Twirl it like Shah Rukh!

The lid on the tremendous secrecy on Ab Tak Chappan director Shimit Amin's project for Yash Raj Films, starring Shah Rukh Khan, can now be lifted. King Khan will play the coach of a girls' hockey team in the film.

Says a source, "The script is heavily inspired from Gurinder Chaddha's Bend It Like Beckham. The search is on for 16 girls. While 11 girls will comprise the players, five will fill in as substitutes."

Last week, at St Andrew's College ground in Bandra, casting director Abhimanyu was testing out young, fresh faces for the roles. He says, "The auditions have been done and a few names have been finalised, but Yash Raj Films, like always, wants to keep it all under the wraps until everything falls into place."

Hockey training

The girls who are chosen will have to undergo a rigorous, two-month training workshop on how to play hockey. When contacted, Amin said, "That's right. But that will happen only later. And yes, the film is based on hockey. Right now, we are involved with various aspects of pre-production."
SRK unhappy?

The film, written by Jaideep Sahni (he also wrote Ram Gopal Varma's Company) is slated to commence mid-2006. Is it true that Shah Rukh is not too keen on the project and Amin has been asked to drop it? Amin denies this. "I think some wild, idle minds are at work. As far as I know, we are very much on."

Adds Abhimanyu, "I am working at hectic pace for the film. I don't know if Khan is unhappy with it."