Amitabh to shave off beard

Vickey Lalwani

Amitabh to shave off beard

Amitabh Bachchan will shave off his beard for Rajkumar Santoshi's Khaki. The film also stars Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya Rai. Unit members say the mahurat will take place only after Bachchan finishes shooting for Ravi Chopra's Baghbaan, which is moving briskly.

Santoshi, who recently embarked on a location hunt, has decided to base most of his shooting in and around Pune.

The director is also finalising the cast for what is termed Bollywood's most ambitious project, Mahabharata. It will cost Rs 1.15 billion. Actors being considered are Arjun Rampal (Arjun), Aishwarya Rai (Draupadi), Sunny Deol (Karna) and Sanjay Dutt (Duryodhan). Talks are on with Ajay Devgan (Krishna) and Suniel Shetty (Bheema).

Apparently, Santoshi wanted to cast newcomers intially. Now, the film might just boast of a casting coup. The sets of the film have been in the making at Hyderabad's Ramoji Rao Studios from mid-2001. The shooting will start in 2004.

Simran's Bollywood comeback

Simran is returning to Bollywood. The superhit actress of the Tamil film industry has now signed a film with Rakesh Bapat (of Tum Bin fame) to be directed by Lawrence D'Souza.

Reports say the male lead is Milind Soman. The film will be made in Hindi and Tamil.

Jaz is confident

Jaz, the protagonist of Lawrence D'Souza's forthcoming Indian Babu [produced by Jaz's father Surinder], is anxious to get noticed.

"I took up acting to realise my dad's unfulfilled dream," he says. "His career came to a halt after Nazar failed to click at the box-office. I am determined that this time around, he has a winner on his hands with Indian Babu. I have done lots of homework and joined classes to learn to speak Hindi and Urdu, sword-fighting and lathi-wielding. I have also learnt dancing for six months. I should not fail."

Indian Babu is about a Casanova (Jaz) who falls in love with an Indian girl in London and realises later that she is there to undergo heart surgery.