INDIAN MUSIC IS VERY INSPIRING’ ... says Bryan Adams as he speaks to BT ahead of his India tour

Have you heard Indian singers or artistes? What do you love about them? Of course. AR Rahman is doing amazing work, he’s kind of a genius. I love the music of India. It’s hard to not be inspired by Indian music. However it’s quite difficult to sing like Indian singers. Perhaps it’s something you are born into, or maybe trained to do, but the melodies are very different from western music. Very inspiring, I have to say. As far as singers go, I have to admit one of my favourite singers ever was of Indian heritage, Freddie Mercury of Queen.
What do you love about India? I’m always reminded of our first concert tour and the show at the cricket stadium in the early ’90s. We were the first western band to do such a big tour of India. We opened a lot of doors for western bands to play there. Mick Jagger called me before the Rolling Stones played in India and wanted to know what it was like. I told him it was one of my most exciting tours ever.
You also have a new album out now. What experiments have you made with sound?I’ve just released a new album called Bare Bones. It’s completely acoustic, with versions of some of the hits and some new ones too. What is interesting about the album is that you will know some of the songs on the album, but you may not have imagined them as raw as this. Just my voice and a guitar, sometimes a piano too.
After receiving so much acclaim, what motivates you to go on? The same thing that motivated me in the beginning: seeing the world. On this India tour, we are spreading out to cities we’ve never played in before. I was hoping to get to Kolkata, but it wasn’t possible to arrange the logistics. I hope to be able to play there one day. It’s simply a matter of finding the right place to put on the show

‘ME IN AN INDIAN REMAKE? REALLY?’ ... is Jennifer Aniston’s reaction to rumours that she’s in the Hollywood remake of Khamoshi and Maine Pyar Kyun Kiy

She may not have starred in a Bollywood film like Sylvester Stallone or Denise Richards, or even shot for a Hollywood production in India like Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie, but Jennifer Aniston still has several fans in the country. However, her latest release, Just Go With It, still has an India connect since it has been described online as a remake of the Salman Khan-starrer, Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya. Something that's dismissed with a shrug by the movie’s director, Dennis Dugan, since MPKK and JGWI are actually remakes of The Cactus, which is based on a play.

So there’s little risk, yet, of a Jennifer-starrer being branded a remake of a Sush-starrer.

But there’s still an India question that makes sense. Run a Google search and you find that this is not the first time you are looking at ‘Jennifer Aniston in Indian remake’ goss. As far back as 2008, there were stories of Jen having expressed her willingness to play the character of Waheeda Rehman in a remake of Khamoshi (no, not the Bhansali one) being made by an LA-based restaurateur, Sanjay Patel, whose restaurant Jennifer apparently frequented, and supposedly had tears when she read the script there one day. Jen looks flummoxed and asks, “Who? I’m sorry. Who?” Sanjay Patel, one spells out. A gentleman who told the media you were acting in a remake of this old Indian movie, and we’ve been waiting to hear more of it ever since, in vain. A few seconds’ pause and Jen sums up her response in one word — “Really?” — followed by she and director Dennis bursting into laughter. “That’s great… where will we shoot it? In a restaurant?” she asks, while still laughing.

Responding to questions about speculations in the press about her boyfriends and her wanting children, Jen lets her guard down and gives a candid response to how she deals with the constant speculation: “Well, you stay as far away from it as possible and try to deal with the e-mails and phone calls from your mother, saying, ‘Are you adopting?’ ‘No, Mom.’ ‘Are you dating somebody?’ ‘No, Mom.’ ‘Well, Aunt Jean thinks…’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you getting married at Oprah’s?’ ‘A $8 million wedding?’ ‘I told you. Don’t believe it.’ So the only way I’m privy to it is when I have to, sort of, field questions from my family members, ’coz, for some reason, they still believe it’s true. How does it affect my work? If I don’t know it’s out there, I’m just living my life.”

Jen’s personal life and philosophy are quite the global media’s pet project, but when faced with a question like “Do you believe in love forever?”, she responds by looking all around before turning back and counterquestioning with the straightest face, “Do I believe in love forever? Who are you talking to?” leaving everyone laughing uproariously.

There’s been talk of the hot bods showdown when 41-year-old Jen has a bikini scene along with Brooklyn Decker, who, apart from being 23, has also been a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl four times over. When asked if she had to change her workout and diet to prepare for the bikini scenes opposite Brooklyn, Jen said, “I didn’t change anything, actually. I have a regular workout routine that I maintained. We also had a great yoga class. If you get 20 minutes of a good run, then that’s great, and if you can get an hour in, that’s better. And a good night’s sleep too, which helps with not getting that afternoon lull.”

What are her views on the obsession with plastic surgery and with looking younger and better at any expense? “There’s an extreme pressure on women and men to just stay young. And it’s magazines, it’s the Internet. It’s pressure for some reason and women and men don’t (think) it beautiful to grow old gracefully. (There are) a lot of women in our industry who have and there’s a lot who don’t. And the unfortunate thing is, a lot of women go too far, (and) end up looking a lot older than they actually are. So, talk to me in ten years!”