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| License to thrill: Eva Green and Daniel Craig |
“Vesper is not the classic Bond girl, wearing a bikini and firing guns,” says French actress Eva Green who plays the alluring and enigmatic beauty who steals the heart of the seemingly impermeable 007 in Casino Royale, releasing worldwide next Friday.
“The relationship between Vesper and Bond is the spine of the story, and we needed an actress who could hold her own against Bond,” says director Martin Campbell . “Eva has all the qualities we were after: she’s a terrific actress, she’s gorgeous and she has an air of mystery about her.”
The Parisian-born Green, who made her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, says: “It’s one of the best scripts I’ve read in a long time. It’s deep, with lots of twists and turns, and the love story moved me. Vesper is a complex person. She is full of secrets and I think that is why James Bond is attracted to her — because he can’t really see through her. She has many layers — she’s sharp, sassy, quick-witted, but also vulnerable.”
“Hypnotic and magnetic” are the words Green uses to describe her co-star Craig. “He is sexy and not self-conscious. I definitely feel there’s chemistry between us on screen.”
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| Three wise men: Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Suresh Menon |
Sabsey Favourite Kaun, STAR Gold’s mega Bollywood opinion poll is all set to roll again from December 30. But this time, the popular show goes international. The opinion poll will cover a host of nations with Bollywood fanatics, including West Asia, Southeast Asia, USA, UK, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand.
The only poll of its kind where the winners are decided completely by fan votes, Sabsey Favourite Kaun will kick off with Fan Van, a nationwide poll drive, covering over 33 Indian cities.
Says Deepak Segal, executive vice-president, content, STAR India: “We wanted to have a global perspective on Bollywood’s popularity. According to Time magazine, the global audience of Bollywood is 3.6 billion against Hollywood’s 2.6 billion.”
The hosts for this year will be Bollywood actors Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak and Suresh Menon taking over from Arshad Warsi and Maria Gorretti. Accompanying them will be the super talented Ayesha Takia. Watch the first episode of Sabsey Favourite Kaun on Sunday at noon.
On Wednesday, the House of Commons will play host to the official announcement of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend and the IIFA Awards, to take place in Yorkshire in June 2007.
IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan will be speaking at the reception alongside the likes of Tessa Jowell (Secretary of State), Jack Straw (Leader of the House) and Kamlesh Sharma (High Commissioner of India to the UK).
Dignitaries will be speaking about the economic benefit for both national and regional business partnerships with India.
Bachchan will focus on the rising popularity of Indian cinema as a major global business with an estimated world audience for IIFA Awards 2007 pegged at over 480 million.
The House of Commons function will be followed by a five-city launch the next day in the company of the mayors of York, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford, who will flag off the IIFA weekend announcement along with Bachchan.
The five-city launch will be hosted by the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT), Bradford.
