While his father, megastar Amitabh Bachchan is Gujarat's brand ambassador, actor Abhishek Bachchan could soon be seen promoting Madhya Pradesh, officials said Thursday. A.K. Bhattacharya, CEO of Eco Tourism Board, said: "Yes, we have sent a proposal to him, and waiting for his response."

The junior Bachchan has a maternal link to Bhopal as Jaya Bachchan's parents live in the City of Lakes. Jaya's father, Tarun Bhaduri, was a journalist in Madhya Pradesh. Sources said the proposal sent to Abhishek by Madhya Pradesh government was through Jaya.

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Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who turned 70 on Tuesday, has an ardent fan in actor Abhishek Bachchan who calls him a true inspiration. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!! #happybirthdayAli. Muhammad Ali. The greatest! My father introduced me to this giant in sports when I was a child. A true inspiration," Abhishek tweeted.

Apparently, Bachchan is in awe of the legend, not just because he was a great boxer and sportsman, but because he taught the world how to believe in what you stand for. "Had the courage to give up everything to do what he thought was right. And most importantly ... taught me that you're never too late or too old to make a comeback!!".

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On the ninth death anniversary of legandary poet Dr.Harivansh Rai Bachchan, his son, Amitabh Bachahan Share share his thoughts on Twitter . The actor who owes all his succes to his father tweets, "Harivansh Rai Bachchan, my Father ... his death anniversary today 18th Jan".

Emotional Amitabh Bachchan further tweets, "I stand silently at the entrance to his room in Prateeksha and look at the space he breathed his last .. !!". Megastar remembers the time he had spent with his father, "I spent more than 60 years of my life with him, a friend consoles me as I lament his loss, many do not get so much time with loved ones." Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a noted Hindi poet of early 20th and is best known for his early work Madhushala. But in 2003, he died of respiratory problems at the ripe age of 96.

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Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey is on her maiden visit to India. And guess who is taking her around - Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and hubby Abhishek Bachchan.  Oprah Winfrey chose to go truly Indian as she draped an orange and golden sari as she went to meet Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai and her 2-month-old baby on Monday night in Mumbai.

She was greeted by top-notch Indian socialites and Bollywood glitterati including megastar Amitabh Bachchan, superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and her ever favourite Aishwarya Rai at a private party thrown by page 3 socialite Parmeshwar Godrej.
 
But before all of that Oprah made it a point to stop and visit the main star- Aishwarya's baby. \
Oprah went to visit the Bachchan residence Jalsa to meet Abhishek and Aishwarya's two month-old daughter, nicknamed 'Beti B'. The meeting was at the top of her priority list upon her arrival in Mumbai. She was at their residence for more than an hour.
 
Amitabh Bachchan then took over the role of a chauffeur and along with Abhishek, Aishwarya and wife Jaya drove Oprah to a party.  Overwhelmend by Oprah's gesture Amitabh Bachchan tweeted: "The gracious Oprah Winfrey visits our home, to meet us and bless the baby..warm hearted, endearing .. drive her to party in her honor"
 
He also seemed thrilled to see the lady in saree "And Oprah in sari .. looking lovely !!"
The family accompanied Oprah to a private party hosted at the socialite's residence in Mumbai according to Daily Bhaskar.

The party saw an impressive footfall from Bollywood, filmmakers Ashutosh Gowariker and Rajkumar Hirani, as well as actors Anupam Kher, his son Sikander Kher, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Shilpa Shetty with hubby Raj Kundra, Abhay Deol with actress-girlfriend Preeti Desai, Lara Dutta, Dino Morea, Sameera Reddy, Kalki Koechlin, Kangna Ranaut, Anil Kapoor and Imran Khan were in attendance for the high profile party.

Celebrities took to Twitter to share their excitement upon meeting the 57-year-old iconic lady. Sameera Reddy tweeted: "My god! Oprah Winfrey is the warmest most down to earth person I haveever met! What a personality! I'm thrilled."Heavily pregnant actress Lara Dutta was equally upbeat about being in the company of Winfrey, as well as her "Don 2: The King Is Back" co-star Shah Rukh.

"@Oprah and @iamsrk, two people I absolutely adore! Thank you for making my day! Now can go into labour happily!" posted Lara.  Oprah is in India primarily to shoot for her new show 'Next Chapter'.
 
