Rai rules!
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Aishwarya Rai. Click for bigger pic!
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Aishwarya Rai certainly seems to have her way anywhere in the world she was the Ms of.
It happened when Rai was shooting in the US for Rishi Kapoor's Aa Ab Laut Chalein. Happened the shot was looking right and she, relying partly on her experiences in Mani Ratnam's Iruvar, partly on those she had as a student of architecture, suggested doing it inside a car parked outside a restaurant.
If you ask why a car, and why outside a restaurant, you'd better ask the scriptwriter. But that's where she wanted it -- in a car outside a... Well, you know the rest.
Director Kapoor thought it a good idea and checked up with the restaurant owner who also happened to own the car standing without. The short balding man stepped out and was nodding agreeably when he saw Ms Rai. Whereupon he had to clean his eyeballs which had scraped the pavement.
If he was allowed to take a picture with "that gorgeous woman there," he breathed fervently, they could have his car. His demand was duly met.
Dunno if it would have made a difference if he'd been told that Ash was a former Ms World. And the way he was ogling the girl, it wouldn't.
Sush's spats
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Sushmita Sen with Vikram Bhatt. Click for bigger pic!
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Things aren't going as smoothly for Sushmita Sen, once Ash's rival in the Battle of Pulchritude.
There were some tales after the erstwhile Ms Universe turning Mrs, after an alleged marriage with Vikram Bhatt. But now it's all off, it seems, Sen having told Bhatt not to darken her door -- behind which he for long had taken refuge -- and go forthwith to his legal spouse.
Trouble apparently began after Bhatt's Dastak sank like a chunk of granite. It was during the making of the film that Sen and Bhatt began really cuddling up, causing even, we hear, for a change in script. Of course, all in Sen's favour.
But after what didn't happen to the film, no other director would touch her, forcing her south. Even the promos of Zor don't picture her -- Sunny Deol and Milind Gunaji share the honours.
Sen was apparently upset that Bhatt, whom she once thought a genius, was not directing the film and that Mahesh Bhatt was. Naturally, she was cruelly disappointed.
No one knows yet what happened after V Bhatt got it, well, in his namesake... For no one's talking yet.
ABCL makes Phoolan cough up
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Phoolan Devi. Click for bigger pic!
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Amitabh Bachchan's ABCL has finally come into some money. All of Rs 20,000, wrested with great difficulty from Phoolan Devi. Enough, we guess, to pay off at least one of those staffers who allegedly go unpaid.
But how did ABCL ever manage to make the ex-bandit cough up? Ah, thereby hangs a tale.
Phoolan Devi, if one bothered to file the fact in the memory cabinet, had filed a suit against ABCL for defamation since that was the company marketing Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen.
Soon after some bright spark in the UK, Mildred Gordon (an MP, naturally) suggested that Phoolan would be a great nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But Phoolan Devi was pretty bucked by this idea, one that she'd never have thought up herself. She reasoned that it could blot her copybook with the committee if she was seen wrangling in over some rather sordid details of Bandit Queen in court. Doesn't do for a peace prize nominee to be hauled out of a fracas to pick up an award, she felt. So she withdrew the case.
The judge was a little aggrieved with her for wasting his time and told her to pay off ABCL.
Since the prize money could cover the loss, Phoolan didn't mind. And considering its present financial condition, ABCL didn't either.
Ghai's Ganga fetish
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Subhash Ghai. Click for bigger pic!
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Subhash Ghai has this thing about the name Ganga. It was the name of the presiding female deity of his Pardes; it's also the name of his upcoming film.
Speaking of Ganga, it will star Manisha Koirala, a Ghai find herself. Earlier, the director'd tried to rope in another G find, name of Madhuri D, but things didn't click. The one ingredient that hasn't been changed for Ganga is Shah Rukh Khan.
Trouble happened between Koirala and Ghai sometime after their Saudagar together. The duo apparently entered a lift as pals and reached their destination as foes, with Koirala yelling at Ghai for all the world to hear. No one knows what happened in between the opening and shutting of the lift doors, the floors, and the two of them.
But now, it appears they've kissed and made up. Leaving ex-Ganga Mahima up the river without a paddle.
Urmi ups her price
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Urmila Matondkar. Click for bigger pic!
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Coming quickly up the starry ranks is Urmila Matondkar. The woman hiked her price recently, demanding Rs 15 million to play female lead in Chota Chetan.
It was clear the woman was getting uncomfortable with her paychecks recently. She had recently thrown some tantrums for Sanjay Chhel's Khoobsoorat and walked out of the film to concentrate on Ram Gopal Varma's Satya.
It took producer Bharat Shah some time to defuse the situation. Of course, he could, considering he's financing both films. Now, perhaps, she's made her point too.
When the chips are down...
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Madhuri Dixit. Click for bigger pic!
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Madhuri Dixit showed her catty side soon after Dil To Pagal Hai began doing well.
Her prestige back on keel, she decided to climb on the high h again.
So when she was asked to do a photo session with Akshay Kumar, whose own career is so low that it calls for a miner to find it, the lady blandly refused. It was pointed out that the session was a promo for Arzoo in which she stars opposite Akki, she still wouldn't agree.
His image is very faltu these days, she told the producer. Some people never learn, wot?
Lingua Francais
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Yash Chopra. Click for bigger pic!
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Talking of DTPH, Yash Chopra is so happy with its success, he is planning to dub the film in French, for mass consumption in France, Switzerland etc.
It may be recalled that he has also dubbed Lamhe in English for release on the Murdoch-owned Star Plus channel.
He is also planning to get the Sridevi-starrer Chandni dubbed in English. With hopes of Darr, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Dil To Pagal Hai following suit.
Karisma's got company
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Kareena Kapoor. Click for bigger pic!
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Now that Karisma's arguably the biggest female star in the industry, Kareena Kapoor has decided that big sister after all knew what she was about.
So she's decided to follow in Lolo's footsteps, a fact recently confirmed by Karisma's secretary, Zahid.
Info has yet to trickle in about what the senior Kapoors thinks of the idea of the girl, who earlier was more interested in education, doing seductive wiggles on screen. Perforce, we will have to wait for further announcements.
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