Tabu: Spirited away

The super success of Vikram Bhatt's Raaz (Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea) has inspired Bollywood filmmakers to follow suit.

In the footsteps of Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot (Ajay Devgan, Urmila Matondkar, Rekha, Nana Patekar, Fardeen Khan, Victor Banerjee), that sets the supernatural element against an urban backdrop, comes Guddu Dhanoa's Hawa.

Guddu, who is known for action flicks like Ziddi (Sunny Deol, Raveena Tandon), Salakhen (Sunny, Raveena), Aflatoon (Akshay Kumar, Urmila) and Bichhoo (Bobby Deol, Rani Mukherji) shot to credibility with March 23, 1931 – Shaheed (Bobby, Sunny, Aishwarya Rai, Amrita Singh).

Hawa stars Tabu in the main role. The actress, who is extremely selective about her films, loved the script and agreed to give bulk dates.

The film, which features only one track by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen [Aaina, Yeh Dillagi, Ziddi], is scheduled for a June release.

Aamir's Nepali avatar

After playing a Bihari, Jat, Hyderabadi and Mumbai tapori in a series of Coca-Cola commercials being aired on Indian television, Aamir Khan will now feature in a new avatar.

This commercial, which will also be directed by Lagaan director Ashutosh Gowariker, will see Khan play a Nepali guide.

Khan is said to have rehearsed for two days before the shoot took place in Kullu Manali.

 Jackie's tune

Jackie Shroff will feature in Mamta Kulkarni's elder sister Priya's music video, Nachungi saari raat.

Priya has acted in four Kannada films. This album marks her debut as pop singer.

Tinsel bug bites Broacha 

MTV veejay Cyrus Broacha has signed Shona Urvashi's (late filmmaker Gul Anand's niece) directorial debut, Chupke Se.

It also marks the Bollywood debut of Shona's sister Masumi Makhija. The model-turned-actress made her debut with the German film, Tor Zun Himmel, directed by Veit Helmer.

Chupke Se revolves around a restless, mischievous and extremely ambitious Maharashtrian girl.  

Yesterday's Newsbytes