Oprah's 'Next Chapter' is the next edition of her famous talk show in which she will travel around the world interviewing celebrities, newsmakers and others.  She will be travelling to India to shoot with spiritual guru Deepak Chopra for 'Next Chapter'. She will also participate in the Jaipur Literary Festival to be held from January 20 to 22.

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The Italian Job is a cult Hollywood movie that’s been made twice, originally in 1969 and then in 2003. Now, Bollywood has made its version based on the 2003 Hollywood film, called ‘Players’ with the leading role of Charlie Mascarenhas played by Abhishek Bachchan.

Alongside, Abhishek, the film stars Bipasha Basu, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Sikander Kher. The directors Abbas-Mustan and producers acquired rights of the Italian Job to make Players.

Players tells the story of how two thieves, Charlie and Riya, played by Bipasha Basu, team up with Ronnie played by Bobby Deol, Spider played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bilal played by Sikander Kher and Sunny played by Omi Vaidya to rob a train in Russia which contains 10,000 crores worth of gold. This is after Charlie and Riya discover a CD-ROM full of the information left by Raj (cameo by Aftab Shivdasani) who was killed by the Russian Mafia.

The operation to rob the train features the skills and tribulations of this enigmatic team throughout the film as the gang rob the gold bullion from Russia successfully. However, it’s revealed that Spider double crossed the players and has fled with the gold, whilst the others celebrated the success of the robbery. At this point, Naina played by Sonam Kapoor, joins the team to find the traitor, retrieve the heist and settle the score.

A new screenplay was produced by Rohit Jugraj and Sudip Sharma for Players to give it some difference from the Italian Job as a whole. Abbas-Mustan known for their thrills, stunts and action, made sure the film had that edge. The film was shot in locations including India’s Goa, Siberia, St Petersburg and New Zealand’s Wellington and Auckland. It was released worldwide on 6th January 2012 by Viacom 18 in association with the Burmawala Partners.

DESIblitz met up with Abhishek Bachchan to find out more about the film and his role as a real daddy after the wonderful news of his and Aishwariya Rai Bachchan’s baby daughter.

Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek’s legendary father, praised the film on his blog saying: “Abhishek has been able to spend an entire day with us after ages — he being flown in every day to different locations for his promotions for ‘Players’ releasing in a few days on the Friday — a fast paced slick film with some rather picturesque and daring stunts in some of the more remote regions of the world — New Zealand to the North Pole via Russia, well almost.”

The film has received mixed critical acclaim. Joginder Tuteja from IndiaGlitz gave it a positive 4 out of 5 stars and said “Fantastic – That’s what you end up exclaiming once the last twist of ‘Players’ takes you by complete surprise. Oh yes, there are around half a dozen or more twists in this film, something which was pretty much expected since the men at the helm of affairs are Abbas-Mustan.” Whereas, Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 stars while commenting “Players is lacklustre and unimaginative.”

Despite the critics, Abhishek totally enjoyed playing the role of Charlie and fans have liked the film. Known for his love of cars he told DESIblitz he would love to own a high performance 69 Shelby car. Being a tall guy he would need lots of leg room for sure because during the making of Players he had problems getting in and out of the Mini cars!

Players is out in cinemas everywhere, so go see the gold rush featuring lots of actions sequences, cars, stunts and the gorgeous Bipasha Basu and Soonam Kapoor giving us their feminine touch to this planned Indian job!

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Deepika Padukone always wanted to work with Priyadarshan but the Desi Boyz actor chose Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om over the Hera Pheri director for her debut movie. That move certainly hurt Priyadrashan and to make up for that Deepika went on to do an item number in Priyan’s film Billu. According to the latest goss, Priyadarshan and Deepika have put their differences aside to work in a comedy flick.

Deepika will be paired opposite Abhishek Bachchan in this film. The two were last seen in Ashutosh Gowariker’s period drama Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey which fizzled at the box office. Dips has worked in comic capers like Housefull and Desi Boyz before. And going by his ability to mouth funny one liners in Bunty Aur Bubbly and Dostana Abhishek is the ideal choice for Priyan’s next film opposite the leggy lass. Well, we sincerely hope this film works for all three of them.

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After a successful 2011, Vidya Balan is set to start the New Year with another woman-centric film " Kahaani" and has found support from none other than Amitabh Bachchan who is promoting her film on social networking sites.

