AB, Rishi: Gone to the dogs!

Remember Mukul Abhyankar's directorial debut, Dogs, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor, that was launched with much fanfare? Apparently, it was shelved as soon as it was launched.

According to indiafm.com, the film has been revived. Kapoor will start shooting for the film this July, while Bachchan will shoot in January 2005. The heroine has not been finalised yet.

Dogs portrays Kapoor as a mentally deranged person. Bachchan, a dog trainer, has been banned by the dog training academy. Kapoor is obsessed with a hooker (to be played by the leading lady), who is in love with Bachchan, who does not respond to her.

Kapoor's role is negative, while Bachchan's character has shades of grey.

It is scheduled for a June 2005 release.

The woman with the dazzling smile seems to have returned to the silver screen.

After her marriage to US-based doctor Sriram Nene, Madhuri Dixit dropped most of her acting assignments. She appeared in only one film after her wedding: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. No one could get enough of her superb performance.

Now, the actress has reportedly given bulk dates to Buddhadeb Dasgupta for his Hindi film to be produced by Jhamu Sugandh.

According to radiosargam.com, she is also considering acting offers from Rajkumar Santoshi, Rituparno Ghosh, Zoya Akhtar and Zafar Hai.

The Sahara Parivar seems to be increasing every day. First, it was the Bachchans promoting the channel on air. Amitabh Bachchan is even expected to do a serial for the television channel.

Karisma Kapoor and Sridevi debuted on Sahara Television with Karishma: The Miracles Of Destiny and Malini Iyer respectively. Raveena Tandon has been signed to play Chhoti Malkin in the teleserial Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, to be directed by Rituparno Ghosh.

The latest to join is Ram Gopal Varma. According to b4utv.com, the director, along with his producer-partner K Sera Sera, has joined hands with Sahara. The deal requires Ramu to produce 10 films in 30 months. Sahara will put in Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million), of the total sum of Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million).

Under the contract, Ramu is required to make films exclusively for Sahara and cannot make any film under his own banner.