Bollywood Blogs Network

new Download Hind Songs launched in August

2009-10-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to announce this, but I'm here. The new Download Hindi Songs blog is now live and working. It was actually launched back in August, but for one reason or another I didn't write about it here on BBN earlier.

The site uses the original DHS design, but with the power of WordPress I've added a few new features here and there. The most obvious and most important one is the new MP3 player. Now users can listen to Hindi songs online.

To all the BBN members, if you're still active, I would appreciate it if you update your links to my site. The new URL is http://www.newdownloadhindisongs.com. I've already added all the BBN blogs to my blogroll.

Anyway, I hope everyone's doing fine. I've noticed some of you guys have stopped blogging or blog rarely. I hope things are going well in your personal lives.

Take care,

My Blog Has Been Deleted! WTF!!

2009-06-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

My blog http://downloadhindisongs.blogspot.com has been deleted for some reason. This morning after breakfast, I logged in to check for comments, and what I found was nothing! The whole blog has disappeared! I didn't receive no warning or anything from Google so I'm not sure what's going on. Google Webmaster Tools which gives me warnings about my blog from time to time isn't saying anything either.

Has anyone else had this problem before? I would really appreciate any and all help in this matter. I had that blog since mid 2006, that's 3 years already and I've put so much of my time and effort to build it, and now it is gone just like that. I'm really frustrated and disappointed right now. Google Help isn't that much of help either. There's no way to contact Google, they keep sending me from one help page to another, none of which have the answer to my problem.

I don't know what to do. To all the regular visitors of my blog, sorry for all the inconvenience. This is out of my hands. I'll still be looking to see what I can do, so hang in there. And thank you for all the support you have been giving me for the past 3 years!!

DJ,
from the now-non-existent http://downloadhindisongs.blogspot.com

Film Camp - Banglore

2007-10-05T11:02:00.001-07:00

“FilmCamp”, a platform to encourage and promote independent film makers. Also to share, learn and appreciate the art of film making. This event is the first of its kind this season happening at the Center for Management Studies, Jain Group of Institutions, Bangalore, where independent film makers get to showcase their works to a wider audience which includes other film-makers, professionals and critics from the film industry.

I am looking forward to this event tomorrow.
Details are here.
All are Welcome.
cheers
jhaji.

Muvie Geek does a u-turn

2007-09-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

That's right people! Just like they say in Bollywood, nothing's for certain.... the dead don't stay dead for long. Guess the same applies for Muvie Geek. Just when it was declared dead and a proper funeral was held, it shamelessly rises up again.

When it comes to being lazy, the people at Blogger.com have put me to shame for their lack of good templates has forced me to move out to somewhere else... a place that offered better sex and better templates. It was bang on!

Muvie Geek is now located at http://muviegeek.vox.com . Keep checking it now for updates shall hopefully be regular.

Till then, peace n out,
The man you people have always looked upto,
The Exinator

Velu's Blog URL Change

2007-07-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Velu's changed the name and address of his blog from: http://tvnair.blogspot.com

to: http://moviezmazaa.blogspot.com/

So can everybody please change the link to his blog on your list. I've changed it on BBN, and my blog.

Hello Bollywood Bloggers from Bombay !!!

2007-05-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

1. As the invite says, we need for you to confirm your attendance to us via email.

2. You can come if you’re a veteran blogger / a new blogger / a blog reader / a blog commentator / a blog stalker (though we will kill you) or just a friend of a blogger (though I know most of us have few of these).

3. Entrance is @ Rs. 150/- per head and covers the entrées and NOT booze.

and last and most importantly…..

4. DO SPREAD THE WORD.

Believe me, this is going to be one heck of a meet you don’t wanna miss.

I am looking forward to this meet,it will be my first such meet.I read this invite here , here and here

All are Welcome.
cheers
jhaji.

Get To Know Bollywood Better With Desi Galaxy

2007-03-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

We have one more person joining the BBNetwork boat, and she is Sabeen from Desi Galaxy. She has been "celebrating the celebrities of Desi stardom" since November 2005, long before some of us new what blogging was.

Desi Galaxy is more about the actors and actresses of Bollywood than it is about the movies. Sabeen introduces and explains to us the men and women behind our favorite (or not so favorite) filmi charactors, musicians, and other behind the scene artists responsible for all the glamour and appeal of Bollywood So if you want to get to know your favorite stars better, head over to Desi Galaxy. And please welcome her to BBNetwork.

