News & Views

Anees Bazmee's mega plans

         Mumbai, May 28: Director Anees Bazmee is all set to start two projects, one of which will be produced by Boney Kapoor and Nitin Manmohan will produce the second. Nitin Manmohan's production is a bilingual, titled 'I Love My India' in Hindi and 'My American Bride' in English. The other venture which is to be produced by Boney Kapoor will star three heroes, one of them being Anil Kapoor. "Talks are on with Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan for the other two leads, while Tabu would be one of the leading ladies," Bazmee reveals. For the record Bazmee's last release was Ajay Devgan, Urmila and Akshaye Khanna starrer 'Deewangee'.

'Boom' time for Jackie

          Mumbai, May 27: Jackie Shroff's 'Boom' is being heavily promoted, not just in India, but throughout the world. The film stars Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan along with Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Zeenat Aman and Bo Derek. The production company behind the movie has hired a PR company to create a hype about the film in countries like the UK. The media has written a lot about the supposed exposure in the film but according to Jackie, "that's not enough to lure the audience because they are regularly exposed to such things now-a-days. As long as the end product is good the audience will watch it". The fact that lots of Hinglish films are being made these days is proof of the fact that the market has really opened up for such films and Boo' is all set to capture that market.

Naseer is an extraordinary gentleman

          Mumbai, May 27: Naseeruddin Shah is all set for his big day. This June, 'The League of Extraordinary Gentleman' will open in the US. Shah plays Captain Nemo in the film in which he shares screen space with the likes of Sean Connery and Stuart Townsend. This is a huge Hollywood production which makes Shah's crossover a major achievement. Of course, Shah is not the first Indian to star in a high profile Hollywood flick. Earlier, Om Puri was seen in Michael Douglas-Val Kilmer starrer 'Ghost' and 'Darkness'. Besides, Kabir Bedi and Persis Khambatta too have appeared in major US flicks.

Abhishek Bachchan's many shades

          Mumbai, May 27: Director Mani Ratham was in town recently to finalise the stars for his latest Hindi venture. He has already signed Vivek Oberoi and Ajay Devgan in the lead roles for the film. Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor will also be seen in the film. Abhishek Bachchan has been roped in too. Those close to the Abhishek revealed that the film requires Bachchan junior to play a negative role in it. Pre-Abhishek, most actors who have played characters with grey shades have been pretty successful. Perhaps this film might just do the trick for Abhishek!

Mumbai's don inspires Bollywood

          Mumbai, May 26: Mumbai's famous underworld don Daya Nayak seems to be a big inspiration for our Bollywood filmmakers. Apparently, his life has inspired big-time filmmakers like Ram Gopal Varma and N. Chandra. Ram Gopal Varma's new film 'Ab Tak Chappan' starring Nana Patekar is based on Daya's life. Buzz is that now N. Chandra too is making a film on the same subject. Titled 'Kagaar' the film will star Om Puri and Nandita Das in the lead.

Big B and SRK on same stage

          London, May 26: The London-based Asian Guild on Saturday night presented the Bollywood Lifetime Achievement Award to Amitabh Bachchan. Shah Rukh Khan was also honoured with the Bollywood Star of the Decade Award. Bachchan thanked the Asian Guild for recognising his achievements, which, he said, was possible because of the 'wonderful' opportunity that the Indian film industry has given him. Filmmaker Yash Chopra won an award for his outstanding contribution to the film industry. The Asian Guild Awards 2003 were presented at a gala dinner held at the Gosvenor House Hotel. Over 700 guests, including Lord Navneet Dholakia, Lord King, Lord Peter Archer, and businessmen SP Hinduja and GP Hinduja attended the function.

Jhankar Beats creates history

          Mumbai, May 25: Bollywood is finally becoming a favourite destination of Hollywood. Major international studios are taking a lot of interest in mainstream Hindi cinema. Buzz is that Hollywood's leading distribution company 20th Century Fox has acquired the all-India distribution rights of Sujoy Ghosh's 'Jhankaar Beats'. Produced under the banner of Pritish Nandy Communications, this is the first Hindi film to be acquired by 20th Century Fox. The film stars Juhi Chawla, Riya Sen, Rinke Khanna, Rahul Bose and Sanjay Suri and will be released on June 20.

Aamir dropped from John Mathew Mathan's film

          Mumbai, May 25: Industry is abuzz with the news that John Mathew Mathan's latest film will star Vivek Oberoi instead of Aamir Khan. Aamir had earlier starred in John's debut film 'Sarfarosh', which was a blockbuster. It was expected that John would definitely repeat Aamir in his next. Mathan says that he had approached Khan but the actor did not commit himself because he was busy Mathan even waited for Khan but when nothing materialised he had to sign Vivek Oberoi for the film.

Bengal's superstar will now direct Anil Kapoor

          Mumbai, May 25: Bengal's reigning superstar and yesteryear actor Biswajit's son Prasenjit Chatterjee, is all set to direct a period drama called 'Vande Mataram', with Anil Kapoor in the lead. The movie is being financed by