Hot 'n' Spicy Page

Kareena Kapoor says there is nothing "vulgar" about her backless shot being used for the publicity posters of forthcoming release "Kurbaan", Kareena and Saif Ali Khan in Kurbaan intense thriller about terrorism. In fact, she says, it subtly reveals a lot about the story.

"This shot of me in a backless posture and Saif with a wound on his chest tell so much about the film's theme," Kareena told IANS. "There is love, passion and violence - all combined in here and what better way than to show it through a single still? You too would agree that there is nothing sleazy or vulgar about it. Knowing the sensibilities of Karan Johar (producer) and Rensil D'Silva (director), that's the least one could have expected," she added.

Kareena said that after Geet in "Jab We Met", her character of Avantika in "Kurbaan" will make people sit up and take notice. "The girl's role has a lot of edge in 'Kurbaan', something which starts becoming more and more visible as the film unfolds. In any case the film is not one of those cliched love stories. Every character has quite a few layers to it and Avantika, the character I play, is no exception. She is quite pivotal to 'Kurbaan'," she said.

Kareena plays a professor in "Kurbaan" who gets married to her colleague, played by Saif Ali Khan. They move to New York after marriage, but as a series of events unfold she finds herself into a vortex of danger and intrigue. She further realizes that she is a pawn in a huge game and no one could be trusted. "What made this role special is the fact that I play this young beautiful professor who is quite normal. She reacts to terrorism for the first time and life is never the same again for her," she said.

"Actually if you ask me, then technically 'Kurbaan' is the story of this girl. She is the light of the screen. I am sure people will cry with Avantika...so strong is her characterization," the actress said. After "Jab We Met", Kareena was seen in "Main Aurr Mrs Khanna", "Kambakkth Ishq", "Tashan" and "Golmaal Returns". And except "Golmaal Returns", none of the films did well at the box office.

Kareena is delighted about the prospects of audiences seeing her in a different light after the film and says it is not a frothy romance drama. "'Kurbaan' has a deep-rooted love story to it, but it is not a frothy romantic film that we are time and again exposed to. The love story is much deeper here. There is a definite meaning, purpose and reason to it. Also, the film is quite powerful in its own way since it's the voice of moderate Islam," she said. The film, which also stars Vivek Oberoi, Om Puri, Kirron Kher and Dia Mirza, is releasing Nov 20.

`Baywatch` Hot Beauty Pamela Anderson has revealed that it was her decision to tile her swimming pool with platinum that led her to Bankruptcy.

The 42-year-old blonde bombshell has spoken for the first time about the huge debts she has been left with after splurging on a dream home, reported Daily Mail online.

The former Playboy model has been forced to move into a trailer park and she now fears that will have to sell the semi-constructed beach house.

"I am USD 3million over budget and I should have moved in over a year ago. I`m tiling the whole pool in platinum, that`s expensive!," she said.

The star revealed that she sobs whenever she visits the house, because she put her heart into it`s construction.

"I`m going to sell it. I hate it. People commit suicide over constructions. Relationships break down over constructions and I can see why. It rips your heart out," said Anderson who shares her trailer with her electrician boyfriend Jamie Padgett, 42, and her two sons Brandon, 13, and Dylan, 11.

She reportedly has just USD 4,000 in the bank and needs to spend at least USD 800,000 more to make the house habitable.

From clothes to cricket bats - Indians are fast opening up to the idea of bidding for celebrity memorabilia online. "People have started buying such merchandise nowadays. And there are various reasons to it - some buy them for the resale value of an item, some go for it because they are a fan of the celebrity or some just want to give for charity," Deepa Thomas, senior manager (Pop Culture) at eBay, told IANS.

Thomas says the craze among people for celebrity memorabilia started around 2005. A Salman Khan fan paid as much as Rs.100,000 for his used towel.

Thomas says her company decided to cash in on the demand in 2005 only and the trend is now scaling high.

