Bangkok, (PTI) Newest Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone were adjudged best debutant actors while “Om Shanti Om” swept a number of technical honours at this year’s International Indian Film Academy awards here tonight.

Preity Zinta has been shooting Samir Karnik’s movie Mera Bharat Mahaan in Punjab. Shooting on the outskirts of Chandigarh is a welcome change for Preity who is known for shooting most of her films abroad. And in this time of the year when Punjab has witnessed good rains in June and nature is lush green there, Preity is appreciating the beauty of the hinterland.

MUMBAI: Urvashi Sharma, who is making her debut in Bollywood with “Naqaab”, shared a common bond with her co-star Bobby Deol. The actors have a Punjabi connection.

Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee and producer-director Aditya Chopra had a quiet engagement and are said to be getting married soon.

Punjabi singer Bhupinder Singh Chawla ‘Bhuppi’ has come a long way from Khalli Balli. He represents that new brand of young Indian musicians who combine both the western and the eastern in their songs, who can regale audiences with the raunchiest but are not rootless.

Renowned humorist, Jaspal Bhatti has announced to launch Punjab’s first full-fledged Film and Animation School at Mohali in Punjab

Here comes a Hindi film in Punjabi, a film that is supposed to be laced with all elements of the culture of the land. We have the mandatory bhangra sequence, women in heaps of jewellery, men with muscles and the mandatory talk of push-ups. Then there is doodh, dahi and makhan. Along the way it does a lot of damage to Punjabiyat.