Urmi rides again!
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Urmila Matondkar. Click for bigger pic!
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Urmila Matondkar's replacing Karisma Kapoor in Sunny Deol's London, back on the rails and slated to be directed by the producer himself. And shooting begins on January 2. No fancy locales this time, just Bombay.
Only 21 minutes of the film had been shot in two months in London, with everyone throwing tantrums and Gurinder Chadha, her job as director.
So when Deol sought another 90 days of the Kapoor in Bombay, she told him she didn't have them, especially since she'd just scratched on that dotted line for the Rajshris' Hum Saath Saath Hai, the thing we told you she'd herself replaced Madhuri Dixit in.
It seems every film Karisma has opposite Bobby Deol is jinxed. Remember Barsaat?
Denying those roots
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Madhuri Dixit. Click for bigger pic!
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It happened around the time Madhuri Dixit's films were taking a heavy beating, to name two, Mrityudand and Mohabbat.
That was when Sudhir Bhatt of the Suyog Natya Mandal asked her if she could act as the siren Rashmi in a Marathi play by Acharya Atre, Lagnachi Bedi on the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of the litterateur. Bhatt came because she had once told him she was fond of Marathi literature, especially that by Atre. Much to his gratification, Dixit agreed.
Bhatt met her just after Dil To Pagal Hai released to a weak initial and reminded her of the deal. Dixit said she hadn't forgotten.
But no sooner did DTPH pick up that the lady changed her mind. So when Bhatt came for her final approval on the sets of N Chandra 's Wajood, she told him she was too busy and had no time for rehearsals.
You know all that stuff about promises being made to be broken? Bhatt found it's got something in it.
Nana eats his words
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Nana Patekar. Click for bigger pic!
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Another Maharashtrian to have found foot and mouth in discomfiting proximity is Nana Patekar.
For last year, at the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan, he got a little excited, as is his wont, and besides making some fiery statements against Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, also promising houses to backstage artists of Marathi theatre. Which proved to be his undoing.
A year has passed and the man was conspicuous by his a. at this year's show. Could have something do with that promise of housing he made.
"He just says 'Aamchi Mumbai, Marathi Mumbai' and moves about as if he is the PRO of Marathi," said a disgruntled member of the Marathi Natya Parishad.
Patekar must've realised that waxing eloquent before an obedient camera does not really qualify one to purchase the large amounts of real estate in Bombay he'd promised.
Soothsayer Shetty slips up
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Shilpa Shetty. Click for bigger pic!
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Shilpa Shetty is pretty upset with her mother. Mama Shetty, who believes in horoscopes, soothsayers, omens and the like, had predicted that her daughter would do well in 1997, actually that this would be the best year ever for her.
Going by Shilpa Shetty's professional record, that either means that she's going to end up at the poor house or that her mother needs a refresher course in astrology.
This year Shilpa's Prithvi, with Sunil Shetty, and Auzaar, with Salman Khan and Sanjay Kapoor, slid into oblivion without a trace. Even her Mr Romeo with Prabhu Deva, earlier slated for a 1997 release, has had to wait another year. So have her Lal Badshah and Pardesi Babu.
But Mama Shets is unfazed. There was a minor error, she says. According to the charts, it is actually 1998 that is the best year for her baby, she says.
Bade miyan subhan allah
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Amitabh Bachchan. Click for bigger pic!
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Is Amitabh Bachchan slowly digging his own grave?
The decision to come back with Mrityudaata may not have been bright, and the Ms World fiasco managed by his ABCL got him loads of egg on his face. But does he really have to show how disheartened he is by landing up late for all his shoots, including that of his very own ABCL?
AB seems to be looking forward to his Bade Miyan Chote Miyan with Govinda. K C Bokadia's Lal Badshah is expected to be released soon after.
But the industry is understandably chary now. Already, S Ramanathan is hemming and hawing about starting his proposed film starring Vijayashanti and Amitabh. And a little bird tells us it's not the heroine he's worrying about...
The sins of the son...
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Sanjay Dutt. Click for bigger pic!
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Sunil Dutt is finding himself in a tight spot, sandwiched as he is between the Congress party he belongs to and the Shiv Sena he has to pay obeisance to. The fault being son Sanjay's.
Sunil Dutt hadn't endeared himself of Bal Thackeray, taking up as he did the cause of the Muslims during the January 1993 riots. The Sena could do nothing till Sanjay Dutt got embroiled in the bomb blasts case a few months later. Now Sunil Dutt is being forced to bend over backwards and beyond to keep Thackeray happy. Or else, his son gets it in the neck.
Now Sunil Dutt is being asked by the beleaguered Congress to be their candidate in the forthcoming elections. But, having no option, he says he won't contest the elections till his son is proved innocent.
A Japanese Bose
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Subhas Chandra Bose. Click for bigger pic!
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Here's another film on the Indian freedom struggle. Made in Japan.
Noted Japanese film-maker Shanya Ito is making the movie, Pride, on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose, if one has boned up on one's history and so remembers, had found in Japan the support for his Azad Hind Fauj he hadn't in Hitler's Germany.
If India needed Attenborough's Gandhi to draw cinematic attention to one of India's greatest leaders, it can also do with another foreigner making a film on Bose, one of India's most controversial freedom fighters, one who's often been ignored.
Sholay II denied
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Sooraj Barjatya. Click for bigger pic!
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Anyone who thought there's going to be a Sholay sequel, perish the thought.
On his 83rd birthday, producer G P Sippy had announced that he would make Sholay the sequel. But Ramesh Sippy, the director and the son of the abovementioned Sippy, said those were all rumours and he isn't making the movie.
Ramesh Sippy said that it was not possible to do a sequel, though Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol and Shadab Khan, sons of Amitabh, Dharmendra and Amjad Khan respectively, are all available actors.
Another rumour of a sequel was squelched when Sooraj Barjatya, that famous sphinx of the Barjatya clan, abandoned plans to remake the classic Chitchor that starred Amol Palekar.
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