New faces, new talent

Bollywood will see more actors and directors making their debut than we have seen in the last two years.

Zayed Khan (actor-director Sanjay Khan's son, Hrithik Roshan's brother-in-law and Feroz Khan's nephew) debuts in Sangeeth Sivan's Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne. Attin Bhalla makes his celluloid bow with Ashok Honda's Om. Both films are slated to release this Friday.

Other debutants in the next couple of weeks include composer Amar Mohile (Om) and Shamir Tandon, Druba, Jyoti Phukan and Pritam, who have scored the music for Raveena Tandon's sporty war film, Stumped.

Stumped (releasing April 11) will also see the debut of director Gaurab Pandey.

Other directors who will debut in the near future include Sujoy Ghosh with Jhankaar Beats (releasing April 4); cinematographer Tejaa who turns director with the Tusshar Kapoor-Natassha starrer Yeh Dil (also April 4); Vijay Kumar whose true story of a missing person Kahan Ho Tum is scheduled for an April 11 release; and Tigmanshu Dhulia, whose hard-hitting film on student unrest, Haasil, releases April 18.

Music video-maker Ken Ghosh makes his cinematic debut with the teenybopper love story Ishq Vishq, as do Sanjay Jha, with the social satire, Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye, and Kushan Nandy with the murder mystery, 88 Antop Hill.

That is not all. Honey Irani, Rohit Shetty and Sholay director Ramesh Sippy's son Rohan are expected to debut in May.

A number of actors are set to make their first appearance in the next few weeks as well. Shayan Munshi debuts in Jhankaar Beats; Ishita Arun in Kahan Ho Tum; Natanya Singh in Partho Ghosh's Surya; Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra in producer Suneel Darshan's Andaaz; MTV veejay Shenaz Treasurywala in Ishq Vishq; the legendary Vyjayanthimala's son Suchindra Bali in Aanch (Bali has three Tamil movies, Kannodu Kandethellam, Mugavara and the to-be-released Varsha under his belt); models Katrina Kaif and Padma Laxmi in Kaizad Gustad's Boom!; former Miss India Neha Dhupia in Harry Baweja's Qayamat; and veteran filmmaker Arjun Hingorani's son Amit in Kaise Kahoon Ke… Pyaar Hai.

How many of them will make an impact is moot.

But Bollywood is upbeat. Darshan, who introduces Lara and Priyanka in Andaaz, thinks the time is right for new faces: "It's about time we had a fresh crop of stars. The established ones are over-priced and over-worked."