After eminent personalities like Sachin Tendulkar, Mukesh Ambani, Sunita Williams and Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor becomes the latest recipient of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Award.

The 28-year-old is going to be presented with the 12th Rajiv Gandhi Award in the best actor category. The award function will be held in the second week of August.

"I was pleasantly surprised to get the news about my being chosen for the prestigious award. I am only 28 years old and it's really early in my career. I feel humbled and honoured to be chosen by the jury," said Shahid.

This year, Shahid will be seen in three films, Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminey opposite Priyanka Chopra, Aditya Chopra's Dil Bole Hadippa opposite Rani Mukherjee and a Ken Ghosh movie opposite Genelia D'Souza.

At a time when the likes of John Abraham
and Neil Nitin Mukesh are going full-monty in front of the camera, there are actors like Shahid Kapur who restrict themselves to shirtless appearances only.


In his forthcoming film Kaminey, Shahid can be spotted running shirtless in one of the scenes. When asked if he felt comfortable taking off his shirt for the first time, he says, "Yes, I think I am quite comfortable now. The demand of the character is such, so I have gone shirtless, but if I had to do the same role a few years ago, I would not have been so comfortable. It would have been difficult for me to take off my shirt then. No I think I am ok with it."

Shahid Kapur is in a double role in the film and the story revolves around identical twins, who are born and brought up in slums in Mumbai. In the film they are shown in their twenties chasing their dreams to become big one day. They struggle for a life of prosperity and dignity is the theme of the film.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, this film has generated a lot of publicity for reasons more than one. Besides his shirtless appearance, Shahid Kapoor stammers in one role and lisps in other. When asked about his two different characters, he says that it was very difficult for him because he had to remember every time for which role he had to stammer and for which he had to lisp.

Says he, "I enjoyed doing it because it was a challenging role for me. It was something very new. Everyday I had to remember whether I had to stammer or lisp because at the same location we spent one day shooting for the character who stammers and on the other day for the character who lisps. So it was really a good fun. I thoroughly enjoyed playing both the characters."

In a first of its kind action in India, Twitter has removed a fake ID of movie star Shahid Kapoor, on grounds of impersonation. This came about after Shahid’s publicist registered a complaint with Twitter for impersonation.

Since the last few months a fan had created a fake account where he would connect with his fans and pretend to be the real Shahid. A lot of people believed that this was the actual actor. Shahid has a strong presence online, having been the most searched Bollywood star, winning the sexiest vegetarian poll on PETA’s Asia pacific site and many more. His fake profile grew from strength to strength, with followers adding him to get his status updates. The impersonator, on his part, would discuss his upcoming film and his poll wins etc, whatever was in the news about Shahid on any particular day.

The complaint to Twitter was made when the fan refused to part with the ID and continued to pretend to be the actor. Twitter responded within a week and disabled the fake account, taking a strong stand against impersonation.

“We hope that this puts to end all the unverified reports that claimed that the real Shahid Kapoor was on Twitter, which he never was,” said a friend of the actor.-

Blue eyed romantic boy of Bollywood, Shahid Kapoor joins heart throb Priyanka Chopra to play lead role for the movie Kaminey. The trailer for Kaminey movie is out and is creating quite abuzz amongst various Bollywood circles.


Shahid Kapoor is playing dual role for the first time for this movie, and he had to sport a 6-pack ab body for one. Sources say that he’d worked really hard to achieve that perfect 10/10 body



In the film, the twins will want to leave their poor uncomfortable life behind and they run away from home in search of their fortune. They will then meet a don in Amole Gupte who plays Priyanka’s brother in the movie. The girl though falls in love with one of the twins, who is of course Shahid as typical lover boy, and the other one will be a different avatar. Shahid’s fans will love to see their hero in this different role where he will be a stammerer and uses slang often.

The film Kaminey is slated for a June 2009 release and insiders say that its going to be a blockbuster and the trailers reiterate it as well.

Director-cum-music composer Vishal Bhardwaj is the latest director to join a social networking site to promote his film. Vishal has joined Facebook, adding to the ranks of his Kaminey actors Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, among many other top Bollywood actors and stars.



He has begun by talking about his eagerly awaited next, Kaminey. Getting straight to the point about the unusual and attention-grabbing title of the film, he says, "My intention was not to get gimmicky with the title. Since everyone's mean in the film, it was apt. Some are lovable Kaminey and some are obnoxious, but all are running high on lust and desire. Everybody was against me using this title, but when I bounced it off Gulzar Saab, he loved it!"

If people are speculating about the movie all confused about it which genre it belongs to, Vishal clears the doubts stating, Kaminey falls in the caper genre. He says, "Kaminey is a caper and falls in a genre never been explored before in India properly. Initially, I had thought it would be easy to write and make, but it turned out to be tough to write and even tougher to make."

About the characters in the film, the Omkara maker says, "The film has a wide array of characters, who all have equal intensity, and yet, there is no time to establish them. One has to catch them in the flow of the story and yet make them memorable. Exploring such a territory and then topping it up with some Bollywood masala and romance has been rigorous and unsympathetic."

Priyanka Chopra on Tuesday May 12th evening launched the website of her Yash Raj Productions film Pyaar Impossible. The film is directed by actor turned filmmaker Jugal Hansraj and co-stars her with Uday Chopra.

Priyanka launched the website of her romantic comedy film – www.pyaarimpossible.in and then speaking about her role in the film said, “I play the beauty and Uday plays the geek. But in real life, when I was in school-college I was very geeky.”

