The duo, Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar have been lucky for each other and have delivered several hit movies together. Some of them are Singh is Kinng, Blue, Namastey London, De Dana Dan and Deewana Kar Gaye. However this duo had a recent fall out after an altercation when the lovely Katrina Kaif refused to shoot for a much video with Akshay Kumar for his forthcoming film Tees Maar Khan.

Word is that the beautiful Katrina Kaif has refused Akki point blank for the dates that he had requested for as she has already scheduled these dates for a Yash Raj film with Imran Khan. Akki, reminded Kats of all the favors that he had made for her with his dates in the past in all the moves that they had shot and hence had requested for these dates from Katina. However, Katrina refused to oblige and these two actors stopped talking to each other.

This is where Farah Khan stepped in as peace maker and she spoke to Katrina who then spoke to Yash Raj Films and got her dates rescheduled so that she could shoot for the title video track on October 15th 2010 for the film Tees Maar Khan which has the complete star cast in the video.

Both the actors, however have denied the story completely s baseless and Akshay Kumar commented, “Katrina and I go back a long way and she is a dear friend of mine and has always been there. I would like to clarify that she is one of the most professional stars we have and she and I are amused with these reports since there is absolutely no truth to them.”

Farah Khan too seemed to maintain the same stance that “There is absolutely no problem between any of us. Katrina is a wonderful girl and very professional. She has done a great job in Tees Maar Khan.”

When Katrina was quizzed about this incident she appeared to be shocked and said “Well, what more should I say? I guess Akshay and Farah have already stated the facts. See, these stories are malicious. These are all fabricated lies. Akshay and I share a wonderful equation so the entire talk about us getting into an argument just doesn’t make any sense. Also, how I wish that people find out truth instead of fabricating stories.”

During the last week, there have been several rumors about Akshay Kumar being signed up for a new movie.  The gossip doing the rounds is that the actor will play the lead in a Sanjay Leela Bansali film to be directed by Prabhu Deva.

Assumptions are that with the involvement of Bansali in the film, the film would have a period setting and then Prabhu Deva’s presence and inclination towards dancing would probably mean that there would be some intense classical dancing in the movie.

Yes, confirmations have been received about Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Prabhu Deva coming   together for a film.  Bhansali and Akshay would be the co-producers while the director is likely to be Prabhu Deva, this being his second directorial venture after Wanted. However putting an end to the rumors of the movie having a period setting, it has been confirmed that the move would be set in the modern era and have a contemporary feel to it.

The film is also likely be a  combination of  genuine Bollywood masala and dance and is expected  to take shape by the beginning of next year after Akshay Kumar finishes his shooting for Desi Boyz directed by Rohit Dhawan, the son of David Dhawan.

Well known sources involved with the film have authenticated this, saying, “That’s right, this is going to be the most ambitious project ever by Bhansali. It was him who thought of bringing together Akshay Kumar and Prabhu Deva. He has been known for certain aesthetics of cinema and that would remain intact in this new venture as well. However, this time around the target audience would be a wider segment of masses. Bhansali wanted to expand his horizon and conceived a mega project like this.”

The source also reiterated “For Akshay too, it is all set to be a new experience because he has established himself amidst the top league without working with filmmakers like Chopras, Johars and Bhansalis of the world. A project like this adds on a reputed filmmaker to his repertoire. Since Prabhu Deva too has shown his commercial bent with Wanted, his coming together with Akshay only makes this a killer combination in the making. One can well imagine the kind of hype that just this announcement is going to make.”

Actor Akshay Kumar, who we can see in latest advertisement Tax Department advertisements these days, urging people to pay their taxes, has become the highest tax payer from Bollywood. He was the highest payer last year also.
He has paid Rs 9 crore as an advance tax in March, 2010. This would take his total advance tax payment for the year 2009-2010 to Rs 18 crore. Last year, he paid Rs 31 crore after a stint of huge hits.

