Family man!

Family man! We were the first to tell you that Arjun Rampal had the names of his babies tattooed on his arms. Now, here's visual proof. Rampal tried to shy away from the camera, but our click-happy photogs managed to film the evidence nevertheless. Feast your eyes! What's bugging Tanu? Crazy tiara re! Tanushree Dutta Tanushree Dutta had a harrowing time while enacting a song sequence for her forthcoming film Bhagam Bhaag. As a part of the costume, she had worn a delicate tiara that refused to stay on her head. Every time she would break into a jig for the camera, the tiara would either slip down her forehead or onto her shoulders. Apparently, director Priyadarshan even fired some assistants for being unable to fix the darned tiara. Seems like Tanu was definitely not feeling like a princess that day! On with the show: cand Asha Parekh Jaya's stage outing Jaya Bachchan, along with several Bollywood folks, turned up at the technical rehearsal of Sanjay Goradia's play Lali Lila, co-produced by AB Corp (their first theatre venture). Along with Asha Parekh, Shammi, Manmohan Shetty, Krishna Kapoor with daughter Rima, and Govind Nihalani, she sat through the drama that opens this Sunday at Sophia auditorium. The play directed by Vipul Mehta, takes a look at Siamese twins and what happens when they fall in love. Incidentally, Jaya has done two plays (Dr Mukta and Ma Retire Hoti Hai) with Goradia, and maybe that's the reason why the Bachchans have agreed to co-produce a play. Kadka romeo: Upen Patel 'Foot in bill' disease Upen Patel likes his Casanova image so much, he's actually going overboard with all the PYTs hanging on to his arm. But however much he may like to play to the female gallery, his 'partying-with-a-new-gal-every-night' image has struck a wrong chord with club owners. Apparently, Upen has been coming up with all sorts of excuses to avoid footing his outlandish bills after a night out on the town. "He pays half the bill and then says, 'Dude, I don't have any more money!'," says a restaurateur from Juhu. But if this stingy trend continues, Freeloader Patel will soon have to set up his own little chai tapri and party there with his 'babes'! No means no: Kumar Gaurav TV? Nahin, nahin! We've got to hand it to Kumar Gaurav. He may have little to no acting assignment in hand, but he's certainly not going to take up things he looks down upon. Recently, there was a buzz doing the rounds that he was being considered as Salil Ankola's replacement on Bigg Boss. But when we checked with the one-film wonder, he quipped in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner, "I may be a one-film star, but I will never do television!" Ouch! We don't think TV actors are going to take that remark kindly! Last heard, he had been approached by Ekta Kapoor to play Jai Walia's role in Kasamh Se. But the actor asked for a whopping sum, which Madam refused. See, Kumar's even got his strategy right. If you don't want to do something and can't say no, ask for an obscene amount of money and they'll be out of there faster than you can say 'Nahin, nahin… abhi nahin'. Hear! hear! Anil Kapoor Bond se badkar kaun! The Bond bug has hit B-Town as well. A poolside party in honour of the secret agent preceded a grand premiere. Trooping down the hallowed portals of a suburban theatre was VJ Gaurav who flaunted the '007' status, while Madhur Bhandarkar was seen striking a folded arm pose. A khadi-clad Rajkumar Hirani kept jabbering some mumbo-jumbo and Anil Kapoor was hooked on to his phone all evening. However, the wannabe Bond award goes to Parvin Dabbas, who consciously sported a not-so-cool look while fidgeting with his glass of martini. May we suggest that you not indulge in such cheap imitations of Bond, boys? Loving it: VJ Gaurav

Shaken and stirred: Parvin Dabbas

Samjha kya? Rajkumar Hirani

Hmmm...: Madhur Bhandarkar

When Rakshanda served a drink

Drink up! Mona Singh and Rakshanda Khan

After turning entrepreneur, soap star Rakshanda Khan launched a non-alcoholic energy drink along with her business partners. Black and red was the theme of the party, and our hostess, clad in a black cocktail dress, handed out cans of the drink to her pals and colleagues.

In spite of denying rumours of a liaison with Aftab Shivdasani, Rakshanda sported him as an arm candy all evening. No wonder Yana Gupta wasn't around.

Also spotted at the event were Ekta Kapoor, Shaheen Abaas, Sachin Sharma, Riva Bubber, Chetan Hansraj, Sudhanshu Pandey, Karan Oberoi, Mona Singh, Suvarna Jha, Sumeet Sachdev, Ken Ghosh, Shraddha Nigam, Javed Jaffery, Akbar Sami, Shilpa and Apoorva Agnihotri, Amit Sareen, Yash Tonkk, Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani and Vikas Sethi.

Smoking bandh

Man of the moment: (Clockwise) John Abraham gets talking with Chikoo, Ranvir Shorey and Ayesha Takia in stills from No Smoking

What happens when the interesting combination of Vishal Bhardwaj, Kumar Mangat (producer of Omkara), Anurag Kashyap, John Abraham and Ayesha Takia come together? It translates into a film called No Smoking. Produced by Vishal Bhardwaj, Kumar Mangat and Sunil Lulla of Eros Entertainment, No Smoking is being directed by Anurag Kashyap and stars Ayesha Takia and John Abraham. Here's an exclusive peek into the making of No Smoking, which is currently being shot in Mumbai.

How it happened
Vishal Bhardwaj says, "I have known Anurag since he was writing the dialogues for Satya and I was doing the film's music. His film Black Friday hugely impressed me when I saw it.

Once, during the shooting of Omkara, Anurag dropped in to meet me. He was depressed as none of his films were getting released. I had read No Smoking and liked the script a lot so I asked him about it. He narrated it to me again and that's when I told him I would love to produce the film.

No Smoking is a very unusual story; a bizarre, entertaining thriller that keeps you guessing at every turn. You're completely glued to the narrative. I have seen the rushes and John is doing such a brilliant job, while Ayesha is a very pleasant surprise."

Kumar Mangat adds, "When Vishal asked us to hear Anurag's script, my son Abhishek and I were completely floored. It's more commercial than Omkara. It has a song sung by Adnan Sami, Jab bhi cigarette jalti hai mein jalta hoon, which will be a bigger hit than Beedi jalai le in Omkara. Vishal has scored the music for the film with lyrics by Gulzar saab. We are aiming for a May 2007 release as we plan to premiere it the Cannes Film Festival."

Personal experience
Anurag Kashyap, who used to be a chain smoker, says, "There are lots of personal experiences in the film. Some of the chief characters are a chain smoker K (John), his wife Anjali (Takia), his friend Abbas (Ranvir Shorey) and Kikoo Kishanchandani (Chikoo). He is a great actor whom I took from the Great Indian Comedy Show and resembles Raj Kumar Santoshi, who couldn't do the film. I wanted the character to look like him."

John plays a "selfish, arrogant, complex, MCP whose marriage is on the rocks. He goes to a supposed rehab center to quit smoking but then it becomes a roller-coaster ride from there — horror, caper, comedy, thriller."

Johny bravo!
Says Anurag, "People will be shocked by John's performance in the film and to the level he has taken his character. He has got under the skin of the character and comes prepared every day. Ayesha is a natural. She is the next Rani Mukerji." About 40 per cent of the film is complete and a chunk is to be shot in Siberia.

Penalty time
Rues Anurag, "Kumarji has imposed a fine that anybody who smokes on the sets will be fined Rs 500 per cigarette. Even if I was hiding somewhere trying to smoke, one of the ADs would click pictures of me and report it to Kumarji. I must have paid Rs 12,000 by now. Now, I have told Kumarji's son Abhishek to tell me when his snoops are around and I will pay half the fine to him!"