Decide Akshay Kumar's 'Rowdy Rathore' look online

UTV Motion Pictures has launched an online hunt for the new look of actor Akshay Kumar for their new film "Rowdy Rathore".

"Akshay Kumar is shedding the uber-cool avatar and is set for sporting a rowdy look in his upcoming film 'Rowdy Rathore'. But he is not able to decide which moustache will bring out the rowdiness in him. Click to help him pick one," reads a post on the UTV Motion Pictures' Facebook page.

And the look that gets the maximum votes would be finalised for the film, which also stars Sonakshi Sinha.

Akshay is also learning traditional combat karate for his role in the film.

Directed by Prabhudeva, the film is produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ronnie Screwvala and designer Shabinaa Khan.

Khiladi Kumar's karate kick!

Mumbai, July 12 -- Currently in Malaysia attending the 12th MILO International Karate Championships, along with the winners of the Akshay Kumar's Karate Tournament 2010, Mehul Vora, the man who helped Akshay Kumar pioneer the biggest ever martial arts movement in Indian karate, is humbled at how the small initiative has turned into such a colossal sporting event.

If that wasn't all, the expert is also very excited with Akshay Kumar 's bigger ambitions of introducing Combat Karate at the Invitational National Karate Championship 2012. Says Vora, chief technical director of the tournament "Combat Karate is traditional style with emphasis on full contact sparring and self-defense techniques for survival, It is know by several names such as Kudo and Daidojuku."

Impressed with the sport popularly practiced in the underground sectors of South East Asia, Akshay Kumar along with Mehul Vora, aim to full fledgedly introduce it in the country with courses that will range from two months to five years, at academies, which will have branches all over India with Mumbai as its headquarter.

Talking about working with his mentor Akshay Kumar on the venture and Vora says, "The Shihan (teacher's teacher), as we call him, is very hard working, extremely dedicated, and down to earth. He expects all of us to excel like him, and is always there, when we need him. It's been an amazing decade knowing and working with him."

He goes on to say that while not many know that Akshay, while working on the 7 Deadly Sins Series, was simultaneously shooting for a film in Manali.

He says, "He (Akshay Kumar) would attend his shoot till late nights, wake at 4 am, shoot for the serial and go back for his film shoot. This made me just look up to the man. I am his follower till date and will be forever."

Bollywood lacks good young actors, says Kabir Bedi

Toronto, June 24 : Veteran actor Kabir Bedi rates Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor as the two best young actors in Bollywood today.

"But frankly there is dearth of young bright talented actors coming through. That's what Bollywood lacks today,'' feels Bedi who is one of the few Indian actors to make it to Hollywood.

"The problem could be also due to the fact that older actors keep reinventing themselves. Salman Khan is still there, Shah Rukh Khan is still ruling there. Akshay Kumar is there,'' Bedi told IANS here.

"But Ranbir and Shahid are the two most promising new-generation actors, and I want to see more young actors in Bollywood,'' he said.

However, he feels there is no death of young actresses.

"Bollywood has seen no such problem when it comes to new actresses. We have so many of them. We have just seen Anuskha Sharma come from nowhere. We have Deepita Padukone who too came from nowhere. We have Priyanka Chopra who has been on the scene for about 10 years now. She also came from nowhere. So I think are some very good young actresses.''

Asked what he thought of Deepa Mehta's description of Bollywood as "Indian kitsch'' and not true representative of Indian culture, he said, "Deepa is a great filmmaker of finer sensibilities. These may be her elitist views, but Bollywood does reflect India and its Indian culture. That it is has a huge audience worldwide shows that it reflects Indian culture.''

Later, speaking a discussion on 'Hollywood, Bollywood and Beyond,'' Bedi said Bollywood is a potent symbol of India.

He said though has not worked much in Bollywood, he has no hesitation calling himself a Bollywood actor.

"Bollywood is the most potent symbol of India. It has promoted (communal) unity. It has promoted Hindi as India's national language. Bollywood unites India,'' he said.