Sneha in Gandhi Park
Aishwarya Rai look-alike Sneha Ullal has landed a role in Tom George Kolath’s film Gandhi Park. Earlier, the film maker tried to cast Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor in the film but neither of them worked out.
Kolath, who also produced the award winning Malayalam film Akale (directed by Shamaprasad), has also cast Anupam Kher (apart from Bobby Pataki and Brandon Sommers) in Gandhi Park.
The film is about an Indian girl Priyanka Philips living in Queens, New York. Though the girl is due to marry a New Delhi-based boy, her heart belongs to Bobby, a young American musician.
Santa Banta on small screen
In the last five years, Punjabi humour website santabanta.com has taken the Indian-Punjabi diaspora across the world by storm. The website is extremely popular for its jokes. And now its non-resident Indian promoter J.S. Ghai, says a media industry source, wants to launch a television channel with the same name. Apparently, the process of seeking uplinking permission for the channel from the government has already begun.
Other than santabanta.com, the company, Tooh Soft India, also runs a news portal that focuses on news on Punjabis in India and in the West.
Animating Rajni
Tamil superstar Rajnikanth’s daughter Soundarya who is also the managing director of Ocher Studios Private Limited, Chennai, is working hard these days. She is at the pre-production stage of an animation film no prizes for guessing that her famous father is the subject of her film. Born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad to a Maharashtrian family living in Karnataka, Rajnikanth started out as a villain and later became Tamil cinema’s legendry action hero.
Now his animation film is being co-produced by Anil Ambani’s Adlabs which has just hired Hyperion’s Siddharth Jain as the head of its animation wing. The czar of chutzpah and the sultan of style will be seen in animation by the end of 2007.
Biking it
If you are travelling between Juhu and Goregaon in Mumbai, a dull silver bike may whiz past you. The man driving it is one Rajeev Bhatia (at least his licence says so). Only when he lifts the helmet visor does one realise that Rajeev Bhatia is none other than film star Akshay Kumar who prefers to use his bike during rush hour traffic. He claims that he saves one hour of commuting time this way.
“I take a short cut and wear the helmet to ensure that no one recognises me,” says Kumar. “My advice to people is to wear a helmet, follow traffic rules and drive safely,” says the man who likes to take risks on screen but who always uses protective gear.
Buddha on Naushad
One of India’s most prolific film makers, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, is working on a documentary on the life of late music director Naushad. Dasgupta was asked to do the documentary when Naushad was alive but the music director’s failing health did not allow him to get an interview with him. Dasgupta will soon start filming the documentary for which interviews with Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar have already been lined up.