Geek Of All Trades Takes On Hindi Films

2007-03-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

I would like you all to join me in welcoming Carla to The Network. Hindi films make up only one of her geekinesses; others include art, baseball, catblogging, comics, food, languages, law, magic, movies (all sorts), music, news, politics, religion, science, self-reflection, technology, and last but not least the internet. Wew! All trades that is!

Carla is not new to Hindi films, and neither is Filmi Geek a new blog. Carla has written over 90 Hindi film reviews to date, ranging from the 1950s films to the latest, e.g. Eklavya and The Namesake. Being a true geek of both films and languages, Carla's reviews are full of all the lingo one would expect from pro film critics (or my eglish teacher, God knows how much she hated me for not taking her class seriously :p). Add that to her deeply thoughtful and unique perspective on each film and you have a film review that is always a pleasure to read.

Welcome to BBNetwork Carla, very glad to have you aboard!

Forced To Upgrade

2007-02-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

I was forced to upgrade my account to the new version of Blogger. In the beginning, when I logged into my old Blogger account, I was given two choices: continue to dashboard, and upgrade your account. But for the last few weeks (yes weeks) they had removed the "continue to dashboard" option. So today, I had to do it; I had to upgrade in order to update my blog.

My concerns were: 1) Would I be able to use my old template with the new Blogger? and 2) As BBNetwork is a team blog, would this upgrade affect other members in terms of them being able to login and post on this blog? The old template can obviously be used the new Blogger, as you can see. We have the choice of either using the classic templates (i.e. our own designs) or the newer templates with all the new fancy coding which I found very hard to modify.

As for the concern #2, I don't know, yet. That is something I would need to hear from you. Please tell me if this has had any (bad) effects on you as a team/network member. Any changes? ha?

Farhan Akhtar's Don

2006-11-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Exinator,

I did check out your blog Muvie Geek and found it very interesting. Your choice of favourite films (on your profile) is absolutely hilarious! You have a great sense of humour!

I also checked out the posts on your blogs and found it quite entertaining especially your take on Farhan Akhtar’s Don. You and I had pretty similar reasons for watching Farhan Akhtar’s Don. I watched it not for Shahrukh Khan but for Farhan Akhtar as well because I have tremendous respect for him as a film-maker. Like you, I also tried not to compare the earlier Don with the new one because it’s unfair. However, comparison was inevitable. Though I feel that Farhan Akhtar has managed to hold on to his own knowing fully well that critics would be waiting to bay for his blood upon the release of his remake of this 1978 classic! However, I think that inspite of keeping the basic premise same, he has beautifully adapted his version of Don to suit the present generations’ sensibilities.

I have written about Farhan Akhtar’s Don twice. Once prior to watching it and once after watching. I would love it if you could check out my posts on Farhan Akhtar’s Don and let me know of what you think. After reading your posts, I got a sense that both of us had different views on Farhan Akhtar’s Don.

Anyways, happy Bollywood Blogging to everybody and have a great weekend!!!!

Movie Geek's in da house!

2006-11-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our newest member here at BBNetwork, The Exinator! The man doesn't call himself a Muvie Geek just because he watches movies and writes about them, but movies are his field of study and he plans to be a film maker and/or actor in the future. He is also into stand up comedy which means that his blogs are very fun to read. His blog Muvie Geek is all about the good the bad and the ugly of the Hindi film industry (as Big B prefers to call it).

He is also a regular contributor at sXcentral, a very fun blog to visit. Well Exinator, welcome to BBN and we wish all the best with your acting/film-making career. I know it is shameful to write such a short post after delaying for so long. That makes me wonder why I always failed English, history and geography classes...hmmmm!

Pappupager Get Trivial with Bollywood Trivia

2006-11-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

Once we spot an actor or a movie that we really enjoy watching, we want to know more about them. We want to know about the life of the actor, we want to know more than we just see on the screen. That is where Bollywood Trivia comes in with all the facts and trivia about Bollywood. Pappupager reveals the most interesting little facts behind all the glamor of Bollywood that we normally don't get to know. It's not gossip and rumors , but little-known truths that Pappu writes about.

Pappupager, I owe you an apology for taking so long to write this post. I am so sorry buddy. I just hope that you are not mad at me, even though you have every right to be. I know this is not the best welcome post for you, but I guess something is better than nothing.

