Sunny-Santoshi patch up

Sunny Deol and Rajkumar Santoshi are said to have kissed and made up. The failure of both Bhagat Singh films [Deol's March 23, 1931 -- Shaheed and Santoshi's The Legend Of Bhagat Singh] is cited as the reason that made the duo wiser.

Apparently, they decided to set their differences aside and collaborate together on Sahara's new project.

The film is likely to be announced as soon as Santoshi gets a breather from his current project Khaki, starring Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai.

Will the Deol-Santoshi magic that gave hits like Ghayal, Damini and Ghatak work the fourth time round?

The Ghai jinx

Contrary to earlier announcements, Madhur Bhandarkar will not direct a film for Subhash Ghai.

"The script I was supposed to do with Ghai on cross-border terrorism has been scrapped," Bhandarkar says. "It turned out to be too sensitive and volatile. It had a strong communal angle to it. Keeping the interests of the nation in mind, Ghai and I thought it would be better to work on something else."

Amused at the curiosity the showman's projects evoke, Bhandarkar quips, "Ghai had signed Anubhav Sinha. Even his project did not take off. Ghai had finalised Satish Kaushik to direct Majnu, which had a casting coup in Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. Even Satish's project did not materialise. Abbas-Mustan and Anil Sharma were supposed to do a film for Ghai, and those did not happen either."

Anurag Kashyap's long delayed Paanch is yet to hit the screens. But the scriptwriter-turned-director is excited about his two new films.

"My new film All Win Kalicharan produced by Tutu Sharma is amazing. The film stars Anil Kapoor and several stage artistes from Delhi. We have shown the markets crashing in 2008. In 2015, seven years later, everything goes haywire. There is no dividing line left between right and wrong or black and white. Everybody is corrupt and goes berserk. It is set in Hastinapur (formerly known as Delhi). The streets are full of magicians, belly dancers, trapeeze artistes and all kinds of people who offer momentary gratification," he says.

His other film Gulaal, starring Antara Mali, is stuck due to lack of finance. "The production rests with my friend Michael Arakkal and I. Gulaal is set against violent college politics. We shot for only 9 days and stopped. I will resume it after All Win Kalicharan is sufficiently through," confirms Kashyap.

As for Paanch, "It is definitely releasing on February 20," he assures us.

Jagjit Singh thumbs down Padma Bhushan

Ghazal king Jagjit Singh is not too thrilled about the Padma Bhushan he received recently.

When asked if he thought the award had come in late, he replied, "Late? I was expecting it 10 years ago. For the last five years, my expectations had completely dried up."

"Clearly, the jury is unaware of who is what," Singh added. "If you are giving away awards for music, there should be music critics from the media on the jury. Can an MLA analyse music? The selection process is bizarre. A few honors have surprised me no end. Like for one, Rita Ganguly, the ghazal singer from Delhi who got this award last year. How many people have even heard her name?"

Yesterdays Newsbytes