RANG DE BASANTI on December 16?

Aamir Khan fans that waited for four years to catch a glimpse of the actor in MANGAL PANDEY-THE RISING will hopefully get to see him once again within a span of barely four months, in his next release, RANG DE BASANTI. The buzz is that U.T.V. has tentatively confirmed December 16 as the release date of the Rs 30 crore mammoth film, said to be one of the most prestigious films for UTV.

"It is true that December 16 is one of the release dates that is being considered for the film, but we have yet to get a confirmation on this. We have to complete a few other things, before we can arrive at the above release date," says Sanjeev Mehta, Vice-President, Distribution, UTV Pictures.

Recently, Aamir had stated in an interview that he would now have a release every eight months, the next being RANG DE BASANTI, followed by Yash Raj Enterprises, FANAAH, directed by Kunal Kohli, which is scheduled to begin shooting this October and will release in the second half of next year.

RANG DE BASANTI tells the story of an English girl (Alice Payton), who comes to India to make a documentary based on her late grandfather's diary, based on the sacrifices he and other people made for the Indian independence movement. She meets 5 boys and decides to work with them to complete the documentary. Aamir, an RJ, is one of them. The cast comprises of Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Alice Payton, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Atul Kulkarni, Om Puri and Waheeda Rehman among others.

Aamir sports a clean-shaven and fresh look in the film completely different from the handle bar moustache and cascading tresses that defined his personality in THE RISING. The designers on the team of Rang De Basanti reportedly experimented for nine months, before they arrived at the longish, short haircut and clean cut look for Aamir.

Meanwhile, UTV is all set to start the shooting of its next film with Aamir, MR MEHTA AND MRS SINGH in July 2006, soon after he finishes the shooting of Yashraj's FANAAH. Recently, Kareena was confirmed to play the lead opposite Aamir, which is considered to be a casting coup of sorts in the trade.

The buzz is that Aamir has become a hot favorite with UTV and there is also a third project with Aamir in the offing but the UTV people are not ready to comment on it yet. According to Sanjeev Mehta, the relationship with Aamir goes back to the time they distributed two of his films, SARFAROSH and LAGAAN, both of which went on to make history at the box-office. "This time we are producing his films too and they are right on the target," Mehta enthuses