Rituparna Sengupta can be sighted in the Bollywood circuit thanks to her much-acclaimed performance in Main Meri Patni Aur Woh. She was also called to hand over an award in a recent function, along with Sharmila Tagore. But trust compere Dia Mirza to drop a brick. Bollywood is still confused about Rituparno and Rituparna, so no wonder Dia called her up as “Mr Rituparna Sengupta”.

Katrina Kaif

Hurricane confused!

Katrina is quite happy with the way her career in Bollywood is shaping up. She now has pretty much to talk about. But, alas, she is leaving people around her all confused with the language she speaks. No, she isn’t borrowing from Salman’s choicest vocab, but as we know she has been coaching for Hindi on his insistence. Well, she has also been coaching for some South Indian languages as she’s become quite a hot property Down South. But the poor Hurricane Katrina is miserably muddled up. The languages are still alien to her. She is heard muttering Telugu when she has to answer in Hindi and sometimes the opposite. But, anyway, there is a brighter side to it as well. She doesn’t realise her mistake since she knows neither well enough!

Saif Ali Khan

Heady stuff

The bald wagon is filling up! Salman Khan made a statement sometimes back, brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri followed the trend and recently, Saif Ali Khan has shaved off his head. He went for a close-cropped look for his new film, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara, the celluloid adaptation of Othello. He was very apprehensive, initially, about his daring hair-do. But after much convincing from Sallu’s hairstylist, Aalim, he went for it. And now he finds his hairstyle “kickass”.

Katrina Kaif

Where’s Meera?

Everybody has by now heard how Meera had vanished into thin air last year and resurfaced this year. So much so her secretary D.K. Shroff was on the verge of getting the police to investigate. Well, it seems to have all happened because Meera’s parents were trying to get their daughter married and possibly keep her away from Bollywood. But we know how much she is trying to make an impact in Bollywood. Marriage will definitely come as a big dampner to her dreams. So Meera ‘fled’ and went undercover for almost a month before anyone missed her. She returned saying she was in Juhu all the while, but that was another big yarn. She was in Karachi all along, hiding from her family. Whatever be the truth, at least she did make her absence felt!

SPOTLIGHT

It’s fine for Meera to get a fantastic break from Bhatt Saab. But she has to compete with the Rani Mukherjees and Preity Zintas. Meera is no patch on them: Anupam Kher

Irony cannot get any thicker. A Gandhian film, Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara, not only gets lauded at the 5th Kara Film Festival in Karachi, Anupam Kher walks away with the best actor award. Anupam, who’s in Dubai, couldn’t believe his luck. “I couldn’t be there to receive the award. Pooja Bhatt collected it on my behalf. But I’m pretty flattered and happy. It just goes to show that Gandhian philosophy is acceptable in any part of the world. Relations across the border are improving now, and we must encourage that trend. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara is based on the ideas of non-violence? For that message to come across so loudly and clearly in a country we’ve considered our traditional enemy, is quite something.”

Jahnu Barua’s elegiac expose on the extermination of Gandhism trots from kudos to kudos. Producer Anupam Kher is over-the-moon. “There were 160 films at the Pakistan festival and a distinguished jury chosen from world cinema. To be selected the best actor in Pakistan is to me a greater honour than an Oscar. Why do we make the Oscars the ultimate criterion for our excellence?just because they market their stuff better? I always feel popular culture and cinema have no LOCs. Emotions are the same all over the world.”

Anupam was present at the opening of the festival in Karachi. “My mentor Mahesh Bhatt gave a speech about me that should’ve been given for a lifetime achievement award. I look at Maine Gandhi?as a modern Indian film. Its message is timeless?Gandhiji has helped me twice?he once got my country freedom and he gave me the reason to produce a film that’s getting me international recognition.”

Anupam who was at the Dubai Film Festival with the film feels it has a long way to go. “Because I was recognised in Pakistan it’s proven that Maine Gandhi? goes beyond petty differences created in Pakistan.” To his chagrin Maine Gandhi?stands no chance of a commercial release in Pakistan. “That’s a pity because Pakistan has no cinema culture of its own to speak of. If we are allowed to distribute films in Pakistan it would become the biggest revenue-earning territory for Bollywood.”

Anupam was asked by the Pakistani press about the prospects of Pakistani actors like Meera in Mumbai. “I told them it’s fine for Meera to get a fantastic break from Bhatt Saab. But she has to compete with the Rani Mukherjees and Preity Zintas. Meera is no patch on them. If I’ve to work in Hollywood I’ve to be better than Clint Eastwood. Even good enough is not good enough. We should not confuse media attention with merit.”