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September 23, 1997
BILLBOARD
QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT
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Badshah blues
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High hopes: Amitabh Bachchan Click for bigger pic!
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Where, but where is Amitabh Bachchan. He's disappeared, some said, to a monastery on the Tibetan border, smarting after the drubbing his recent film received.
But more authentic reports have it that he is touring Rajasthan these days -- Jaipur, Udaipur and Bikaner -- for K C Bokadia's Lal Badshah. The films all but canned and this is the last schedule. The big B is pinning great hopes on LB, putting it even before his own ABCL's Major Saab, though it is ready for release.
Wise that, considering what happened the last time his company showcased him.
Mahima out, Urmila in
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Urmila steals a march over Mahima Click for bigger pic!
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Mahima Chaudhary simpered and swam through Subhash Ghai's Pardes, with the camera swooning all over the former VJ -- including the mouth that rarely shut. But the film did well. In fact, it's the only Hindi film that's left a mark on the market.
But Mahima's not had the same luck in Ramgopal Varma's Satya. She actually got the boot there.
Verma has switched Mahima with his stock-in-trade heroine - yup, Urmila Matondkar. And thus was Ghai's latest M foiled.
Ishq puts on the brakes
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Resting, please wait: The cast of Ishq Click for bigger pic!
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Indra Kumar's Ishq has been pushed ahead, we hear.
The director was looking forward to a propitious Diwali release but Aamir Khan, no respecter of Indian traditions, fouled up the schedule by breaking his shoulder. Now the remaining song, will have to be shot a few weeks later. Putting the lid on any Diwali celebrations in the Ishq camp, which was raring up for one big release.
For the record
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The cast of Dil To Pagal Hai Click for bigger pic!
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The music cassette of Yash Chopra's Dil To Pagal Hai is doing brisk business long before the attached film is released.
The very first order it bagged was for a whopping 2 million cassettes. That's a record for a Hindi film cassette, all right.
Smart guy, the chap who ordered it. DTPH is already a rage in north India. Every house, every shop, every car is playing the music, till you wish you could strangle Yash Chopra if you got your hands on him.
BTW, didja know that Yash Chopra has his own web site? Besides Bollywood tripe and Chopra hype, the site has the soundtrack of -- don't tell us you didn't guess it -- DTPH.
Govinda plays Galahad
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Hero Govinda Click for bigger pic!
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Nobody would know it, but somewhere south of that cheesy smile, Govinda has a golden heart.
But it was on display recently when, responding to an appeal in a national newspaper by a dying child whose last wish was to meet him, Govinda visited him in hospital.
Before calling on the ailing child, the actor spoke to him on the telephone, even hummed a few bars from two songs from his films. The kid, naturally, had to be roped down from cloud nine.
Nice going, Govinda, far better than one Salman we featured here after he refused a teddy bear a child sent from South Africa.
Lacoste has competition
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Bleeding heart: Anu Kapoor Click for bigger pic!
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Every time Anu Kapoor sings a patriotic song or discusses an emotional issue, he sniffles like he has a bad cold and sob as if his heart -- prominently displayed on his sleeve -- would break. Everybody knows that.
But if he had tears on tap, it's recently sprung a leak. But when the results of a talent hunt were being shot, Kapoor began to cry, for no obvious reason than the obviously psychiatric.
If he doesn't plug the lachrymals, Kapoor's going to confirm his sobriquet -- the new crocodile. Tell him, please.
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