Osama Lookalike in Bollywood Comedy in Tere Bin Laden

Pradhuman Singh, the 27-year-old who plays an Osama lookalike in the recently released Tere Bin Laden, says he felt like a celeb the first time he walked out of the vanity van. �We were shooting in a studio, and the moment I stepped out, heads started turning and then there was pin-drop
silence. The security had to come and take me through the crowd,� he recalls.



Singh was working with a software firm when he got a call from an old buddy, debutant Abhishek Sharma, the director of the film.

�We knew each other from our theatre days, but we hadn�t spoken in years. When he called, I thought he wanted me to assist him. When we met, he said �I want to play you something�, and gave me was an Osama Bin Laden tape!� he informs.

Singh didn�t think he resembled Bin Laden till people started reacting to his look.

�It was as big a shock to me as everyone else. My family and friends knew I was working on a film but had no idea that it had anything to do with Bin Laden. It was only earlier this year that I asked a few close friends to see the promo of the film on YouTube,� he says, and remembers being flooded with calls asking him �Where are you in the film?�, though some recognised him because of his smile.

The actor had to lose a lot of weight for the film. �I was 74 kgs, and now I am 63. I had to hit the gym because they didn�t want an Osama with a paunch. But now I plan to gorge big time to make up for the time I didn�t eat my favourite delicacies. I also learned Arabic for eight months to get my diction right,� he says.

Son of a naval officer, Singh studied at Delhi�s Naval Public School, and then enrolled at the Institute of Hotel Management. He didn�t like it much, so didn�t graduate. �I was working with Wipro when the Osama offer came along,� he says. �I quit my job because I couldn�t sail in two boats.�

Pakistan delays decision on Bollywood 'bin Laden' film

Ali Zafar plays the starring role


'Tere Bin Laden'will no longer open on Friday as planned after a review of a ban on the film was delayed

ISLAMABAD � Pakistan on Friday delayed the review of a ban on an Indian Bollywood comedy poking fun at Osama bin Laden, which censors said was a threat to security and offensive to Muslims.

Pakistani censors banned "Tere bin Laden" (Without you, Laden) before it was due to open at cinemas nationwide on Friday. Advertisements for the film in the Pakistani press have been accompanied by "subject to approval" notices.


Indian Bollywood actor Salman Khan


The film is a spoof about a Pakistani reporter who wants to migrate to the United States and hopes his interview with a chicken farmer who is the spitting image of the world's most wanted man can get him the visa he has been denied.

Pakistani pop singer Ali Zafar plays the starring role, but the board of censors said the film could incite suicide attacks in a country already suffering Islamist militant bombings weekly if not daily.

Censors said the film ridiculed Pakistani society, was offensive to Muslims, portrays bin Laden as a "coward and ridiculous", contained vulgar language and could fan hostility among "fanatic and fundamentalist elements" in Pakistan.

Bombs and attacks blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have killed more than 3,560 people across the nuclear-armed country since government troops besieged a radical mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.

But the film's promoters appealed the ban as a violation of freedom of expression, forcing government officials to review the decision.

"I'm astonished they did this," said promoter Nadeem Mandviwala.

"There are many TV programmes in Pakistan criticising the president, prime minister and everybody else in a comic way. Our society has become tolerant."

Pakistan has a relatively free media, but authorities in May briefly shut down YouTube and Facebook over blasphemous content on the Internet. Internet links to material considered offensive are still blocked.

Government officials on Friday attended a private screening of the film to decide whether to uphold the ban or release it for public consumption, but delayed a decision -- meaning that the film will not open on Friday as planned.

"We have postponed the meeting and delayed the decision until Wednesday," culture ministry official Moeen-ul-Islam Bukhari told AFP. He attributed the delay to members of the appeals' committee failing to show up.

The "Tere bin Laden" controversy comes after a number of Gulf states banned a hard-hitting Bollywood film that claims to tell the true story behind violence in the Muslim-majority region.

In India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, the film's producer, Pooja Shetty, said earlier that they were still hoping for clearance for the film.

"I'm hopeful that they will look at it in a positive light," Shetty, the joint managing director at production company Walkwater Media, told AFP.

"I don't think it's a preachy film, neither is it making fun of terrorism. It's about a fake Osama... It's a comedy, a spoofy film."

The film was being released in India and a number of countries on Friday, including Australia, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

It is expected to be released in the United States at a later date, added Shetty.

The film's subject matter and publicity about Pakistan's ban have catapulted the low-budget film into the spotlight in India and abroad.

The Times of India newspaper gave the film three stars, despite saying its production was a "shade amateur".

"'Tere Bin Laden' has both: smart script and some smart acting."

Mel Gibson can survive abuse allegations, says Oliver Stone

Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva at the Spanish premiere of the film 'Edge of Darkness' in Madrid

Mel Gibson was recorded verbally abusing Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of his child, but director Oliver Stone believes Hollywood will forgive him.





Although hardly flavour of the month after the allegations that he bruised his baby daughter during a row with his former girlfriend, Mel Gibson has won a vote of confidence from Oliver Stone, the maverick film director.

Stone tells Mandrake that the Oscar-winning star of Braveheart will continue to be offered leading roles in Hollywood. �Everyone is supposed to have an opinion [about Gibson], but most directors don�t work that way,� Stone said at the premiere of his latest film, South of the Border, at the Curzon Mayfair, in London.

