Shah Rukh Khan Arrested For Hoarding Kerosene, Amitabh Bachchan Spooked

Bollywood in 2003 (May 18-24)

Priyanka’s Andaaz: Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta’s first film, Andaaz, opened on 23^rd May to excellent houses. Although Priyanka had appeared in The Hero before ‘Andaaz’, she was not in the main lead in that film. Akshay Kumar played the hero in ‘Andaaz’ which became a box-office hit.

Amitabh Spooked!: A special preview show of Bhoot was arranged for Amitabh Bachchan at Film City on 20^th May. After the show, the superstar complimented director Ram Gopal Varma for scaring the daylights out of him.

Bollywood in 1998 (May 17 – 23)

Major Saab: The audio cassettes of ABCL’s Major Saab were formally released on 18th May at the temple in Super Cassettes’ office compound at the hands of Jaya Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, director Tinnu Anand, Nafisa Ali, Sonali Bendre, music director Anand Raaj Anand and Aadesh Shrivastava were present.

Sick Leave: Music director Laxmikant (of Laxmikant-Pyarelal) took seriously ill and was admitted to Nanavati Hospital in Bombay. He was suffering from cancer and his kidneys had failed.

Off To America: Director Rishi Kapoor and a 70-member unit left for America on 21st May for a 45-day-long shooting schedule of Aa Ab Laut Chalen. Four songs and scenes were to be picturised. After this spell, the film was almost complete. Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai, Suman Ranganath, Kader Khan, Paresh Rawal, Alok Nath, Satish Kaushik, Jaspal Bhatti and Himani Shivpuri comprised the cast.

Shaktiman’s Troubles: Following the popularity of Mukesh Khanna’s TV serial, ‘Shaktiman’,especially among children, some gutka and supari manufacturers launched their products under the name of ‘Shaktiman’. Mukesh Khanna had then decided to move the court against such manufacturers.

Bollywood in 1993 (May 16 – 22)

Amitabh Rushes Home: Amitabh Bachchan, who had gone abroad to participate in stage shows, had to rush to India for a couple of days as his father, Harivanshrai Bachchan, was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital for a surgery. He flew back to perform at a stage show on 22nd May and reached just a few hours before the show commenced!

Shah Rukh Hoarding Kerosene?: Shah Rukh Khan was arrested in New Delhi on 19th May on charges of hoarding kerosene and was released soon thereafter on bail. The alleged hoarding was done by an agency company owned by Shah Rukh’s late mother. The actor had, after his mother’s death, applied for transferring the agency in his name.

Studious: Meenakshi Sheshadrai appeared for Bombay University’s M.A. Part I examinations which began on 19th May and ended on 27^th May.

Tax Exemption For Damini: Rajkumar Santoshi’s Rishi Kapoor, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Sunny Deol starrer, Damini, was granted perpetual exemption from payment of entertainment tax in Maharashtra. The film began to be shown at tax-free rates with effect from 21st May.

No Snips For Khal-Nayak: Subhash Ghai’s Khal-Nayak was seen by the Central Board of Film Certification on 18th May and was offered a ‘UA’ certificate with six cuts. The controversial Choli ke peechhe kya hai song was cleared as it was not found objectionable. The same song had been objected to in the trailer but Ghai had maintained that the CBFC officials would not find it objectionable if they judged it in the entirety of the film.