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Showdown!

Madhuri Dixit and Akshay Kumar. Click for bigger pic!

There's no middle of the road option for people like Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit. They are either one step away either from extinction or reincarnation. And the answer to what their future is could lie in their next film together, Arzoo.

Madhuri, we hear, is ready to pack her bags to the US of A and get married. But what then happens to apna Akshay? He can't go back to being a waiter in the Far East or peddle stuff for photographers or get married and run a home, can he?

Akki also has Janwar to look forward to, but that film could have a hard since the finicky audiences have learnt that heroine Juhi Chawla is married now.

Making a production of it

Juhi Chawla. Click for bigger pic!

Speaking of Juhi, married or not, she's got a project going with Aziz Mirza. Following in the footsteps of Pooja Bhatt, who became a successful producer after her 'retirement' from cinema, Juhi too will turn producer in a venture called Dreams and Films Unlimited.

Initially, Kajol was slated to be paired opposite one of the Khans in the firm's first film. But Boney Kapoor has since taken some interest in the film, which, for some reason has rumour speculating that it could be the re-entry of Sridevi into cinema.

Sorry if this sounds mean and all that, but isn't Bollywood beginning to look a bit like a Home for the Middle-Aged?

The buck stops there

Salman Khan. Click for bigger pic!

Well, finally some news about Salman Khan and the black buck he killed in Rajasthan.

The matter has apparently been settled out-of-court as it were, with some politicians oiling the deal. After all, the black buck is dead and gone, and wasn't it better to let bygones be bygones, they asked. And with an admonitory wag of the fingers, Salman was along.

The Bishnois there are aghast that nothing has come of their case and they are baying for Salman's blood. Salman prudently refuses to shoot anymore in Rajasthan. Things are so bad, that all the other actors and actresses involved in that ill-fated shoot -- ill-fated for the black buck, at least -- have refused to set foot in that state.

Salman had given bulk dates to director Sanjay Bhansali to change a few locations for a movie to be shot on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. The film will be shot elsewhere. And, wherever that is, we hope any animal there also isn't shot in the process.

To wed and to work...

Kajol. Click for bigger pic!

We'd mentioned once that Kajol might sign on a film or two in Ajay Devgan's home productions.

And she had already signed up for a film opposite her affianced one -- who, incidentally can formally be termed her spouse on February 20, when they get married.

Apparently the run-up to the big day hasn't been smooth and the duo had reportedly considered doing something similar to the Valentine Day wedding of Sanjay Dutt and Rhea Pillai at one time. It appears there was a filmi caste system at work that worked to rock the boat. Kajol's father Shomu Mukherjee initially objecting to the marriage because he was a producer while Ajay's father Veeru, a mere fightmaster.

But Ajay and dad didn't bridle as filmi families are wont to, and finally Shomu relented.

That was how a possible Valentine wedding was postponed by six days.

Vintage stuff in the making

Jackie Shroff. Click for bigger pic!

For collectors of Kajol films, there's at least one unreleased film out there still in the wings, with an actor other than Ajay. Called Chhal.

It has taken about six years in the making, making it about as old as Kajol's career. And that's the last film you might see her in opposite anyone other than her husband.

Chhal, which pairs her with Jackie Shroff and Atul Agnihotri, has had some trouble finding distributors, the latter being a little uncertain how a Jackie-starrer will do in these troubled days. And they aren't encouraged by the fact that the other hero is Atul, whose career is so low that there aren't depth gauges that have plumbed that deep.

The acting director

Nana Patekar. Click for bigger pic!

So Hu Tu Tu didn't do much good to Nana Patekar's career profile. But the man's not moping, acting and ghost-directing as he is for Mehul Kumar's Kohraam.

"I am through with a major portion of the film," says Mehul Kumar. And since we found Nana wielding the megaphone for a few scenes after we sneaked onto the sets, he thinks he has some explaining to do.

"Actually, I am not well," he says in some confusion.

But he needn't worry. We'd seen much of the same thing on the sets of Krantiveer, that Nana vehicle. Even Gulzar had his problems with Nana at times.

Kohraam, which also stars Amitabh Bachchan in the lead, is slated to hit the marquee by the middle of the year. That is, if Mehul doesn't hit Nana first.

-- V S Srinivasan