Scoops & News

Vikram is doing a Kamal Haasan on two counts - selection of films and muscle building for roles.

Kamal is known to follow up every serious film of his with a couple of lighter ones. "Vasoolraja M.B.B.S." and "Mumbai Express", which came close on the heels of "Veerumandi", a cinematic plea against capital punishment, are some instances.

Similarly Vikram chased down the heavy "Anniyan", a histrionic challenge that he met successfully, with "Mazaa", a pure entertainer. His next release will also be an entertaining action flick, "Bheema".

After that will come, according to current plans, a Tamil remake of Malayalam film "Chaandupottu". This will have an effeminate hero, a role that will test Vikram's acting skills again.

Kamal is also known to have gone for bodybuilding before playing two of his famous roles that called for muscle flexing - in "Aalavandhan" and "Hey Ram".

Vikram is doing the same to prepare himself for the tough-guy title role in "Bheema". As part of the exercise, after the completion of "Mazaa", he underwent a weeks-long ayurvedic rejuvenation course in Coimbatore.

"Bheema", with Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as the heroine, is likely to be released in the summer of 2006.

Aishwarya opts out of Saamna

Aishwarya Rai is no more working for Rajkumar Santoshi's Saamna. Known for a good working relationship with Rajkumar Santoshi, Aishwarya had to take this decision because of her busy schedules. Her last release with Santoshi was Khakee. Santoshi also wanted to cast her in his ambitious project Prithviraj Samyukta but the film never took off.

Ash is currently shooting for Umrao Jaan in Jaipur. According to Hari Singh, her business manager, the actress has many projects lined up this year including Dhoom 2 and Akbar Jodha. However, Ash is not able to find dates for Saamna starring Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar and Nana Patekar in lead roles.

John, Dino battle it out

Pooja Bhatt's ROG was the first release of 2005 and her new project, HOLIDAY, was supposed to be the opening film of 2006 [January 6], but the film has been postponed to February 10 now. With the first week of the new year considered jinxed and also keeping in mind the fact that the subsequent weeks are overcrowded, the producers of HOLIDAY [Pooja Bhatt, Shreya Creations] decided to shift the film to the second month of 2006.

"But the actual reason of postponement is, we want to time its release during the Valentine's Day celebrations," Sheel Kumar of Shreya Creations informs me. As things stand today, Ramesh Sippy's TAXI NO. 9211 [Nana, John] and HOLIDAY are expected to clash on this Friday. Meaning, Bipasha's current [John] and ex [Dino] will battle it out in the Valentine week. Let the best [film] win!

Bipasha Basu added to Vishal Bharadwaj's Othello

Director-composer Vishal Bharadwaj is a master when it comes to adapting literature on the big screen. Maqbool adapted from Shakespeare's Macbeth and the upcoming Chatri Chor adapted from Ruskin Bond's Blue Umbrella are classic examples of his expertise. His next film is also adapted from Shakespeare's classic literature 'Othello' which he had been planning since some time now. And the news is confirmed now.

While Ajay Devagan, Saif Ali Khan, Viveik Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma were announced in the cast of the film, now Bipasha Basu is also added for a special appearance along with Naseeruddin Shah. Bharadwaj has gone big, both in his casting and budget of the film. The film is yet to be titled. Bharadwaj also handles the music, story, screenplay and dialogues of the movie.

Here's looking forward to an interesting film.