The megastar has sung Rabindranath Tagore's iconic song "Ekla cholo re" for the film and is talking about it on his blog and Twitter page. "My friend Sujoy Ghosh of 'Aladin' fame... puts out his trailer for his next with Vidya... 'Kahaani'... interesting watch," he tweeted.

On his blog, Big B wrote: "May I just say that singing Rabindra Sangeet for the first time was the greatest revelation. The beauty of the language, the lyricism of the tune and its 'dhun' (music) are outstanding.

"This particular, world famous number 'Ekla Cholo', expounding to all that if no one came to you on your calling, walk alone!! And what a fabulous song has been incorporated by Vishal-Shekhar. Truly awesome and worthy of all award."

Vidya is currently promoting "Kahaani" and when asked about it, she said: "That is very, very kind and generous of him. He has sung a song for us, I thought that was under wraps, so I didn't say but obviously you all seem to know."

"It is a very special song for Kolkata and all the Bengalis. It has been sung by Mr. Bachchan, so it becomes all the more special," added the 33-year-old actress while launching Radio Big FM's new jingle.

She is known for her power-packed performances in "Ishqiya", "No One Killed Jessica" and "The Dirty Picture", but Vidya has no plans to exercise her vocal chords. "So far no, because I don't know. I am not even a bathroom singer. So I am happy listening," said the actress who plays a pregnant woman in "Kahaani".

Director Sujoy Ghosh's "Kahaani" is scheduled for a March 9 release and also stars Emraan Hashmi and Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee.

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Actor Abhishek Bachchan’s bio on Twitter reads, “Actor... Well at least some say so!” While this may or may not be agreeable to all, the actor definitely is more popular than a lot of other actors in B-Town. Abhi recently became the latest celebrity to have crossed the one million follower mark on Twitter. The actor is quite active on the micro-blogging site and in between breaks during his shooting schedules, he is often spotted chatting up with his fans over Twitter. He even broke the news of his daughter being born on Twitter. On the last count, Abhishek has 1,008,643 followers and 14,406 tweets.

Abhishek is apparently ecstatic about this as he really likes talking to his fans and followers. He recently tweeted, “1 million!!!! wow! thank you to the coolest crew in the world. Thank you for the love and support. NOW PLAY SOMETHING LOUD!!!!”

Interestingly, he is far behind his father, actor Amitabh Bachchan, who holds the top position on the micro-blogging site with 1,912,800 followers and 11,285 tweets. Coming a close second is actress Priyanka Chopra, who was initially first on the list with 1,886,529 followers and 5,719 tweets. Following her is actor Shah Rukh Khan who has 1,661,568 followers and 2,834 tweets. Only three actors are a part of the elite one million club that also includes Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar and author-politico, Shashi Tharoor.

Unlike most celebrities who do not take criticism too well, Abhishek is all game for the brickbats that come his way. He explains, “If I have 20 lakh followers, 15 may be my fans and five could be following me because they want to criticize. I do not mind criticism. When you are in the public eye, you must be open to both, good and bad coming your way. If you are working towards being famous and then when you finally achieve it, you cannot step out wearing sunglasses. As an actor, you cannot be just receiving compliments.”

He also admits that he is hooked to Twitter, each time he gets a couple of hours off. “When I am in my car, I do a question answer round with my fans. Twitter is a very effective medium to interact personally with your fans. I love it.”

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Actor Abhishek Bachchan is overjoyed after crossing one million followers on micro-blogging site Twitter. ”1 million!!!! wow! thank you to the coolest crew in the world. thank you for the love and support. NOW PLAY SOMETHING LOUD!!!! (sic),” the 35-year-old posted. Abhishek has 1,000,029 followers and 14,383 tweets till date, but he is still far behind his father, actor Amitabh Bachchan, who has 1,896,417 followers.

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Rohan Sippy is in the news nowadays, for his much-ambitious ad film with Salman Khan. Besides the ad film, the filmmaker is busy penning down the story of his next feature film. As per his calculation, his all-time favourite Abhishek Bachchan, courtesy Dum Maara Dum, Kuch Naa Kaho and Bluffmaster may not show up in the film.

Rohan elaborates on the same, “My next film is in the scripting stage and as far as star cast is concerned, I will choose the actors irrespective of their current status in the industry, as per the sensibilities of my story of the film.”He further adds, “As soon as the script writing is finished which will take another one month, we will announce the star cast and title of the film.”The film is a romantic-thriller which will soon go on the floors as soon as the star cast is declared.

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