Amitabh Bachchan is a man who appears to be always trying his best to keep controversies as far away from him as possible.
And yet they keep chasing him relentlessly. Almost all of them are somehow related to his political connections. Everyone was puzzled when he was close to a politician called Amar Singh, who became some sort of a distasteful patron in the industry. As soon as Amitabh broke ranks with Amar Singh, the latter also disappeared from Bollywood because without the star’s influence no one really gave him any importance.
But that still didn’t break Amitabh’s connection with politicians because his wife Jaya was a Member of Parliament of the Samajwadi Party, which rules the state of UP.
Recently, the UP government announced a pension scheme for those who had gotten an award from the state. Amitabh, Jaya and their son Abhishek were all recipients and therefore would all be entitled to the pension. And at Rs50,000 per month each, it was not a small amount.
A family in India can live comfortably on that sum. And the Bachchans were as far removed from poverty as possible. There was something not quite correct about them receiving tax payers’ money.
It has to be noted that Amitabh had never asked for it. But he sensed that this pension would not be acceptable to many. Unsurprisingly, he decided to decline the money and in a letter to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, he asked for it to be given in charity.
According to the statement he put out, “Whereas I respect the UP Govt’s honour of the Yash Bharati Award to members of my family, and their decision as per reports in the press, for providing pension of Rs50, 000 per month to each recipient, I am requesting the UP Govt, with all humility, to redirect the entire amount designated for my family towards any noble charitable scheme or cause that benefits the poor and the needy. I shall be writing to the Chief Minister in this regard, in a separate communication.”



Not engaged again

The whole world, except the female fans who are in love with him, want to see Salman Khan married and settling down into a cosy family life.
The man himself however seems to have a penchant for avoiding tying the knot, despite having come close to.
He was in a committed relationship with Aishwarya Rai, which seemed to be leading to marriage before it imploded, with bitterness all round. Then there was Katrina Kaif, his girlfriend for many years, but they, too, never took the leap.
Salman’s life is a history of impermanent relationships. So, when he was said to dating the Romanian model, Lulia Vantur no one really gave any probability of marriage being in the horizon.
And then suddenly came news out of the blue that the two might already be engaged. The source of the rumour was close to Vantur because a website which reported on the news said that her PR had disclosed this back in Romania.
And they even gave a date of the wedding as the beginning of next year. Before a million hearts could break, however, there was the predicable denial. Salman’s sister tweeted, ‘‘Do not believe everything you read in the papers or on different websites online.” And then followed it up with another tweet, “Really ya what rubbish do these people keep carrying”. So if the whole story was a PR plant then it did do its job in getting some publicity to Vantur and further spreading the impression that her relationship with him is going strong.
Salman doesn’t get married to any of his girlfriends but many of them do become household names and get good breaks in the industry due to him.

Angry riposte
You have to be really careful with the tattoo you choose. Especially if you have decided to etch something connected to a girlfriend or boyfriend on your body, because relationships are temporary and tattoos permanent.
And if you are an actor then the predicament is even worse because the tattoo will be visible in all the movies you do, reminding the whole world about your failed relationship.
Deepika Padukone has been dealing with this issue ever since she broke up with Ranbir Kapoor because she has a tattoo of ‘RK’ on the back of her neck. She keeps getting questions about it and at a recent media event once again a reporter asked what her current boyfriend Ranveer Singh thought about her tattoo. She tweaked a trademark line of a popular news anchor and snapped back with why the question was being asked and whether the nation wanted to know the answer. And of course she didn’t speak any further on it.


Role loss

Sometimes an actor must know her standing in the industry before accepting or declining roles. Before Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Sooraj Barjatya’s last release was Vivah.
The movie was a hit and the main actress in it was Amrita Rao. But it has been nine years since then and Amrita is no longer anywhere near the A-list in the rankings of actresses.
She hasn’t had a single release last year. Which is why, as Prem Ratan Dhan Payo gets set to hit the screens on November 12, comes a surprising snippet that Amrita in fact had been offered a role in it but declined.
This was because it was not the main lead but that of Salman’s sister, a character with negative overtones. It is of course necessary for an actress at the beginning of her career to pick her roles in order to shape an image among the audience.
But at the end of one’s career the wise thing to do is to take big projects in whatever form and continue to remain in the public eye. A sister’s role in a Salman film would have given her some momentum to rebuild her career.

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