The Maxim Hot list makes its debut in India and the "Om Shanti Om" star, Deepika, is winner of the first edition.
"To be honest, personally I never thought of myself as 'sexy' or 'hot' but if that's the call that people have taken, then I hope I live up to it. I am so excited about this," Deepika said in a press statement.
She joins the likes of previous Bollywood celebrity-winners like Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor.
"Deepika was our choice as the winner because apart from her huge fan following with the new generation of Indians, she also has the potential to be an international face. This calls for a huge party," said Anup Kutty, editor of Maxim-India.
Deepika will be felicitated August end in Mumbai.
Indo-Asian News Service
Deepika Padukone was supposed to make her debut with a Priyadarshan film but she chose Farah Khan's "Om Shanti Om" instead. Now, three years later, the actress is making a cameo appearance in the director's much-talked about "Billo Barber".Priyadarshan gives credit to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for bringing her to the project. Besides Deeepika, Kareena Kapoor also makes a guest appearance in the movie."Yes, she was being seriously considered for a film called 'Pirates' about music piracy. But the film didn't work out. I'm so glad Deepika made her debut with a film as successful as 'Om Shanti Om', and that too with Shah Rukh Khan," Priyadarshan told IANS."Shah Rukh has asked one more heroine to join him. But Kareena and Deepika agreed because of Shah Rukh. They aren't performing item songs. They play his heroines," he added.The director had been trying to rope in Shah Rukh for years."I had offered him four other films. I never made those films. You can't make a film written for Shah Rukh with anyone else. Then now when he finally gave me 65 days, he said he's busy with the IPL (Indian Premier League) and I'd have to adjust dates accordingly."Then I narrated 'Billo Barber' to him. He got really excited and said, 'IPL and this film happen side by side'. This film takes me back to my 'Viraasat'. I feel I've gone back to my roots.""Billo Barber" is a remake of the Malayalam film "Kadha Parayumbol", which was directed by Sreenivasan. Mammootty and Sreenivasan played the lead roles in it."Irrfan Khan plays the title role and Shah Rukh plays a superstar called Saahil Khan. It's inspired by the mythical friendship between Lord Krishna and Sudama but done in a completely contemporary context."It's about a village and the changes that happen in it when a superstar comes to the village. What people don't know is that there's a very strong suspense element in the film," said Priyadarshan.Commenting upon Irrfan, the director said: "Any big star would've agreed to play the title role. But I wanted someone who looked like a real villager, a hardcore barber. Irrfan has learnt how to cut hair," said Priyadarshan.Indo-Asian News Service
After "Bachna Ae Haseeno" three big directors are trying to cast real life couple Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone together, but the pair is reluctant."We decided to be open about our relationship and lived to regret it because the more open we were the more our honesty was misconstrued. Our right to privacy was completely disregarded. So we've decided to be less public about our relationship. And we don't need to do films together to prove anything," Deepika told IANS.Ranbir debuted with "Saawariya" and Deepika forayed into films with "Om Shanti Om" last year. "Bachna Ae Haseeno" was the second film for both.The directors who have offered them films together include Anees Bazmi, who is taking a break from Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif after "Welcome" and "Singh is Kinng", David Dhawan and Rajkumar Santoshi.Santoshi is already doing a film with Ranbir. It is titled "Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani" and Katrina is playing the female lead in it.But Ranbir and Deepika are not showing any interest in doing films together after seeing what happened to Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur in all their films until their break-up. The two were seen together in films like "Fida" and "36 China Town" before their break-up, but both the films bombed.However their "Jab We Met", which came after the two separated, was a huge success.Recently Kareena featured with her current boyfriend Saif Ali Khan in "Tashan" and that bombed too."They've definitely been offered films by Bazmi, Dhawan and Santoshi and are considering taking up at least one of these. But Ranbir-Deepika are in no hurry to sign films together. Not after seeing what happened to Kareena and Shahid in all their films until their break-up and recently to Kareena and Saif Ali Khan in 'Tashan'," said a source."Ranbir-Deepika know the public gets satiated reading about real-life couples and seeing them constantly at events on television. The novelty factor is over. Deepika would rather be seen with Saif in Imtiaz Ali's film and Ranbir with Katrina and Konkona SenSharma in his forthcoming films rather than come together on screen repeatedly to entertain each other and bore the audience," added the source.At the moment all the three major offers for Ranbir-Deepika are on hold."They might finally take up one of the offers. As for the much talked-about film by Ranbir's childhood friend Vicky Singh, that has three leading ladies in it and Deepika might or might not be one of them. And that project won't be shot until 2010. In fact, Ranbir hasn't even signed it as yet," a source said.Indo-Asian News Service
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