lives are gone then I must say, I don't know if it's true as it's said to be but one thing is sure, the fruit of every time a camera flashes on Shah Rukh is a treat for his fans.

In the past few weeks, a lot of things happened. Ra.One released in Taiwan, MNIK in Hong Kong and Don 2 releasing in Germany next week. A thought had struck my mind and about which I tweeted as well. I believe apart from all other actors in Bollywood, only Shah Rukh's movies are worth going for a second phase of release worldwide. In spite of piracy being so viral all around the world, distributors of Shah Rukh's movies believe that it will make money for sure, no matter when it releases. I do have to admit, the cocoon experience of SRK is highly special and best. Distributors are the actual people who know the value of SRK more than any of us do. No matter what trade analysts a.k.a. chameleons say, but SRK is the man of Bollywood.

Then this past Friday, the iconic movie, DDLJ, completed its 850 weeks run in theater. This is one movie which is not valuable by only money but by emotions as well. I have my own share of DDLJ memories but I might as well skip it for now. Also, MNIK's 2nd year anniversary on 12th Feb. In my opinion, MNIK is beyond criticism or just plain words because it is a global masterpiece made in India.

We also had the IPL auction. Our team bought 3 players. I never actually judge the players because I have had 4 seasons of experience, even the biggest names have disappointed me and earned my beautiful words. So whenever it comes to KKR, my motto is waiting and trying to watch. Sometimes even the words of abuses fall short to describe KKR's performance. Like always, I hope I have to use less abuses. KKR, earn my trust, you have my love and support already but try and earn my trust.

Oh yeah! The epic slapgate! How can I forget that? Well I actually did. Conclusion? I still hate Farah and Shirish Khan.

Well that's all from me ON THIS BLOG. My rambling shall continue till my or twitter's last breath!

Hum hain rahi Shah Rukh ke, phir milenge, agle maheene....!

An action packed end of 2011

This photo is dedicated to SRK haters, whose condition will become something like this due to jealousy...

So guys, the news is Shah Rukh has been made the ambassador of Champions League T20! If you don't know yet, our team (yes, I call it ours, because Shah Rukh is ours too!) has to play two qualifying matches against New Zealand's team Auckland and the runners-up of Friends Life T20 County Cricket of England (their tournament is still going on). Here's hoping and praying that KKR successfully defeats the two teams! The two games are on Sept. 19th and 21st.

Will later post my thoughts on the players in our squad.

But before that, we'll be in Ra.One mania with a short and sweet Chammak Challo promo releasing in 6 days from now and the whole music launch on Sept. 12th which will be aired on Sunday, Sept. 18th on Star Plus!

So from 28th of August onwards, Shah Rukh will be soon all over the place! He's also planned a 36 city tour till the release of Ra.One but to be honest, the man's knees have been troubling him and I so don't want him to travel so much!

Then on Oct. 25th, the premiere of Ra.One in London. What a day it will be because it also happens to Shah Rukh's and Gauri's wedding anniversary! By now, we'll have plenty of critic reviews to kill us. :)

Oct. 26th, D-Day! Ra.One releases world wide in 3,000 screens! Here's hoping my local Palladio is one of them if Eros will be nice enough. By then, hopefully I'll have my driver's license and have already made up my mind which version I'll watch first, 3-D or 2-D??

Nov. 2nd, Shah Rukh's birthday. The way he looks now, I must say age should be count backwards! He's becoming younger and younger!

In between this time, we'll have Don 2 promotion in full swing although dual promotions are expected, meaning Don 2 and Ra.One to be promoted together from September.

Dec. 23rd, Don will be back in full action and this time we'll be a part of the chase with Roma! Because Don 2 will be in 3-D as well...again I must make up my mind on which version to watch first!

So that's the schedule for 2011. Mine will be far more action packed, a quite busy one as I have classes and also will try 100% to fulfill my dream of driving to the theater to watch Ra.One and Don 2!

To-da-loo!