If you live in the United States and love to watch Bollywood movies, you have a few options such a renting a movie on YouTube or iTunes. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can get a few Bollywood movies there as well. If you happen to live in an area with a large Indian population, you may have a video store in your city. Now you have another option - "The Bollywood Box". We visited on the Bollywood box at the Al Markaz grocery store in Carrollton. Unlike Red Box, this is inside the supermarket so you have to use it only during store hours. The box is nice and colorful and certainly draws attention. The rental is $1.59 for the first night and then $1.29 for each additional night. They seemed to have a good collection of movies with some new movies like 'Bodyguard' and 'Ra.One', some slightly old but popular movies such as 'K3G' and 'Rang De Basanti' and of course the really old classics like 'Kashmir Ki Kali' and 'Yaadon Ki Baarat'. They also had Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies as well.

Verdict : This is certainly something new and may work in areas with large desi population. However, many movies are available for free on Youtube or for Netflix users and they may not need to use the Bollywood box. They also did not have Blu-ray as an option which would be a good addition. They have 4 boxes in Dallas with 2 more coming up soon so it may actually catch. Looking forward to the next few months to see how it goes. No news on other markets.

There are 4 Bollywood box locations in the Dallas area now

• Al Markaz in Carrollton
  
• Indo-Pak in Carrollton
  
• Taj Grocers
  
• Taj Mahal Imports 

Also see our section on how you can see Indian movies legally online.

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Agneepath  is an upcoming remake of the 1990 Hindi film of the same name. It is produced by Karan Johar and directed by Karan Johar's former assistant Karan Malhotra. Hrithik Roshan will play the role originally played by Amitabh Bachchan. Priyanka Chopra will be the female lead. The character played by Mithun Chakraborty has been totally done away with in the remake. The main villain will be played by Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor will play another negative character. It has been reported that Zarina Wahab will play Hrithik's mother.Shooting took place in Mumbai's film city and Gujarat's Diu, India. In a small Indian Village Mandwa, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan (Hrithik Roshan) is taught about the path of fire (Agneepath) by his principled father. His life is shattered completeley when the evil drug lord Kancha Cheena (Sanjay Dutt) hangs his father to death, Vijay leaves for Bombay with his pregnant mother, and takes an oath that he will return back to Mandwa and bring back the glory of his fathers name and avenge Kancha Cheena. In Bombay, 12 Year old Vijay is taken under the wings of the cities drug lord Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor). From here on it is a journey of revenge where he makes and breaks many relationships only to get closer to his aim. Vijay finds support in his only friend Kaali (Priyanka Chopra), who stands by him at every moment of his life. Fifteen years later, his hatred for Kancha takes him back to Mandwa. The film is expected to release on Jan 26th 2012.

The movies stars

• Hrithik Roshan as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan
• Priyanka Chopra as Kaali
• Sanjay Dutt as Kancha Cheena
• Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala
• Zarina Wahab as Suhasini Chauhan
• Om Puri as Inspector
• Deven Bhojani as Krishnan
• Katrina Kaif Special appearance in Item number "Chikni Chameli"

You can watch the trailor of the movie below.

You can watch the movie on the 24th at a local theatre near you listed below

- Indian Theatres in Australia

- Indian Theatres in the United Kingdom

- Indian Theatres in the United States

- Indian Theatres in the United Arab Emirates

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Belfast’s biggest ever spring party returns with a show stopping line-up of South Asian food, music, dance and colour! Known across the globe as India’s most energetic and vibrant holiday, the ‘Festival of Colours’ or ‘Holi’ (which translates to ‘Colour’ in Hindi) celebrates the arrival of Spring in a truly spectacular fusion of colour, culture and creativity. Returning this year in a brand new larger venue at The King’s Hall on Sunday 11th March, the festival is developed by ArtsEkta – NI’s leading ethnic arts organisation and proud organisers of the Belfast Mela. Visitors will participate, learn and experience the vibrancy of South Asian culture and traditions through a fantastic programme of music, dance, visual arts and food. Headlining the event is Semi Finalists of SKY 1’s Got to Dance – ‘Bhangra Heads’. A step away from the traditional style of Bhangra, they keep it young and fresh being a Fusion Bhangra crew that incorporate different elements of worldwide dance styles. They will be joined by a myriad of fresh local ethnic talent together with an amazing Asian DJ.