"The money people are ready to shell out for such memorabilia's depends on how rare the item is and also on the brand power of the celebrity. Between 2005 -2008, ebay has earned Rs.1.8 crore through sale of personalised celebrity auctions and we gave the money for charity," added Thomas.

Kolkata-based Riddhi Nair decided to bid for Olympic gold-medalist Vijender Singh's boxing gloves auctioned on choreographer-director Farah Khan's chat show "Tere Mere Beach Mein" because she was moved by the way his mother brought him up.

She spent Rs.17,800 for the item and says she will treasure it like "heirloom" forever.

"I happened to see the repeat telecast of 'Tere Mere Beach Mein' where Vijender's mother spoke about how she never bought a new sari for herself for a long time so that she doesn't have to compromise on her son's training. It left me very emotional.

"I was touched to see his rising - from a remote village to being a world champion. It's very thought provoking. It is the perfect example for my daughter that she must always do something big in life," said Nair, a 33-year-old housewife.

Another motivation for Nair to bid was that the money will be transferred to Mumbai-based NGO Sneha, which works towards quality nutrition, education and health care of women and children.

Nitin Jain, a 39-year-old investor, bid for Priyanka Chopra's autographed Gavin Maguel designer dress auctioned on Farah's show. He paid Rs.50,000 for the outfit.

Jain says he often bids for items if the proceeds go for charity, but also had a special eye on Priyanka's dress as his 15-year-old daughter is a huge fan of the actress.

"Recently, there were several items that were auctioned on 'Tere Mere Beach Mein' - the chat show on STAR Plus. We had bid for many of them and were, in fact, the second highest bidders for Bipasha Basu's shoes. But my daughter is a Priyanka Chopra fan - so she also wanted it," said Jain, who is based in New Delhi.

Other items sold through the show include Shahid Kapoor's cap for Rs.28,500, Kareena Kapoor's blue dress for Rs.22,300, Yusuf Khan's cricket bat for Rs.60,750, et al.

Selling celebrity memorabilia also makes business sense for celebrities themselves at times, says small screen actor Sachin Sharma, who launched a web portal called sbuy two months ago. TV and movie stars can auction their items through the site.

"There are many celebrities in India who don't get their due. And when they land in tough times and need money, they can turn to such auctions. I had a friend from the industry who wanted to sell his car but wasn't getting the right price from the dealer. But he struck a much better deal with a fan," said Sharma, who was seen in "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii".

Sharma's website has already had 300,000 hits in two months; he claims it is evidence to the demand of such items nowadays.

Rajesh Khanna is destined to be part of Bigg Boss 3. The veteran actor, who will now be introduced as a wildcard entry in the show within the next Rajesh Khanna two weeks, was a strong contender when the channel was finalising the contestants a few days before the show was about to be aired. However, he wasn’t finalised because of dillydallying at that point of time.

“The main problem with Mr Khanna was he wanted permission to be allowed to drink within the house. We couldn’t allow him that,” says a source from the channel.

Things have changed now. With Kamaal R Khan’s inglorious booting-out on Wednesday, the channel is once again negotiating with Rajesh Khanna. This time Rajesh Khanna says he’s willing to give up on his hard drinks till he is inside the house because, apparently, he finds the friction, tension and drama on the show far more intoxicating than the drinks.

A highly-placed source from the channel confirms and says, “We’ve opened up negotiations with Mr Khanna and he has agreed to be on the show. We will be introducing him in the show as a wildcard entry in the next two weeks.”

Interestingly, rumours have it that Rajesh Khanna’s superstar son-in-law Akshay Kumar was opposed to the idea of his father-in-law participating in the reality show.

“If this is true then Mr Khanna must be all the more inclined to do so. He doesn’t like to be told what to do,” adds the source.

Incidentally, Rajesh Khanna will be paid the highest amount ever given to a contestant. Given that Khanna was Bollywood’s first superstar, it will be interesting to see him interact with the reality show’s pop philosopher Amitabh Bachchan who had taken over as the superstar after him.