BollyBooing with BollyBitch

2006-09-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

The first time I ever chanced upon BollyBitch's blog, BooBollywood, was thanks to Jhaji, and his amazing Blogywood. To say that I have been hooked ever since, would be an understatement. BollyBitch takes blogging to Bitching Heights with an amazing ease and that should undoubtedly turn quite a few Bollycrazyheads.

In an 'endeavour to lift the veil of hype off the stars', she indulges in a 'fun take on the masala, action, heroes and heroines of Hindi cinema'. And spices it up all, with the most masaledaar pics as accompaniments. She makes mincemeat of the 'fakes' as she calls them, armed with her Pest Spray, and do not be surprised if you fall off your chair guffawing in the process.

All set for Booing Bollywood??

BollyBitch is here with a BANG!

Rajpal Yadav Is Funny as .....

2006-09-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find a word to finish that title. I recently got to watch Chup Chup Ke, and boy was it fun to watch. I specially loved Rajpal Yadav's character. Since getting the DVD, I have watched his scenes more than 10 times and I loved it everytime.

The first time I noticed him in a comedy role was in Hangama. I specially loved the scene where Rajpal was booking a room in a hotel, my brother was the one who was watching that scene again and again that made me notice it. Since then I have been so eagerly watching his movies, well not all but I guess most of them.

I wanted to put together all the parts of Chup Chup Ke with Rajpal in them and upload them on YouTube.com but someone had already uploaded the whole movie. Here are two clips that I think are the funniest of all. If you want to watch the rest of the clips from this movie, click here.

Rajpal has another movie on the way where he plays the lead role. I love the name 'Kujli' with the tagline 'Sab Ko Hai'. Hope to see him in his best form.

Babasko aur Bollywood!

2006-09-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

My apologies - this post has been a long time coming. Unfortunately I can't keep track of anything I do, whereas Babasko is able to juggle not only her obsession with Bollywood, but also several almost-as-important real-life issues like jobs and nephews!

In her blog Baba Aur Bollywood (which, loosely translated, I believe means "Baba and Bollywood"), Babasko reviews new releases, revisits old favorites, and always includes the daily recommended dose of eye candy, usually in the form of movie stills or fake-pretend movie extramarital affairs (KANK, anyone?).

Drop by Babasko's blog for fantastic fun, pic-heavy posts, and a diverse selection of film reviews hard to find anywhere else in the blogosphere!

Is Bollyblogging For You?

2006-09-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Most of us, if not all, have some pictures or ideas of our ideal lifestyles in our heads. The lifestyle where we are happy and there is everything that we want to have in our lives - e.g. family, friends, kids, fancy cars, a nice house - or we are doing what want to do - playing sports, writing, performing, singing, teaching - or whatever else that you want is part of that ideal lifestyle. Hopefully, that is what we all are working hard to achieve. By now, you might be thinking what does it all have to do with Bollyblogging, right?

After being part of the blogosphere, specially bollyblogs, for quite some months now, I have a pretty good idea of how time consuming it can be. After spending hours and hours of my time reading and writing blogs, it finally occured to me that the type of blogs I'm involved in aren't helping me go toward my ideal lifestyle. I am personally very interested in fitness, surfing and everything else that's done on the beach.

Blogs can be very inspiring if used properly. For instance, if you are into fitness and working out, by writing your goals and ways/steps of achieving them on a blog and then publishing them for the world to read is making a commitment in itelf. Everytime you read that post, your determination and commitment toward that goal strenghthens. It is also helped by people leaving comments, specially positive ones, encouraging and appreciating your decision. This is just an example. Your goal could be having fun, and taking life easy. And bollyblogging fits that description quite well. I'm in no way saying blogging about Bollywood and movies is not valueable and worthy of your time. It definitely is. Through my blog Download Hindi Songs and this blog I have come across some unforgetably beautiful music that I can't help but appreciate and enjoy. And I have made quite a few good friends, and that is very valueable for me. But it is also true that it has led to getting too involved with movies and celebrities. So I need to find a balance between my blogging time and the rest of my life. Here in Australia, summer is coming up and I'm definitely going to be spending more time outside the house. But I will also dedicate some time to my blogs.

With all that said, let me ask you: is bollyblogging for you? Is it taking you where you want to go?

Maja Mazaa!

2006-09-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bollywood is Good for you! So declares Maja on her homepage that has the popular Mumbai based Hindi language film industry in India written all over it. Its an immense pleasure welcoming Maja aboard!

