Shilpa-Raj become Bachchans’ neighbours

Since the marriage couldn’t be postponed any further, thanks to the moody stars (we mean the ones above, not down below), Shilpa Shetty and her soon-to-be bridegroom Raj Kundra will move into a smaller brand-new place in a high-rise owned by Vashu Bhagnani in front of the Bachchans’ residence Jalsa, until Shilpa Shetty-Kundra’s dream home in Juhu is fully done up by Sussanne Roshan. Dream house or not, the marriage couldn’t be held off any more.

After the marriage, Shilpa and Raj Kundra will fly off to an unknown destination for their honeymoon. They shift into their Juhu residence in February or March. Immediately after the wedding, Shilpa and Raj will leave for Tirupathi and then to the Oneness University in Chennai too seek Shilpa’s spiritual guru’s blessings.“It was Sri Amma (the spiritual guru) who had predicted that Shilpa will get married this year. She almost did earlier this year.

Now it’s finally happening,” says Shilpa’s friend.“But what Shilpa is really happy about is that Raj Kundra is shifting permanently to Mumbai after marriage. The thought of a long-distance marriage was killing Shilpa. She knew it would be impractical. At the same time she would’ve been left with no choice if Raj had insisted on being Briton based.”

Bollywood Bombs at The Ballot Box

Bollywood took a beating at the ballot box Saturday, with Indian voters shunning a surge of high-profile actors and directors who were trying their hand as politicians.

This year's candidate list saw more celebrity names—sports stars and people from the country's varied movie industries—than ever, as parties in a heated race turned to star power to get voters' attention.

But in a better-than-expected victory for incumbent Indian National Congress, many of the big-name candidates didn't get the happy ending they'd thought had been scripted.

Among the losers: director Prakash Jha, Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna, actor Raj Babbar and TV talk-show host Shekhar Suman.

"You can't win elections if you're only a star," says Sanjay Kumar, a research fellow at the New-Delhi based Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

While some were fresh faces in politics, even long-time actors-turned-politicians lost. Mr. Khanna, who had been in Parliament since 1997, lost for the first time in over a decade.

The losing candidates weren't Bollywood's only disappointment for the day, either. Its other big election campaign—getting the vote out—also didn't pan out as scripted. A number of the biggest names in movies had appeared in music videos and television advertisements, encouraging Indians to head to the voting booth on polling day. (It helped that a strike in Bollywood had left many of them temporarily unemployed).

One, for example, was a spoof on a Bollywood music video. The original was about a young goof "Pappu" who can't dance. The get-out-the-vote version replaced the original lyrics— "He's muscular, he's popular/spectacular, he's a bachelor…But Pappu can't dance" —with "He's handsome, he's winsome, he's awesome…But Pappu doesn't vote."

But the ads, targeted at India's burgeoning young, urban population, failed to hit their mark. In Mumbai, home to India's biggest film industry, only 40% of voters turned out, down from the 44% that voted in 2004. Several of the film stars featured in the ads and music videos didn't vote themselves, either.

For many of the movie candidates who did win this year, it was a sizable party machinery behind them that helped. In Andhra Pradesh, south Indian actor Chiranjeevi started his own party, Praja Rajyam, found a slate of candidates and came in third with 18 seats in the state assembly, which also held elections the same time as the national polls.

"You need the support of the political party to win elections," says Mr. Kumar. "People may turn up at your election rallies to get a glimpse of you…but people want you to work."