GUP-SHUP.........

Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay gets more colourful with Abhishek Bachchan joining its already exuberant cast. Abhishek will dance and lip-sync Ganesh Hegde's version of R.D. Burman's Mehbooba o mehbooba while Urmila Matondkar will groove to the funky tune. Amitabh Bachchan, playing Gabbar, will watch the flamboyant razzmatazz.

In the original Sholay Helen danced, Jalal Agha crooned and Amjad Khan looked on. Abhishek will therefore play Jalal Agha's part. "Abhishek is delighted to do the cameo. If you remember he was originally cast as Veeru. But he had to back off due to date problems. When Abhishek heard Ganesh Hegde's track he immediately offered to perform in the song with Urmila. He's really excited about it. He himself volunteered to do it," Varma said.

Urmila, who played Abhishek's sister-in-law in Anupam Kher's Om Jai Jagdish, is very excited about having both the Bachchans together. "The primary difference between the other Amitabh-Abhishek songs like Kajra re (Bunty Aur Babli) and Rock 'n' roll soniye (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) is that the father and son have been highly interactive in these songs. In my film they might not even look at one another," he adds. The film has Ajay Devgan as Veeru, Mohit Ahlawat as Jai, while Mohanlal will be seen in the role of Thakur. For the female leads, Varma has roped in Sushmita Sen to play the widow and Nisha Kothari as Basanti.

The much-awaited sequel Dhoom 2 will hit the screen on November 23 and not surprisingly the expectations are sky high. But director Sanjay Gadhavi is far from perturbed. In an exclusive interview he says, "There are lots of expectations from this film and obviously I'm feeling the pressure but I'm confident about the product."

Sanjay, no doubt, has reasons to feel optimistic given the lavish star cast and the fact that sequels have done booming business. He says the script is the king. "Aditya Chopra and I ensured that we had a good script on hand and only went ahead with the movie after that. The advantage with Dhoom 2 is that two of the prime characters are already established such as Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra who will be taking the story forward. Plus the film has the same energy levels with some new characters in the form of Hrithik, Ash and Bipasha. There's plenty that works for this film," he asserts.

So why is John Abraham, who played the unforgettable Kabir out of this sequel? "Have you ever heard of a new James Bond film with the same Bond, does Sherlock Holmes crack the same case again? This is a brand new story where the two guys, Jay and Ali are working on a new case, so there is no role for John," he adds.

But what about the story doing the email rounds where it is revealed that Hrithik is the original Kabir after a plastic surgery? "Dhoom has clearly established the fact that Kabir instead of getting caught by Jay prefers to end his life and he is clearly dead. So contrary to these emails, John is not coming back in the film. Besides, do you think Hrithik will agree to play such a role where he's simply taking over from John? Yash Raj does not need to resort to such cheap gimmicks to promote their films," clarifies Sanjay.

Even the box-office non-performance of some of their stars such as Abhishek and Ash whose Umrao Jaan was a disaster does not matter to the director. "I've always worked with actors who were on the threshold of success when they acted in my film and then made it big later—be it Abhishek, Bipasha or John. They have all become big stars now. I'm confident that the story and the finely etched characters will keep the viewer engrossed," he says.

Ask him how he feels about the music receiving mixed reviews and he says, "most of the critics don't even listen to the full album, and do half-baked reviews. Any good music takes time to catch on. Once the movie releases, there will be greater recall value, the songs will start getting played at nightclubs and the attitude will change." So, going by Sanjay's current frame of mind, Dhoom 2 is all set to create a splash.

Sources close to Ajay Devgan refuted rumours that the actor has plans to take up direction. "The news that he will direct himself and Kajol in a film is untrue," revealed a source close to the filmstar. There have been several reports in the media about Ajay Devgan expressing his desire to take up direction and to direct his wife and actress Kajol in the film.

"Ajay has certainly been a keen student and has picked up the nuances of filmmaking, but there are no plans to take up direction as of now," the source said and clarified, "He is busy with too many other commitments to take up direction at this point of time." Currently, Ajay is busy with Rajkumar Santoshi's Halla Bol where Ajay plays himself in the film. However, the source admits that Ajay wants to produce a film soon.

"The film should hit the floors sometime next month. The script was taking a while, but the official announcement will be made sometime next month," revealed the source. When asked if Ajay was playing the lead in the film, the source said, "No decision has been made as of now." Besides Halla Bol, Ajay is looking forward to be a part of Golmaal 2 that director Rohit Shetty plans to begin shooting for soon.

We heard that Konkona Sen Sharma wanted to do a glamorous role that changes her image. But she denies the news saying, "I have never taken a role as mainstream or offbeat. If I think I need to do some singing and dancing which looks convincing on-screen, I wouldn't mind doing it. But if the media labels it as some image changing effort, what can I do?"

About Tanvir Khan's Deadline Konkona says that she was excited about acting in a thriller for the first time. Ask her why she chose to work in a thriller, and she says, "Actually, I don't relate to any character I play. So for me there is neither a need to actually prepare for a role nor have a hangover after playing it. I wanted to work in a suspense thriller, so I jumped at the opportunity."

For now, Konkona has Rituparno Ghosh's Sunglasses and Anurag Basu's Metro. "I am shooting for Ritu's Sunglasses with Jaya Bachchan. There's a lot of Bengali bonding happening on the sets," Konkona says happily. Ask her about the film's plot and Konkona chooses to be tightlipped about it. "I hate giving interviews. It is so boring to talk about one's roles in films. It is also boring to talk about oneself. Wait and watch. Once the film releases you will know what it's all about," she says.