Her interests span variegated realms as Movies, Music, Books, Podcasts, Photography and Travelling. An impressive link roll that she sports on her blog, speaks it all!! She's a self-confessed Abhishek Bachan admirer, and writes about films with a passion that is at once simple, eloquent and elegant. She's quite a voluminous writer too, and you are quite likely to find a new post on her awesome blog almost every day. Unless ofcourse she's travelling.

Do check out her Black, 3 Deewarein, Dhoom, Salaam Namaste, KANK, Do Aur Do Paanch reviews and tons more for, hold your breath, the single month of August!!! So now you get the pretty picture, I guess!!

Folks, time to get hit by the Maja Magic!

Mauj Masti Aur Naach Gaana, Bollystyle; Maja ke Saath!

Lights, Camera, Action! with Sanjay Jha

2006-09-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here at the BBN, we are honored to have a new member among us. We present to you Sanjay Jha, Bollywood filmmaker as well as Bollywood blogger.

Glancing at his IMDb page, it appears that Sanjay is experienced both in front of and behind the camera. For example, he not only acted in the great action flick Mission Kashmir, he also was the assistant director. His directorial debut Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye, in fact, is the basis for Bollywoodblogger's Bloggers Meet Director", an exciting cross-continental look at Bollywood film! Sanjay also has another film in the works, Strings - Bound by Faith.

In addition to filmmaking, Sanjay also hosts several blogs: Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye, Strings - Bound by Faith, and the ultra-cool Blogywood, a compendium of Bollywood-related blogs!

And so, a big round of applause for our newest member, Sanjay Jha!

August In A Glance

2006-08-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

August was quite a month!! Lots of things heppened! Here on BBNetwork, we had Velu and Totally Basmatic join the Network, bringing along their excellent blogs with them. There have been quite some activities on their blogs and mine during August.

Things Happened At Velu's Movies:
Velu wrote his only review of the month about Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. I'd never seen a post with 67 comments before. You sometimes read a post and afterwards go 'ok' and leave the blog. That's it. But there are those other well written posts that are so good and on the point OR so controversial and against your believes that you have to respond to them. Well, his review is of the second category.

Update: Velu actually wrote another review about Classmates at the last minutes of August which I didn't notice to mention here.

Things That Happened At Totally Basmatic's Place:
TB did a whole lot of things in August. The most salient of all was her trip to see her family, and being an extra in KANK (which I sadly missed). She talks about that experience of hers in her review of KANK. While she was away, her sister Fireball guest-posted her totally basmatic review of Jaani Dushman. Loved that review.

TB herself watched a whole lot of movies, and wrote some great reviews about Fanaa, On 2 Ka 4, Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya, Caravan, Anamika and Dil Maange More. Great stuff!

Things That Happened At My Place:
14 of my 21 posts during the month of August included downloads of movie soundtracks, latest being Don's. I posted only 4 song videos which is a shame. I could have done more of that. I've come across some really cool videos on YouTube.com but failed to post them on DHS.

At the very last days of the month I was confronted with the qestion of legality of my content. That has changed my plans for DHS's future.

Well, that was a quick preview of what have happened on BBNetwork member blogs. We will soon have some more members, who will also, hopefully, write on BBN, beside my boring posts.

Blogger Tip - Making Your Menu Permanent

2006-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

While going through some of the bollyblogs, I noticed that when you go to the specific page of a post (by clicking the Permalink), majority of the items on the navigation/menu/sidebar disappears. 'Previous Posts' is the only part that remains intact. As an example, look at Beth's post and Totally Basmatic's post on Anamika. You can see the list of links that are present on the main page aren't there on these pages.

If you want it to be like that, that's absolutely fine. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you are like me, and want the content of your sidebar to appear on all pages the same way then you need to retouch the html code of your template.

How to do this:

By default, Blogger creates a 'Links' section, like the image below, on every new blog.

Here is how the code looks like: (click to enlarge)

To make this list appear on all the pages what you need to do is to delete the part shown in orange. It's that simple.

We usually copy this code for every other list of links that we want to make. So in all instances, you need to remove that part to make the list appear on all pages. A lot of you might already know this, but I thought it is worth mentioning for those who haven't noticed this yet.

NOTE: If you have some useful Blogger/Blogspot tricks and techniques, please do share them with. Thank you.