He points out that press criticism of an actor is always immediate, whereas Hollywood works on a longer time scale. �Projects are developed slowly, and over the course of weeks, months, there will be projects, and I am sure many of them will want to have Mel Gibson in them,� he says.

Stone, who has won three Academy Awards for films including Midnight Express and Platoon, is no stranger to controversy himself. Criticised for promoting historical inaccuracies in such films as JFK, Stone also suggested that Adolf Hitler was �an easy scapegoat� in The Secret History of America.

Gibson�s former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, 40, claimed last week that the 54-year-old actor had bruised his baby daughter during a row. Grigorieva intends to produce pictures of their daughter, Lucia, with an injured chin in a custody battle over the child.

She accused Gibson of punching her in the face and knocking out her teeth during a row in January when she was holding their then two-month-old daughter.

The accusation follows the release of expletive-ridden, taped telephone rants allegedly by Gibson in which he threatens Grigorieva.

Leonardo Dicarpio help out Inception to have dream Box office opening.

DiCaprio says Japan perfect for 'Inception'

Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio (C)

TOKYO � Leonardo DiCaprio hopes his mind-warp thriller "Inception" will be a hit in Japan, which has long shown a taste for anime fantasies and surreal works by its own master-director Akira Kurosawa.

The Hollywood star was in Tokyo for the premiere of the sci-fi summer blockbuster by British director Christopher Nolan about a group of thieves who infiltrate their victims' dreams to steal their thoughts.




"This is a very surreal, multi-dimensional plot structure (which) needs ideas that don't come about from Hollywood very often," DiCaprio said.

"I'm truly excited to see how the audiences here would react to this idea," he said, crediting Japanese movie-goers with embracing new concepts such as works by animation director Hayao Miyazaki and cinema legend Kurosawa.

"I'm a huge fan of Japanese cinema, Japanese anime," DiCaprio said at a Tokyo press conference. "The Miyazaki film 'Spirited Away' has very surreal landscapes that audiences here seem to embrace and seem to love."

DiCaprio, a three-time Academy Award nominee, said his latest work stood out from what he admitted can be unimaginative Hollywood fare.

"Films that come out, especially during the summer time... seem to be a recycle from other plot structures, and this is truly unique," he said.

His co-star Ken Watanabe meanwhile lavished praise on Nolan, with whom he tied up for a second time after the 2005 film "Batman Begins", even likening him to the Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci.

"I really wonder what's happening in Chris Nolan's head," Watanabe said. "He has all sorts of elements, not only literary but also scientific and architectural, with a full drive to prepare them and carry them out.

"It even makes me think he is a comeback of da Vinci."

But the Japanese actor also had a complaint to share: "The director first told me to play the role just like James Bond," he said with a stern look.

"Unfortunately he didn't have a Bond girl for me in the script."

Singapore Pay TV Fined $50,000 For TV Outage

SingNet, a Singapore pay TV service provider was fined $50,000 by the state media authority for its television outage on March 1, due to a software glitch.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) said as a nationwide subscription television service licensee, SingNet was required to comply with licence conditions on quality of service and consumer service.

In a statement Wednesday, MDA said it had found evidence of SingNet breaching its license conditions on quality of service and consumer service when its Mio TV service broke down around 6am to about 6pm on that day.

MDA said although SingNet took efforts to correct the software malfunction and resume service, the outage impacted more than 10,000 subscribers which was not insignificant and caused a lot of inconveniences.

The authority was of the view that SingNet could also have provided better consumer support and resolved consumer complaints in a timely manner.

MDA said SingNet's call handling was evidently lacking when consumers complained that they could not get through to their call centre for hours, and even on the day after the breakdown.

Mel Gibson's ex in tape No 5: 'Why do you hate me so much?'-Detectives receive Mel Gibson audio recordings

Mel Gibson with ex girlfriend Oksana.Now facing child custory battle.Audio tape showing Gibson threating and racial slurs.




Mel Gibson in a scene from his upcoming movie How I Spent My Summer Vacation .

A Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman says detectives investigating Mel Gibson have received audio recordings from a court hearing the actor's child custody matter.







Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says detectives received the recordings Thursday morning after a court hearing. Several sheriff's detectives were spotted outside a closed hearing where Gibson's criminal attorney and attorneys for his ex-girlfriend appeared.

All of the attorneys declined comment. The sheriff's department is investigating whether the Academy Award-winner abused his ex-girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, in January.

Whitmore says the detectives received CDs, but did not know how many recordings were on them. He says detectives will now work to authenticate the recordings for a possible criminal case.

Ready? Tape No. 5 of Mel Gibson yelling at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva has just been posted."Mel, I cannot be with somebody like this. You don't love me... This is someone who hates me. Why do you hate me so much?" asks Grigorieva at one point as Mel pants and rants.

And, she says, "You're very mean.""I'd like to show you what mean really is," yells Mel.

Money issues arise again, with Mel saying he needs cash so badly that he has resorted to selling some of his artwork collection. He also says he had to give up his Los Angeles Lakers tickets. "I don't have any (expletive) money! I have to support you and everybody else! I have to sell paintings. I have to sell my box at the Lakers game," Gibson screams.

Oksana's lawyers will be in court this morning asking a family law judge to strip Mel of custody of their daughter, using the tapes as evidence Mel is dangerous, reports TMZ. The authenticity of the tapes is likely to be raised.

On the Today show this morning, an audio expert who has worked for the FBI and CIA verified that the tapes are legit.

Mel Gibson's camp has not commented.