The main highlight of the festival will be a two hour long colour powder party where visitors will get the opportunity to throw brightly powdered colour among friends grooving to contemporary and classic Bollywood beats. With thousands expecting to participate this is one cultural experience you will not want to miss!

Remember don’t wear your Sunday best, we’ll supply the colours, you do the rest!

Event Details

Date : 11th March 2011

Time : 12-5.00 pm

Location: Kings Hall, Belfast

For more details, visit the following websites

www.artsekta.org.uk
www.belfastmela.org.uk

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Players is an upcoming Bollywood heist film directed by Abbas Burmawalla and Mustan Burmawalla. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sikander Kher and Aftab Shivdasani. Based on the 2003 Hollywood blockbuster, The Italian Job, it is amongst the most expensive films in Bollywood. The theatrical trailer was revealed on November 3, 2011, whereas the film is expected to release on January 6, 2012. This remake promises to pack one heck of a punch. With high speed chase sequences and state of the art special effects set against the backdrop of gorgeous locales in New Zealand and Goa, Players will redefine Bollywood action movies as we know them The film is expected to release on Jan 6th 2012.

You can watch the trailor of the movie below.

You can watch the movie on the 24th at a local theatre near you listed below

- Indian Theatres in Australia

- Indian Theatres in the United Kingdom

- Indian Theatres in the United States

- Indian Theatres in the United Arab Emirates

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When I first came to the United States in 1999, I paid about 55c/min to make a call to India, that too after signing up for the AT&T International calling plan which cost another $5. How times have changed in the decade since! You can now call India for about 1c/min or in some cases, pay a flat rate and make unlimited calls. The low cost of communication can be attributed to many things but Voice Over IP (VOIP) is certainly on of the main factors. In this article, we compare two VOIP services, Vonage and Ooma that are available in the US which we have tried and compare them for their services (within the US) and also for calling India.

Vonage - Vonage has been a long time player in the VOIP space and have an excellent plan for calling India. They offer an unlimited calling plan nationwide and 60 countries including India, which costs $25/month with taxes (works out to about $35/month).  Vonage will provide you with a VOIP adapter for free once you sign up. We have used their service for more than 8 years now and overall are very pleased with the success in reaching India and also with the quality of the call. There have been a few times, especially at certain times on weekends or during holidays when it may take a couple of tries before you get connected. There is little to no VOIP delay or breaks in the voice quality. They also offer a 3-month or 6-month discounted package as well. 

If you call India very often and talk for more than 15-20 hours/month, this is a great service. Guys with girlfriends or fiances back in India, this is a great plan. Vonage also offers you a Vonage extension so you can also use the same account to make calls from your Smartphone for no extra charge (except of course for your mobile airtime if you are calling during peak hours).

Ooma -  Ooma is also a VOIP service provider but they do not have a monthly service fee model. You only pay for the device, which can run you between $200-$250. After that you pay about $4 for taxes. With that, you get a phone line for life with no monthly service fees and unlimited calling to the United States. The risk with this company is whether it will stay in business or not. If the company is alive for between 8 months and 1 year after you buy the device, you would have paid for the device. Unlike Vonage where you have unlimited calling to India, you need to signup for a calling plan for India. Ooma offers two plans currently $5/500 minutes or $10/1000 minutes to 60 countries. If you stay within your plan, you pay about 1c/minute but once you go above plan its 8c/minute.

We tried the 500 minutes plan and we extremely disappointed by the entire experience of calling India. The calsl failed more than 75% of the times. When we were lucky to get through the sound quality was terrible or we got disconnected midway through a conversation. The call to the support desk was not very helpful either. They made us go through the entire reboot process (which of course disconnected us) and never acknowledged that the problem is at their end.  Based on our experience we would not recommend Ooma's calling plans for calling India.

Verdict :  If you call more than 20+ hours a month calling India then Vonage is certainly recommended. Their call quality and service is much superior compared to Ooma. If you speak less than 15 hours a month, then the combination of Ooma with a calling plan like Reliance works better. We called India using Ooma and Reliance and the call quality was excellent.

Do you use Vonage, Ooma or another VOIP service for calling India? Let us know what you think.

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