Bollywood Muscle Man Salman turns 43

Bollywood’s naughty hottie Salman Khan turned 43 on December 27, 2008.

Salman, the most eligible bachelor in the Indian cinema, was born on December 27, 1965 in Indore.

Bollywood’s true muscleman made his acting debut in the 1988 film Biwi Ho To Aisi where he played a supporting role.

In 1989, Salman Khan played the lead actor in the flick 'Maine Pyar Kiya'.

Salman, with his youthful looks, well toned body and charisma has not only ruled many hearts but also he is the only bollywood actor who keeps his popularity ratings unchanged amid fans despite a slew of flops in recent times.

The indefatigable Sallu, in his 20- year-old film career, has given many super duper flicks to the Bollywood. Some of them are Maine Pyar Kiya, Saajan, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Tere Naam.

Among his hit flicks, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun is the first Bollywood movie to do well overseas.

Salman had also remained in the limelight for his torrid affair with model turned actress Aishwrya Rai, for black buck shooting case in Jodhpur and also a hit-and-run case in Mumbai.

But despite his over publicized bad side, Sallu, never responded to criticism. The unassuming khan has a lot to look forward in this new year.

Here is the latest on Britney Spears who is jodhpur currently with mumbai dance choreographer Sandip Soparrkar.

He, remember BT told you, had put the pop diva through her paces in her new music video Womanizer, and has now become her friend. Britney, who had heard enough about the attractions of Rajasthan from her father and friends to chuck all plans of spending New Year in
LA and fly down to India, is excited to be here.

Rajasthan is an amazing place,” she told BT, “and I feel like an Indian princess in this ghagra-choli with gold work that Sandip gifted me.” Plus, there’s the Rajasthani cuisine which has struck the right spot with Britney’s tastebuds. “I love the dal baati churma, I believe it’s typical Rajasthani, it’s also very oily... but I’m on a holiday — so let me enjoy my days.” As for speculation of the two being in a relationship, the singer was not very forthcoming. “Sandip and I have decided to spend New Year together. I wish the media would not probe our relationship till we wish to bring it out in the open,” she said. Which could mean anything. Or nothing at all if Jesse Randhawa, Sandip’s favourite dancing partner, is also with them in Jodhpur.

Asin sweeps kollywood

All stars in Kollywood made a beeline to watch A.R Murgadoss's Ghajani which has taken a gargantuan opening worldwide. In Chennai it has taken the best ever opening for a Hindi film.

Most of the top stars have seen the film at private shows or at multiplexes. Most of them have loved the film though a few of them say that the Tamil version is better. They say there was more chemistry between Surya and Asin than between Aamir and Asin. But all are unanimous that the Hindi version had more grandeur and the climax was awesome compared to the original.

Meanwhile everybody has been praising Asin's look and performance in the Hindi version. Asin's mobile has been ringing non-stop, and most of the calls were from Chennai. Surya was one of the first people to call her up and congratulate her profusely for her performance in the film. he told her “you are better in Hindi with a lot of improvisation”.

Priyadarshan, the top director of Bollywood who saw the film at his Four Frames preview theatre along with Surya said: " Asin is fabulous, she can act and has been beautifully photographed by Ravi. I think she is going to go places in Bollywood as she does not have a south Indian look."

Others who called her up from Chennai are IlayathalapathyVijay, his wife Sangeetha, Jyothika, Jayam Ravi, M.Raja, KS Ravikumar Kushboo, producer Mohan Natarajan, Brinda master and Harris Jayaraj.

Aamir-Shah Rukh friends now?

Much has transpired between Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, so much so that we’re a little confused about their Camaraderie Shah Rukh Khan. (TOI Photo)More Pics Quotient.

Every controversial comment made by one is quickly followed by a ‘respectful remark’. So when actress Koel Purie got talking with Aamir on a TV show

recently she asked him if the two were friends or foes.