During the media interaction a journalist asked her reaction to the recent comments made by Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan that their names were being unnecessarily dragged for publicizing her forthcoming film Kaminey with her ‘good friend’ Shahid Kapoor. Priyanka like a true loyal ‘good friend’ gave a fitting reply to Kareena (she was Shahid’s ex girlfriend remember) and Saif’s accusations made in a Mumbai tabloid few days back. Priyanka said, “Kaminey is directed by Vishal Bharadwaj whose directorial credentials don’t need any introduction and it is produced by UTV which is amongst the best production houses in the country today. I have seen the film and I feel it’s a brilliant piece of work. All those who will see the film will definitely love it. We as the team of Kaminey are extremely well equipped and capable of publicizing the film and don’t require any outside help for the same.”

Few days back Kareena and Saif had reportedly claimed that their names were needlessly dragged to gain publicity for his films by Shahid. Kareena was in fact quoted stating, “Shahid should move on.”

Since he broke up with Kareena Kapoor, he’s been linked with( in fact he was accused of having something for Ayesha Takia even when he was with Bebo), Amrita Rao and most recently with Priyanka Chopra.

By the way, no one cares about his first showbiz girlfriend Hrishita Bhatt anyway! She ain’t no star after all!

The speculations started after they were spotted hanging out together at parties and many other occasions. In fact even when Priyanka was hospitalized, Shahid was spotted like the caring lover.

Though they never came out in the open like how Shahid in his naughty lovey dovey days was seen allegedly clicked kissing Kareena at a pub, many are sure they are a couple.

Shahid and Piggy Chops haven’t confirm anything and are enjoying life instead. But now it seems they are finally ready to do some ‘khullam khulla pyar’.

The Café Bitch heard Shahid say, “Priyanka and I are good friends. However, people have been jumping the gun. If we take our relationship further, I may talk about it; but people are in a rush to link us together.”

Well, that’s means Sasha is not denying his thing for Piggy Chops.

As for the girl herself, she spoke out against Shahid’s strong headed ex Bebo recently and shooed off her and beau Saif’s allegations that Sasha is using their name to publicize ‘Kaminay’.

She hit back by saying it was a great piece of work by Vishal Bharadwaj with a good story/ cast/ production house and doesn’t need anyone’s support or help.

Awww…hit Kareena where it hurts, huh?

But that’s talking like a caring lady love.

The Café- Bitch is quite sure that something’s brewing between the two. This sure is going to be an interesting love story, until of course both go separate ways. If the beginning and middle is so damn interesting, the end sure would be.

Watch this space for more

Apparently Shahid Kapoor wants to grow up, on screen at least. Kapoor has decided that he wants to stay away from his old roles, as the boy next door and focus more on a "manlier" role. He wants to change his image so badly that for his latest film, "Yahoo!" he was a bit of a drama queen.

"Yahoo,!" was directed by Ken Gosh who had to constantly deal with Kapoor's nagging. Shahid even had Ken Ghosh recast the role of his love interest. Sources say that Jiah Khan was originally cast for the part but Shahid Kapoor didn't like the way she complimented his role. Ghosh then had to find another girl for Shahid and chose Genelia D' Souza, feeling that she brought a more mature character to the film. The tricky thing was that Jiah had already shot a song for the film, her part ended up being edited out.

That isn't the only thing that changed. The original storyline had Shahid Kapoor as an nice up and coming singer with kids as his supporters, but once again, Shahid felt that it wouldn't work out. Now he is going to be a struggling dancer instead.

But we can feel for Shahid Kapoor, Bollywood is getting ever more competitive. He has to deal with Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, and Ranbir Kapoor among others for roles. We hope he's happy with his latest project in "Yahoo!" and look forward to seeing his new "grown-up" look. But let us know what you think about Shahid Kapoor. Would you rather, he stick with his boyish image as long as he can or go for a manlier role?

Shahid Kapoor has become very cautious about Priyanka Chopra's health after she woke up from stomach infection. He has been keeping a sharp eye on her and recommended her to give up alcohol as drinking may further damage her health.

Priyanka Chopra has been an occasional drinker and she usually takes a few pegs at parties & events. Following her release from the hospital, not only have doctors put a ban on her drinking habits but Shahid Kapoor also barred her from drinking.

Sources add, "Though Priyanka Chopra cannot be called an alcoholic, she does enjoy a glass of wine or champagne occasionally that too only when she is with her closest friends. Shahid Kapoor is a strict vegetarian and also a teetotaler and it is but natural that he expects his new girl friend to be the same. It is a known fact that Shahid Kapoor had turned his ex girlfriend Kareena Kapoor vegetarian and a teetotaler like him too.

This step with Priyanka Chopra has been taken by him because he was extremely worried when she got stomach infection as there was fear of it aggravating by having alcohol".

The source also said, "It is not just alcohol, Shahid Kapoor is also wanting Priyanka to slow on work and take enough rest".

Shahid had made her quit booze and probe into yoga and meditation instead. Shahid had been bothered for quite some time about Priyanka overstressing herself. And his fears did come true with Priyanka facing serious health problems recently due to fatigue and over exertion. Shahid has advised her to take it easy and take up yoga and meditation to keep herself fit and relaxed. However, since she had allotted dates for Ashutosh Gowariker's 'What's Your Rashee?' there was no way she could back out.

Nonetheless, the beautiful actress has promised Shahid to refrain from booze