Ajay, Zayed play prank on Shamita

From playing a male stripper in Oops to doing a mythological film, My Friend Ganesha, actor Kiran Janjani has certainly come a long way. He will be seen in an altogether different avatar in the film and is beaming with happiness about it.

Kiran plays the rich father of Ahsaas Chanana, the protagonist of the film. He says: "It was a unique experience working for My Friend Ganesha. I have done many ad films with kids and strike a good rapport with them. It was the same with Ehsaas. I play a banker who has no time for his family, and the child is neglected. How my son opens my eyes to the divinity and greatness of Lord Ganesha is the beauty of the film."

The film is full of animation. "There is a lot of animation in the film and I'm looking forward to it since it's difficult to act and converse with something invisible. The effects are amazing and that is something one should watch out for," said Kiran.

Imagine the physically fit Bikram Saluja overweight by 80 kgs. That's exactly the way the actor looks in Marathon, the film that marks the debut of Nisha Chainani as a director.

Explaining the character in the film Bikram said, "I play a rich businessman who is extremely fat. He is about to crack a business deal at the conference table. However, there's a hitch. His colleagues feel his overweight body will prove to be a hazard and they share their apprehensions in going ahead with the deal. He takes their doubt as a challenge and tells them that he will lose weight and also participate in a marathon. The minute he says this, he is made fun of and laughed at, but he proves them wrong."

Making preparations to appear physically overweight on screen was a tough task for Bikram. "Since I am physically fit, to look excessively fat was not possible for me. I could not suddenly do things or go on an eating binge so as to appear too fat. The director and I then decided to use a body suit to appear weighty," he said.

Bikram informs that to lend authenticity to the fat character he wore weights around his ankle so as to have the slow paced lethargic movements that fat people are usually associated with.

"The weights tied around my ankles help me acquire the posture and the walk that is usually associated with fat people," he said. Prosthetic artistes Pradeep and Monty, worked on Bikram's face to make it appear plump and bloated. He added, "Pradeep, Monty and I would sit to do the makeup early in the morning. It would take three hours to complete it. So we would start at around 6 am to be ready for the 9 am schedule."

Bikram says that playing this kind of a role was a lesson in itself. "I realised that if one decides to achieve something then nothing is impossible for him," he said.

Bollywood beauty Dia Mirza is all set to go off beat with national award winning director Manmohan Mahapatra's Bits and Pieces where she stars opposite Rahul Bose. "I am stepping into art films with Bits and Pieces. The film will see me in a very different light," Dia said. Though the actress refused to divulge details about her role, she revealed that the film was set in a mental asylum and has her "thrilled and excited".

Dia, who was last seen as a reporter in Shootout at Lokhandwala, said she was now concentrating on doing "good cinema" even if the length of the roles were small. "In the last two years, I have tried to work in good films without looking at the length of the roles. I think people have seen my work more in this period. It

is much better than doing a lot of stupid films," she said. The model-turned-actress will be next seen in Cash where she tries her hand in comedy. "I am trying different roles. While in Cash I play a comic role, the film Crazy 4 will see me playing a reporter again. My other movies are Alibaug and Dus Kahaniyan," she said.

Dia also disclosed that she has voted over 60 times for the inclusion of Taj Mahal in Agra into the new list of Seven Wonders of the World. But she remained tight-lipped about rumours of her affair with the macho actor Kunal Kapoor. "I am not going to speak anything (about it)," is all she said. The former Miss India said the production house was the most important criterion for her while choosing a film.

"The production house is important because I have to judge whether the producers have the capacity to carry off a film. Then comes the script and then the director," she said.