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July 27, 2000
5 QUESTIONS
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Lots in a nameUnfortunately, Anil Kapoor has of late not got too many good offers from Bollywood's movers and shakers. Fortunately, producer A M Rathnam came to his rescue, signing him on for the Hindi remake of the Tamil superhit Mudhalvan, which was produced and directed by Shankar. Unfortunately, for his ego that is, he was not the first choice of the film -- Rathnam was running around after Shah Rukh Khan, and it was only after that fizzled out that the producer looked to Anil Kapoor to fill the lead role. Fortunately, Anil's ego is quite used to these jhatkas -- after all, even the role he played in Taal came to him only after Govinda rejected the offer from Subhash Ghai. As far as Anil is concerned, any offer -- even second hand ones -- beats sitting at home. Unfortunately, as early as the muhurat stage, Anil's problems escalated -- he was told that producer Babbloo Pachisia had filed a complaint with the producer's council, seeking to restrain A M Rathnam from using the title Nayak, the rights to which belong to Babbloo himself. Fortunately, Anil and Babbloo are friends, so the former could approach the latter, and negotiate for the release of the rights to that title. Unfortunately, thus far, Babbloo shows no sign of obliging friend Anil, and is adamant that he wants the title for himself. Fortunately, the producer thought of adding a tail to the title -- on the lines of Nayak -- The True Hero, or some such. Unfortunately, whizkid director Shankar has a penchant for single-word titles, and hates any extensions. Around now, Anil Kapoor must be feeling like he's on a roller coaster, what with this now up, now down, thing happening around the project on which he has all his hopes pinned. Much ado about very little You've got to hand it to Sonali Bendre -- girl's a trier. She's been telling the world and his aunt that Rajkumar Santoshi, no less, picked her for a cute, crucial role in his upcoming film Lajjya. Cute and crucial, heck -- what she gets to do is appear in a song and dance sequence. And that is all she gets to do. In fact, that is pretty much all she has been getting to do, lately -- appear in song and dance 'items'. But this hasn't stopped her from going around telling all who will listen that she is Rajkumar Santoshi's heroine. Ah well... Biwi No: 101 Now what possible link could there be between torrential rains, of the kind Bombay witnessed recently, and marital discord? Plenty, if you are David Dhawan. For a while, word was flying around within the industry that Dhawan's home life was on the rocks, and that there really was a Biwi Number 2 in the background somewhere. It all happened thusly: The recent downpour resulted in water-logging in the compound where Dhawan stays. This in turn meant that to prevent accidents, the power and water supply had to be cut off. Rather than put up with the inconvenience, Dhawan opted to move, en famille, into a nearby hotel. Thus, when industry folks called, they were told that Dhawan-saab was staying in a hotel suite. Now, industry arithmetic is pretty simple: If you have a home in Bombay but you are staying in a hotel, it just has to be another woman. And so the word spread. Till it got back to Dhawan. Who set the record straight. Not that he is miffed -- far from it. He in fact found the situation not merely amusing, but also useful -- in that it has given him the kernel of a plot for his next film. Good for him. Trick is, what title to give? Let's help him out here -- Biwi No: 1 is already taken. Biwi No: 2 might work, but then, Dhawan wouldn't want the number two tag, now would he? So, um, maybe Biwi No: 101? Come on, guys, pitch in and help, thinking up film titles is serious business -- let's hear from you! Next bid, please? Going public was just the beginning. The real trick, for Mukta Arts, is to generate enough positive publicity to keep itself in the news, and get the investors flocking to buy shares. Now, Mukta Arts has a well-oiled PR machinery. Trouble is, Mukta Arts also has a lot of enemies, folks who would love to see Subhash 'showman' Ghai take a fall. So, as part of the PR exercise, the Mukta Arts machinery blankets town with the news that the music rights for Ghai's next film has fetched a record price of Rs 6.5 crore. No sooner had the PR guys at Mukta spread the word, though, than others, not exactly friendly to Mukta, began trumping that ace. By spreading around the news that the record actually belongs to the upcoming Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan, which has sold its music rights for Rs 7 crore. Now the Mukta PR department has its face full of egg -- and the rest of the industry is grinning to itself, waiting to see what the next episode will bring. Mama mia! Just when you think you've heard everything, you hear some more! Like, the other day I heard that Esha Deol is not signing any more films, because of non-availability of dates. And I was like, duh! I mean, it ain't as if the starlet has signed so many films, she's not going to be free till the next millenium. So I did some checking, and guess what? Esha Deol is not signing any films because of date problems, true -- but the problem is not with her dates, but those of her mommy. Apparently, Hema Malini is booked so solid with acting assignments, social commitments and dance recitals, that she doesn't have time to accompany her daughter for shootings. And without mommy in tow, Esha can't shoot -- that is a condition imposed on her by papa Dharmendra. So now, film-makers find themselves in the peculiar position of having to go to Hema Malini and say, 'Madam, we would like to sign your daughter for this film, could you tell us when you have free dates to spare?' We can suggest a solution, here -- why not work it so that it is Dharam, not Hema, who squires Esha around? After all, Dharam has no acting assignments to occupy his time now. And he can't dance worth a cuss -- so no recitals on his calendar, either. Might solve everyone's problems, what say?
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-- The Insider | |
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