And Aamir said, “Neither! I’m certainly not competitive as far as Shah Rukh is concerned. I’m certainly very ambitious, but only towards myself. However, Shah Rukh and I share a warm relationship.” Guess the ‘warm’ has become pretty ‘heated’ these days, eh?

GeForce 9300 Motherboard rolled out by XFX in India

XFX has come out with the availability of its GeForce 9300 motherboard in India. The features of GeForce 9300 motherboard are an integrated HDMI connector compatible with HDCP, HD DVD formats, security specifications for Blu-ray and DVI port for flat panel display.

It offers 192 kHz/32-bit quality for eight channels and is also compatible with various new audio formats. It also makes use of Hybrid Power technology that allows the GPU to turn off during non-resource-intensive applications and instead use the integrated GPU.

The motherboard is available with High Definition Audio (HDA) and consumes less power. It supports PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture with a full bandwidth x16 expansion slot and SATA II 3 Gbps.

The motherboard makes use of state of the art CUDA technology. The state-of-the-art DDR2 memory controller ensures high bandwidth and low latency data access to the CPU for passing the data and information through the system.

The motherboard has two years of warranty and can be purchased at the cost price of Rs.8,750.

Kingfisher to slash fares by 10-15%

Airlines are all set to woo back their customers who had given up flying in the recent past due to high fares. On sunday, Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya promised to `slash' fares from January 1. While he did not quantify the cut, sources say it would be between 10% and 15%. Which means that in addition to last month's reduction of fuel surcharge by Rs 400, the fares could further drop between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

Jet Airways has decided to cut its basic fares by 15-40% to take on the competition with effect from Monday. So, overall fares of Naresh Goyal-promoted airline are expected to come down by 5-10%.

Air India is also about to announce a sizeable reduction in the first week of January as the aviation ministry has specifically asked it not to do a cosmetic farecut job. Low cost carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet are also working on offering attractive schemes, including low advance booking fares to get the AC II tier train traveller back in air.

Mallya said: "Kingfisher will begin the new year on an aggressive note by slashing airfares. The current low prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) allow Kingfisher to pursue an opportunity to significantly increase market share by offering the finest five star flying experience at reduced fares."

Airlines had introduced fuel surcharge of Rs 200 in November 2005 when ATF was costing Rs 35,761 per kilo litre in Delhi. As ATF rose to its highest ever level of Rs 71,028 (riding on crude) in August, surcharge was in range of Rs 2,250 to Rs 3,100. But when ATF fell by more than half last month and is currently at a three-year low, airlines cited huge losses and effected a mere Rs 400 cut in surcharge and that too was forced by AI taking the lea

There was increasing pressure on the aviation ministry that had ensured huge benefits for airlines to force airlines to lower fares now. "Airlines must pass on the benefit of cheaper fuel and get passengers back in air. Saying that the dues of past few cost hostile months will not allow them to drop fares, will only mean a dramatic drop in passenger numbers in the lean travel quarter of January-March," said a senior aviation ministry official.

Interestingly, Mallya's statement of eyeing a bigger market share also indicates that the present cost environment is such that airlines are now close to break-even points and planning to begin the fight for leadership again. Last month, the Jet-JetLite combine led the market with a 26.7% share followed by Kingfisher (with Air Deccan merged in it) at 25%. AI (domestic) was at 18% and IndiGo led the LCC segment with 14.7% share, followed by SpiceJet at 11%.

Notebook Sales Outpace Desktop Sales

"Eweek reports that notebook sales have surpassed desktop sales for the first time in history. 'In the third quarter of 2008, notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 percent compared with the same period of 2007 to reach 38.6 million units. Conversely, desktop PC shipments declined by 1.3 percent for the same period to 38.5 million units. "Momentum has been building in the notebook market for some time, so it's not a complete surprise that shipments have surpassed those of desktops," said iSuppli principal analyst for computer platforms Matthew Wilkins. "However, this marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook." ... The FBI's National Crime Information Center reported that the number of reported laptop thefts increased almost 48 percent over the last two years, to nearly 109,000 from 73,700.'"