Sush Lara Priyanka as Angels!!

By Subhash K Jha

The buzz in the movie industry for the rapidly-revived career of Rohit Jugraj whose Kunal Khemu starrer Superstar opened this week to favourable reviews, is that his next project is a desi action-drama version of the super chick flick the Hollywood blockbuster Charlie's Angels.

According to the talk doing the rounds in the film trade, the medico-metamorphosed-into-moviemaker Rohit Jugraj who started his career by assisting Sanjay Leela Bhansali and then directed the fiasco actioner James for Ram Gopal Varma, has been approached by Abbas-Mustan to produce his take on Charlie's Angels.

The film is expected to star Sushmita Sen, Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra as the three sexy 'angels' played originally by Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.

Rohit, currently cruising in the safe zone of a well-received film., is cautious.

"Yes, I'm directing a film for Abbas-Mustan. And it's the Charlie's Angels styled girls' action flick. I'm going to say neither yes nor no to the three names you've mentioned in the lead.

All I'll say at this stage is that my producers Abbas-Mustan are very influential and they've worked with the who's who of the industry. For them getting my wish list of actors won't be a problem."

However Rohit Jugraj warns that his Charlie's Angels would be very different from the original.

"Only the idea of three super-sexy girls in action combats isn't enough for me. I'll be going much deeper into their psyche, as I've done in Superstar.

On the surface Kunal Khemu plays just another double role. But I've tried to examine the duality of human personality through the two roles."

Rohit is amused by the comparisons of Superstar with Om Shanti Om. "Sure my film too has its protagonist playing a junior artsite and a hedonistic star. But Shah Rukh in OSO was in an entirely different orbit.

One critic has said I have too many close-ups of my hero Kunal Khemu in the film. I challenge any other actor of Kunal's generation to hold his expressions on camera for so slong in close- ups."

Rohit has gone through tremendous hardships to make an original film. "During my Bangkok stint of Superstar my cameraman Mahendra Shetty just upped and left.

I had no choice but to do the cinematography in Bangkok myself. Making Superstar wasn't easy. After James I had to start from scratch. But the struggle has taught me a lot."