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February 11, 1997
BILLBOARD
QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
ROUGH CUTS
TOP TEN
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT
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Mahima's miffed
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Mahima. Click for bigger pic!
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Mahima's most peeved that she too didn't get a Screen award like Aishwarya Rai did.
So she fretted in earnest before mentor Subhash Ghai, driving him to distraction. Very easy, of course, for the young lady to drive anyone to d.
So a harried Ghai called up the jury and asked, "What gives?"
The ramp, came the prompt reply. Ash was a model who turned a star and who has made great progress, Ghai was informed. Why on earth should modelling make for a great actress, of course, was too trite to be brought up. Anyway, two flops may not a heroine make was a point the jury couldn't appreciate. Okay then, why didn't Pooja Batra get it? After all, hadn't she dished up a good performance in the successful Virasat?
Sorry, but Padmini Kolhapure had dubbed for her.
The point both parties forgot to mention is that Mahima aka Ritu Chaudhary is also a model -- remember that Pepsi ad with Aamir Khan? But that didn't come up in the conversation. Not, of course, that if it had, the jury would have rushed en masse to Aishwarya, yanked the award from her and handed it over to Mahima.
Sigh, Mahima would have liked that though.
Pappa No 1
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Govinda. Click for bigger pic!
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Govinda is giving his arms a rest and his throat a go. But this time there'll be no double entrendres, only the saintliest of aphorisms, in verse.
The idea came from sister Kamini Khanna, herself a bhajan singer with powerful vocal twangers (She already has cut a few albums). And since Govinda has sung songs for his movies -- we'll forget for the moment that these included numbers like Meri pant bhi sexy, meri short bhi sexy -- he didn't mind putting together a pack of pious paeans for HMV.
Now that we have safely dealt with his professional life, we'd discuss matters personal. Sorry, that's just his daughter we're bringing up. In the sense that we aren't really bringing her up, Govinda and Sunita are... Oh, but we guess you've got the general idea.
Anyway, Govinda was out shooting in Switzerland when his little one's birthday was due. The desperate dad told Sunita to fix up a bash for the gods at the Juhu Centaur. And he flew over just for the party before going back. As far as dads go, Govinda's No 1 all right.
Mehta makes it
This is one canteen boy who knew what he was doing.
Ashok Mehta, who gave powerful evidence of his talent in Aparna Sen's 36, Chowringee Lane, is now going to direct his own film. Actually, he had directed a film earlier, Shashi Kapoor's The Witness but it never loosened itself from the can.
Undaunted, Mehta surges on to the next milestone, one that will be on view, Moksha, The Salvation, starring Manisha Koirala and ex-model Arjun Rampal, whom Shantanu Sheorey described as the second Amitabh.
Mehta isn't making any flamboyant remarks about anybody or, for that matter, even the film. For now.
Sozzled siren
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Manisha Koirala. Click for bigger pic!
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Or maybe Mehta doesn't have much to crow about, in Manisha anyway. Regular binges at the bar, we hear, are beginning to have their effect, even threatening that pretty face.
She turned up, canned to the wide, on the sets of Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya (Such a long name itself works up a thirst). She staggered over to the director and insisted that she would do a romantic scene with Arvind Swamy.
The hero quickly gathered that any romantic scene would seem like a retirement party from Alcoholics Anonymous. Finally, Manisha waggled her head in doltish agreement and zigzagged off.
Next day, she returned, so full of beans she could overflow. She bounced up to the hero, pecked him on the cheek and proceeded to do some real work. No, she'd hadn't packed away the bottle, just decided she'd hit it at night. Hard.
Koirala II
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Siddharth Koirala. Click for bigger pic!
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Talking 'bout Koiralas, know one with the first name Siddharth? Happens to be the recently-mentioned lady's sibling who starred in the never seen Aashiq Hai To Dilbur Ko Pehchan with Mayuri Kango. The producer ran short of funds and the film was mercifully shelved.
Meanwhile, Manisha queered brother's pitch with one newsmagazine at least, picking a fight with a journalist who laughed in amusement at something she said. She later made amends by getting then boyfriend Nana Patekar to get the boy roles, but Siddharth didn't want to play second fiddle and so opted out.
Now Siddharth comes back in Bappi Lahiri's Love 98. Bappi says the boy's a wonderful actor and, anyway, he's taken preventive measures by getting Boy George and Apache Indian to do numbers in them. Boy George even plays Siddharth's pal.
By George!
'I'm not a crook'
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Shabana Azmi. Click for bigger pic!
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Still on mothers, HMV's Godmother ran into some serious trouble when Santokben Jadeja, the woman on whose life the film is allegedly based, came up to the sets and threatened him with dire consequences.
Her men also manhandled director Vinay Shukla to the point that the producer was too scared to file a police complaint. He also swore the entire crew to silence.
And why did Jadeja object to the film? Because, as her modus operandi seems to show is true, the film depicts her as the don of Porbunder.
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