Sneak Preview of SRK's Don

2006-08-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

"I am a King!" - SRK
Here is a sneak preview of Shahrukh Khan's upcoming movie DON - The Chase Begins Again. Looks pretty promising to me. SRK looks very good too, like a don. Other cast of the movie include Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor.

DON's music will be released on 23rd of August, and the movie itself is set for a October 20 release.

Munna Bhai Goes To Hollywood

2006-08-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

Tanya Palta briefly mentions in her post about Lage Raho Munna Bhai that a Hollywood version of the original Munna Bhai MBBS will be made, called Gangster MD.

This news interested me so much that I had to dig some more. A simple google search revealed that this news dates way back to April of 2005, and yet so few websites ever mention it, even though hundreds of posts and news articles are being written about Lage Raho Munna Bhai every week. Big deal? Hell yeah, big deal. This is the first time the rights for a Bollywood movie is bought by a major Hollywood studio, Twentieth Century Fox. THE FIRST TIME! This can do a lot for Bollywood in terms of acceptance, popularity and recognition worldwide.

Chris Tucker is said to play the role of Munna Bhai, originally played by Sanjay Dutt. According to IMDB, Gangster MD is planned for 2007. I'll be looking forward to watching this one for sure!

Read more:
- MUNNABHAI MBBS a.k.a. GANGSTER MD - Hollywood Masala
- Hollywood buys hit movie - News 24
- Mira Nair to direct Chris Tucker in Gangster M.D. - Monsters and Critics

KANK Disappoints Fans

2006-08-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's been some days since the release (11th August) of one of the most aticipated movies of the year Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna starring Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerjee, and Pretty Zinta. After spending a whopping 50 crore rupees, and casting some of the biggest names of Bollywood, KANK is total disappointment. I believe it is just a waste of money, time and a lot of talent of the star cast.

Velu has written an excellent review of KANK over at Velu's Movies. You need to read this if you are still not sure if you want to watch the movie.

Making Somethings Clear - The Ads

2006-08-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

One of the things I would like to make clear is why I am placing the Google AdSense ads all over the pages. I wasn't intending to place ads anywhere on this blog, because this blog belongs to all our members. I don't want to keep a single cent earned from this blog for myself. However, my other blog, Download Hindi Songs, made about $35 last month from the ads (which will hopefully pay for a hosting plan and a domain name for a personal website I'm intending to create, if it keeps performing that way._

That gave me an idea about what we could do by running ads on this blog.

From the money that might come from those ads, we can run contests or group projects that anyone or selected people could participate in, either on this blog or on one of our member's blog, and we could use that money to buy some cool stuff for the winner, for example a DVD of the winner's favorite movie or music CD. It will provide something fun for everyone to do.

I've been running those ads since July 31st. With an average of only 7 visitors a day, the ads have made USD0.07, which isn't much at all. Neither is the visitors' number.

Blog Visitors (click to enlarge)

Ad Statistics

With getting more visitors with time and popularity, if it performs as well as DHS, we can have contests or group projects every month or even every couple of weeks, if things turnout good. However, for now it remains only as an idea and a good wish that might materialize or may not.

I would to love know your opinion, so please don't hesitate to comment.

NOTE: Please DO NOT click the ads if they do not interest you. That might earn us a few cents, it will cost the advertiser more than twice that much (more than half of the advertising revenue goes to Google). Excessive and useless clicks may also get me banned. So please be considerate.

More Value With Velu's Movies

2006-08-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to announce that another awsome blog, Velu's Movies, has joined us at BBNetwork. As the title says, the blog belongs to Velu who writes reviews about the latest Hindi movies.

Being a teacher, Velu knows how to play with words very well. That makes his reviews very interesting to read. Well, that is not the only ingredient of his writings. Velu has a very good eye for details and the ability of not getting emotionally involved with the plot of the movie, unlike myself, which allows him to stand back and look at all the different aspects of the movie. When you are visiting his blog, be sure to have a dictionary beside, 'cause you will need it quite often. Take this excerpt from his latest post as an example:

...a meticulous exploration into the capricious human psyche that has, forever been excruciatingly dissected and laid out in a platter.

Beside all that, Velu's blogging history (since September 2005) and his willingness to help makes him a great asset in BBNetwork. Welcome aboard Velu!!

PS. It took me a little while to make this announcement. Apologies for that, Velu. In the future, I'll let you and Basmatic to do this. I'm not good with words at all.