Rediff Logo Movies McDowell Banner Find/Feedback/Site Index
HOME | MOVIES | SHORT TAKES
November 18, 1998

BILLBOARD
QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
SOUTHERN SPICE
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

Western Union Money Transfer

Send this story to a friend

Tough luck

Manisha Koirala. Click for bigger pic!
Manisha Koirala has it hard, Tabu, darned easy.

Manisha's last few films, including the infamous Dil Se, have flopped, and she has only Inder Kumar's Mann with Aamir Khan to depend on. And that has thinned the crowd of producers beyond her doors.

The other film she has in hand, Ashok Mehta's Moksh, The Salvation, is taking some time in the making, but it has few takers anyway since the hero is supermodel Arjun Rampal, an unknown quantity in Bollywood. The film is reportedly good, but the audiences too have to accept her in it.

And Tabu? Whatever she touches seems to be turn into gold. And the girl has her reputation safely straddling the art and commercial divide.

And with Gulzar's Hu Tu Tu also slated for release soon, she is pretty excited. She plays a Maharashtrian in the film and seems to have picked up the accent too quite well. The only dark lining on the silver cloud is the black buck killing case, in which she too was arrested... But with her luck, she'll come out smelling of roses.

Out on a limb

Ajay Devgun. Click for bigger pic!
Ajay Devgun damaged a leg a few weeks ago, but continued shooting without realising what had happened. Of course, that didn't help matters. Turned out he had torn a few ligaments.

Of course, it's getting to be such a habit with Ajay, he must be bored of it all.

"There isn't a single bone in my body that hasn't been broken," he tells you with relish. He was in bed for a few days, but is gingerly making his way around now. But fiancee Kajol wasn't around to say 'There, there' consolingly since she was shooting out of town. But she's managed it all the same, thanks to the mobile phone industry.

It seems the duo has postponed their marriage plans yet again, but not because Kajol prefers a fighting fit husband.

Meanwhile, there are a few producers who have signed up Ajay and seem quite willing to break his leg. Already some of them have lost money after Juhi Chawla refused to give them dates after breaking a leg in Mauritius.

Getting to be a habit, isn't it, broken legs?

Taxing propositions

A still from China Gate. Click for bigger pic!
Talking of producers, diamond pasha Bharat Shah, who financed China Gate to the tune of Rs 160 million, is finding things getting hot for him, the income-tax department having taken an interest in him.

Already, the officials have come a-visiting. And now that China Gate has been sold at a profit all over the nation, Shah finds himself in a very uncomfortable position indeed.

A press conference too was held this week and all the stars were introduced to the press. Incidentally, no one spoke about the budget of the film, once touted as the largest one in the industry.

What happened to those cliched prizes for guessing why?

A question of property

Amitabh Bachchan. Click for bigger pic!
Amitabh Bachchan is winding up in deeper trouble every day, despite some recent successes at the turnstiles.

This time it is United Television, a television software manufacturing company, that is threatening to attach ABCL properties for non-payment of dues amounting to Rs 13 million. UTV won the case in court, but ABCL still didn't cough up.

The court has already issued orders to the sheriff, asking him to attach ABCL's movable properties if UTV so wishes.

As far as we know, UTV hasn't wished that yet. But it could well be a matter of time....

Star spawn vehicle lurches off

Kareena Kapoor. Click for bigger pic!
Refugee escaped the shelf recently when J P Dutta finally decided to begin shooting on this, the launch vehicle for Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor.

The Bachchan boy was reportedly very upset about how slowly his career was getting going.

First he was to appear in Purushartha, which never saw light of day. Aakhri Mughal also met the same dark fate. And, finally, Refugee was proposed. But even this story, based on the Bangladesh war, seems to be having some trouble in terms of location.

Now that things are finally working out, they are all coming about in hurry. They are shooting for the film in Bhuj for a long spell, from November 19 to January 15. We've heard they even plan to can the whole film before returning.

Just in time. For we were beginning to wonder if Abhishek would decide to first do that E V V Satyanarayana film with Amitabh playing his dad. Not anymore, we think.

The state is his cause

Raja Bundela was a pretty talented actor with some hot roles in films like Arjun, Shola Aur Shabnam... He now plans a a film on his native Bundelkhand.

Bundela, from Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh, is also the president of the youth wing of the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha and has, of recent times, being demanding a separate state.

He wanted to pick up Tejaswini Kolhapure, Padmini Kolhapure's sibling for the role. But Tejaswini preferred to be launched in her sister's next production. And so Bundela is looking for a new girl to do the role.

Bundela is pretty serious about this Bundelkhand thing. He'd been through the locality to dredge up support -- and was quite a hit there too, might we add. And a charter he'd drawn up then suggested the Bundelkhandis could even block access to Khajuraho -- which falls in the area -- to highlight their problems.

Seeing how terribly serious the threat is, the film should make the government sit up whenever it is released, we guess.

-- V S Srinivasan

Tell us what you think of this feature

HOME | NEWS | BUSINESS | SPORTS | MOVIES | CHAT | INFOTECH | TRAVEL
SHOPPING HOME | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | HOTEL RESERVATIONS
PERSONAL HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | FEEDBACK