F
Amidst the smoke and glitter, one spots a pensive Shahid Kapoor. Wearing a blue shirt and grey trousers with a matching blue tie, he walks towards the kids. "Uncle, please play with us," they cry out.
Soon, he gets into the act and kicks the ball. Goal!
But before the celebration dies down, a girl (Tulip Joshi) -- standing at a distance -- starts screaming at a guy (Hiten Paintal, comedian Paintal's son) to keep away from her.
"How dare you touch me? Just go away. Leave me alone," she yells.
| |||||||||||
The director is not happy with Tulip's act. He wants her to be more aggressive. "Point a finger towards him when you talk," he advises.
"Action!"
Two more takes, and Mahadevan is finally satisfied.
We are on the sets of Anant Mahadevan's forthcoming film Dil Maange More at Jogger's Park, Bandra (northwest Mumbai). Produced by Nikhil Panchamiya, the film stars Shahid, Tulip, Soha Ali Khan and Ayesha Takia (last seen in Taarzan - The Wonder Car).
Hiten 
Paintal has been more of a television actor so far. On the film front, he has been seen only in Sanjay Dhoom Gadhvi's debut film, Tere Liye.
Mahadevan discusses the next scene with Shahid. Then, he returns to the monitor and yells, "Action" again.
Shahid runs towards the arguing couple and knocks Hiten down with a punch. As a fight scene is involved, Mahadevan is assisted by fight composer Bhiku Varma (Lajja, Border, Karan Arjun).
After the shot, Shahid watches himself on the monitor, but is not happy with the way he has run. He wants a retake. So do Mahadevan and Varma. Three more takes and the trio is happy.
Mahadevan takes some time off to tell us about Dil Maange More.
"The story is about a boy's relationship with three girls, and the viewers will keep guessing till the last frame which girl gets the boy in the end."
Hiten Paintal plays Tulip's boyfriend.
Raima Sen was supposed to play Tulip's part, but it did not work out. It was when Mahadevan saw Manish Jha's Matrubhoomi that he was impressed by Tulip's histrionics and cast her in his film.
"Tulip is acting material," he says. "She carried Matrubhoomi with her expressions, speaking just two or three lines in the entire film."
"I will play Sarah, a sales executive," says Tulip. "Nikhil [Shahid] and I work in the same music store: Planet M."
Soha plays Neha, an aspiring airhostess and Ayesha plays Shagun, a fashion designer.
Tulip was launched as Sanjana by Yash Raj Films in Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi (Uday Chopra, Jimmy Shergill), but is back to using her original name. "Aditya Chopra wanted my name to be Sanjana, and I had no choice," she explains.
Mahadevan is not perturbed by the disastrous fate of Shahid's latest film Fida. "Fida was a badly made film. Shahid was superb in his role," he argues.
Shahid tries to defend his first film with beau Kareena Kapoor. "[Producers] Tauranis tried making a different film and I think they did very well. That the audience did not like it is a different story."
Not many are aware that debutante producer Nikhil Panchamiya had rejected more than 70 scripts before he zeroed in on the script of Dil Maange More.
After getting a producer, Mahadevan got down to the most difficult task of choosing the right cast. "It was tough getting the right girls, though I must confess that Shahid was the first and only choice," he says.
Dil Maange More kicked off in June with a small schedule in Mumbai, followed by a longer one in Malaysia. The climax will be shot in Goa.
About 65 percent of the film is complete. It is scheduled to release by the end of the year. This will be Mahadevan's second directorial venture, after Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (Madhavan, Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri, Namrata Shirodkar, Sonali Kulkarni and Hrishita Bhatt).