He said, “It feels good and privileged to be the highest tax payer. It is also a greater sense of responsibility.” He is right now shooting for a movie named Tees Maar Khan which is being directed by Farah Khan. Akshay Kumar is followed by Aamir Khan who paid Rs 12 crore as advance tax and is followed by Superstar Shahrukh Khan who has had only 1 release in the year 2009-2010, My Name is Khan in January 2010. Salman Khan is the fourth highest tax payer with Rs.5.5 crore in the year 2009-2010.
So far, Kumar has had a difficult year as all of his five releases have failed to perform well on the box-office. The much hyped Chandni Chowk to China, Tasveer 8 x 19, Kambakht Ishq, De Dana Dan and Blue all struggled to impress the audiences.

Akshay had signed all these films amidst the success of his previous year’s films. Hence, they fetched him a huge sum as fee. The actor also endorses Thumbs Up, Dollar Vest, LG and Levis which has also contributed to his income.

He said, “Along with fulfilling my tax duties, I also feel the time has come for me to give back to society and the country at large. Which is why I am also using my brand status to do an ad for service tax. If I can get my message across to even half the people across, I feel it would be worth it.”
Abhishek Bachchan paid Rs 4.15 crore in advance tax, while Aishwarya Rai’s advance tax was Rs 2 crore. Amitabh Bachchan has filed Rs 2.9 crore as advanced tax in March, 2010 which has taken his total tax payment to Rs 4 crore.

Saif Ali Khan paid Rs 1.52 crore as advance tax which is quite low from his last year’s amount Rs, 5 crore. His girlfriend and actress Kareena Kapoor has paid Rs. 1.45 crore which has taken her total tax for 2009-2010 to Rs. 3.65 crore.

Akshay Kumar has reasons to smile. His much hyped ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ has managed to build a good hype amongst the audiences, something which is reflecting from the favourable response that it has received via a healthy advance booking. Though quite a few multiplexes and single screens opened their advance booking only on Wednesday (which is the norm), some major chains (like PVR) opened it early as Sunday to gauge audience’s interest in the film. Thankfully, it was all positive, something which would definitely have contributed to sudden plans for paid previews that were hosted on Thursday.

However, Sajid Nadiadwala and Co. took a guarded approach as instead of going ballistic with paid previews and playing multiple shows all through the evening and night, they kept it low profile with only a show each at select multiplexes in major cities. Moreover, the show timings were also quite late in the night with some of them beginning as late as 11 PM. Obviously, the makers and especially the leading man Akshay Kumar have learnt the lesson from ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ debacle where negative reviews had started flowing as early as 9 PM Thursday night once the first paid preview (at 6PM) had come to a close.

Though sources indicate that the makers of ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ are quite confident of their product, it made sense to have a restricted viewing of the film rather than it being a wholesome affair, lest it led to any negativity. In any case, record number of prints are being circulated across the country which means that opening weekend collections should be quite a bountiful.

There have been murmurs around the promos not being really strong for this Akshay and Kareena starrer. However, one just hopes that the team of ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ is hiding the real stuff in the background rather than revealing it all in the promos itself; a mistake that recent release ‘Paying Guest’ made and suffered badly. It would be better for a film with such a huge scale to let audiences warm up to the film and that’s a path this Sabbir Khan directed film seems to be taking.

As are the indicators right now, the film should fetch good numbers in the opening weekend even if they aren’t record breaking per se. While ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ and ‘Singh Is Kinng’ hold the record of netting 40 crores or more in their first week (with ‘Ghajini’ going through the ceiling with a 60 crores + opening, it would be fair if ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ crosses 35 crores mark at the least. This is where the film seems to be headed as well and even though a few may complain that these collections would be less for an Akshay Kumar biggie, one has to keep in mind that he has suffered two recent flops in ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ and ’8X10 Tasveer’, something which is looming large on audience’s mind. Moreover, 35 crores is not a bad number too as long as the film can sustain in weeks to come.

With ‘Shortkut – The Con Is On’ being the only major release in week to follow and ‘Jashnn’ arriving on 17th July, ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ now has to be just a decent enough film to keep showing steady collections before ‘Luck’ arrives on 24th July.