Last year, media circles were abuzz with speculation of an intense rivalry between Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. But a lot seems to have changed of late with the two stars claiming to be close buddies. In fact, Akshay even walked the ramp for Salman’s Being Human foundation at a recent fashion week.

Media got both of them to talk about their year ahead, mutual affection for each other, business plans, philanthropic work and industry rivalries. Not surprisingly, their answers were quite similar.

Salman says, “I love the way Akshay has put in his heart and soul and emerged as a big name in the industry. His feat is truly commendable.”

Akshay returns Salman’s gesture by saying, “Everybody in the industry knows how big Salman’s heart is. He has sustained himself as a superstar for two decades and that speaks a lot about the talent and passion of the man. He is someone who doesn’t really care about what is being spoken about him. I was really touched when he said that he wanted me to walk the ramp for Being Human.”

Even work-wise, the duo has similar plans. In 2010 they both will slow down and get choosier about movies.

“I’m getting choosier by the day and 2010 will definitely see me slowing down. I want to spend more time with my family,” Akshay says.

When asked about getting into production, Akshay says, “If I get an interesting script, something to do with action, I will definitely look to produce it. I do want to be a businessman.”

Apart from this Akshay is looking to concentrate a lot more on his karate championship which he promises ‘will get bigger and better’.

Salman, on the other hand, will devote more time to Being Human foundation.

He says, “I don’t work in films for money but because of the passion I have for film-making. Now, to an extent I will cut down on work as I have other things on my plate too like concentrating more on Being Human. I want the project to take off completely with the merchandise hitting stores across India.”

The two of them only differ when it comes to their equation with Shah Rukh Khan. While Salman still remains mum when asked about burying hatchets with Shah Rukh, Akshay gets vocal about the issue.

He says, “Equations with people change with time. That’s the rule of life. But I don’t have problems with anyone in the industry.”

The new year seems to have kicked off on a controversial note for the SRK camp. As if talks about the supposed rift between Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan weren't enough, now reports suggest that Farah's husband Shirish Kunder is planning to do a film with the badshah's arch-rival, Salman Khan.

Salman's all-male birthday bash recently saw him and Shirish discussing a film together, which will be produced by Farah.

Shirish and Salman had in the past worked in the former's directorial dud debut, Jaan-e-Mann.

Shirish claims that SRK turned him down when he asked the King Khan to work in his film, Tees Maar Khan.

The buzz goes that Shirish then decided to rope in his wife in the project, hoping that her 'best friend' SRK would then agree to do the film.

But Shah Rukh still turned the project down. Finally, Farah approached Akshay Kumar for the film.

Snubbed once again! That’s how Shahrukh Khan must be feeling as the snippets of the latest goss catches wind in tinsel town.

According to the buzz, Shirish Kunder, husband of Farah Khan who is almost family to SRK, is roping in Salman Khan for his next film after he’s through with ‘Alien Sahib’ with John Abraham.

Earlier, SRK got the humungous snub from the hubby-wife duo when Akshay Kumar was roped in for their ambitious project Tees Maar Khan to be directed by Farah. Now, the duo has rubbed salt to SRK’s wound by finalizing his arch foe Salman for the next project.

Reports say Shirish and Farah were guests at Salman’s birthday bash a few days back at the actor’s Panvel farm house where the trio discussed the project. Salman is learnt to have given his nod.

Shirish, it seems, has some aversion towards working with SRK. Having directed both Akshay and Bollywood Superstar Salman in his super-turkey Jaaneman, the editor-director is choosing to work with them again instead of SRK, who is Farah’s favourite.

It remains to be seen how SRK responds to this snub.

Not many will be aware that filmmaker Raj Kumar Santoshi was about to manage the formidable coup of getting Aamir Khan & Shah Rukh Khan together on the big screen together for the first time in London Dreams. At that point, it was to be titled Rashque ('jealousy' in Urdu), which is the film's underlying sentiment. The two stars are said to have even attended joint narrations.

Both the actors loved the script and wanted to sleep over it before committing themselves. Santoshi is rumoured to have pursued the two superstars relentlessly and even chased alternatives like Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, before giving up when the casting did not fructify.

As destiny would have it, Salman Khan took London Dreams to filmmaker Vipul A. Shah, who started afresh on the script. The former automatically stepped into Aamir's shoes while Ajay Devgn was roped in by Shah to step into Shah Rukh's. It became another historic coup of sorts as the two stars reunited ten years after featuring together in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's smash hit, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

London Dreams releases worldwide on October 30 and is being marketed and distributed internationally by Studio 18.

The upcoming HDIL Couture Week fashion show is turning into a childish show-of-strength of sorts.

While the owner of the company Sunny Dewan is in the inner circle of close friends of both Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan, the people who will walk the ramp for Salman; and for Karan Johar (with show-stopper Shahrukh Khan) will ultimately define kaun kiska dost hai.


It's interesting that Aamir Khan will be showing off Sallu's designs while nephew Imran Khan will share ramp space with Shahrukh Khan.

Sallu has convinced Saif, Aamir, Sunny Deol, sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar, Govinda and Katrina Kaif to walk the ramp for his organisation Being Human on (October 11). Karan, who is launching his own fashion line of men's clothing (Oct 16) has Shahrukh and Gauri, Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan!

Imran is in Karan's next production I Hate Love Stories, and willingly agreed to walk for KJo for his producer, who is designing the line along with Varun Bahl. A source close to Salman says the number of stars walking for his organisation has nothing to do with upstaging SRK's ramp romp, "Salman is keen that the show is a big success for the sake of Being Human.He wants to establish the brand and create awareness for it so people donate money to it.

“Salman has been helping out the poor and needy with operations like open-heart surgeries for the last three years with his own money. Initially, he thought he would sell his paintings to raise money but that didn't work out like he planned."

Imran Khan and Karan Johar remained unavailable for comment.

Gauri will be walking the ramp with 20 young and hot male models and will be the only female model for Karan's show

Salman's show has a family segment, where Salman's brothers Arbaaz and Sohal will be walking with their respective wives, Malaika and Seema.

The most expensive actor of the industry, Amitabh Bachchan
is getting pricy with an astronomical rise in the amount that he will be getting for Big Boss 3. He is the highest paid actor on small screen now, beating the Khans and Colors are again coming up with a unique reality show called India Rocks. This show will bring out the talents.

“Initially it was decided that Bigg B will be receiving the amount of Rupees 1.5 crore per episode, but at the eleventh hour his price was hiked to Rupees 2.5 crore,” chirps the source.


Elaborating more on the information, our source adds, “There will be 84 episodes of Bigg Boss 3 and according to that ratio, Mr. Bachchan has become the highest paid host on television. Akshay Kumar and SRK were paid 1 crore per episode for their shows Khatron Ke Khiladi and Paanchvi Pass respectively.”

Salman’s price was hiked up for the second season of Dus Ka Dum. “For the first season of DKD, he received an amount of Rs. 80, 00,000 while in the second season his price was raised to 1 1/2 crore,” quips our khabroo.

Money talks need we say more on who still rules Bollywood and Television TRPs!