Snapshots: Koena Mitra on Gladrags cover

Happy Birthday, Koena!

Koena Mitra is turning a year older today and she is very much in Mumbai and looking forward to her friends making the day special for her!

"I know Tanushree Dutta has planned something. But I don't know what it is," she giggles.

Tanushree seems enormously excited by Koena's birthday.

"She's my best friend and naturally I've plans. Me and a few other friends will go to her house to bring in her birthday, and after our celebrations, we'll crash out at Koena's house. Then during the day we have little surprises planted for Koena all over the house!"

Bollywood Buzz wishes Koena a very Happy Birthday :o)

Bollywood babes performing on New Year's Eve

It's that time of the year when everyone says Goodbye! to the year gone by and get all geared up to say Welcome! to the New Year.

In between the departure of the old year and the advent of New Year lies something like the midnight for which everyone waits with bated breath, to welcome the New Year with open arms.

For the urban crowd, the New Year celebrations include shelling out money in some of the 5 star mega structured hotels to see some of the Bollywood heroines, performing live.

But the flip side of the coin is that this money gets translated into a pot-full of moolah, for these heroines, and these pot-full goes to the tunes of anywhere between a few lakhs till crores, depending upon the saleability quotient of the star.

Bollywood Buzz brings to you an insight of the star-charges and the places where you can go star-hunting (with the damages, of course!)

Topping this year's pricey-list is none other than Bipasha Basu who will be performing at the JW Marriott, Juhu.

She is reportedly said to be charging a staggering Rs 90 lakhs!

The costs of the tickets are kept at Rs 11,500 per person (including taxes and food). But then, who needs booze when the intoxicating Bips is around!

Though some portion of the market says that the figures have just been exaggerated (and that the actual figures rest at Rs 72 lakhs), whereas the other portion of the market says that the figure quoted is lesser than what she is charging (and that the actual figures rest at a staggering Rs 1.23 crores!)

Rumors have it that come what may, Bipasha cannot be a Mallika Sherawat as the latter's pull is far greater than the former.

Last year, Mallika pulled off a show-stopper of a show with a price tag attached of Rs 50 lakhs for a half-an-hour performance!

The Drama Queen Rakhi Sawant, along with her boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi and DJ Whosane, will also be performing on New Year's Eve.

You can find all of them performing at Tulip Star Hotel, Juhu. The charges here are Rs 7000 for a couple entry with unlimited food and drinks.

Rakhi is reported to have charged the organizers a whopping Rs 51 lakhs for her performance!

Rumors are also rife that Rakhi will make the most of this platform to project her angst against Star TV for their allegedly rigged voting system in Nach Baliye, where she and her boyfriend Abhishek lost to Sanjeeda Sheikh and Aamir Ali.

Not far behind are Tanushree Dutta and Koena Mitra, who will be joined along with the songster Mika in Sahara Star, Mumbai.

The rates of the tickets here are priced at Rs 20,000 for couples and Rs 11,500 for singles.

Koena is supposedly charging the organizers Rs 27 lakhs for her 16 minute performance whereas Tanushree Dutta has been signed up for Rs 15 lakhs for her 24 minutes performance.

The next in row are an array of celebrities who will be India-trotting as a part of their New Year performances:

Amrita Arora (performing in Bangalore) and Malaika Arora (performing in Delhi)

Neha Dhupia - performing in Ahmedabad.

Udita Goswami - performing in Pune.

One of the event organizers said, "The charges of these stars are directly proportional to their popularity. Malaika Arora command easily upto Rs 25-30 lakhs whereas Amrita Arora charges Rs 12 lakhs.

Neha Dhupia charges anywhere between Rs 15-20 lakhs and Udita Goswami, who used to charge Rs 15 lakhs for any performance earlier, has now reduced to Rs 5-8 lakhs."

With so much happening this New Year's Eve, who wouldn't wanna be a sell-e-brity!!

Koena to play superwoman in Pritish Nandy's Karna

Koena Mitra has recently signed an international project worth Rs 70 crore called Karna in which she is supposed to play a superwoman.

Karna will be shot in Hong Kong and China and will have a lot special effects.

Koena has been training hard for her role in the film. She has already trained in Tai Chi and other martial arts for the film in May and June. She also did a teaser for the film which is expected to be aired by the end of the year.

The film is going to be made in collaboration with Pritish Nandy Communications and is aiming for an August 2008 release.

It is believed that a Los Angeles-based company got in touch with Pritish Nandy to recommend an actor for the role, which required an Indian face and a flexible body.

Koena is the female lead and talks are on to sign a leading Hollywood actor the male lead. Apparently Orlando Bloom has shown interest in the project.

Stay tuned in!

Koena refused to go topless

Most actresses would love to be featured on the cover of top international magazines but Koena Mitra turned down a offer from an Indian edition of an international magazine because they wanted her to pose topless.

Koena says the concept was scary. “They wanted a suggestive cover where it looked as if I am not wearing anything on top. They said they would give me a tube top to be on the safe side but readers and my family won’t know that. And how would I face my father after posing for such a cover?” wonders the actress.

Koena adds that the magazine told her that she was the only person whom they could think of who could carry off such a picture. “They said that apart from having a great body there is a lot of dignity on my face. According to them, I have the correct face and body language for such a shoot.”

A lonely birthday for Koena Mitra

Actress Koena Mitra, who turned a year older on sunday, will have a quiet birthday as she is down with viral fever and her family is also not in town.

"My parents are in Kolkata. My mom was calling every half an hour yesterday pretending she didn't remember my birthday," Koena said.

"It's no fun without my family," she said adding that a bunch of close friends would land up.

Koena's 'unforgettable night' with Nelly Furtado

Koena Mitra, who is still struggling to find a foothold in Bollywood, is going ga ga over her New Year's Eve performance with renowned Canadian singer Nelly Furtado.

"It was a night I'd never forget. It wasn't just the best live show I've performed in, but the best live show I've ever seen," Koena said.

Hours after she finished performing with Furtado, composer A R Rahman, Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapur, Koena can't stop raving about the experience at the Andheri Sports Complex.

"For four hours the young crowds were on their feet. I had never performed in front of a standing crowd before. Normally, when you've a seated crowd you could end up with the worst deal... audiences eating, or worse drinking, as you perform. For once the crowds were totally with us. All of us - Nelly, Priyanka, Shahid, Rahmanji and me --felt so alive. There was no room to get tired. The audiences' enthusiasm just kept our energy level going."

Koena's medley of all her hit songs was followed by a together act with Priyanka.

"And at the end we were all invited by Rahmanji on stage to bring in 2007 at midnight. We all sang 'Humma Humma' (from 'Bombay') to bring in the New Year. Really, it was four hours of undiluted fun. I can't think of a better way to bring in the New Year."

Koena is bowled over by the sheer professionalism of the firangis.

"I'm not just talking about the sound and equipment, but also the sheer ambience created."

After the show Koena had no energy to do anything else.

"I just came home and kept watching clippings of our show on television. The next few days, I'm just chilling at home visiting friends and shopping."