Sholay Stunt of the Week

Though Hema Malini is cribbing about the remake of Sholay now (she finds it a very bad idea), is the real reason behind her newly discovered pique that Esha, who was a strong contender for the role of Basanti, didn’t make the cut? Nisha Kothari is playing Basanti, though in a converted role of a Mumbai auto driver named Ghungroo. But Esha herself couldn’t care less. She is giving a more power-packed performance than Ghungroo could ever give in her auto. Esha is shooting for Anubhav Sinha’s Cash in South Africa and yes, she is doing her own stunts!

Rekha in Umrao Jaan and (above) in Yatra

Umrao’s Yatra

Can Aishwarya Rai wipe out the image of Rekha as Umrao Jaan in people’s mind? Well, for the answer we just need to wait a few hours now. But Rekha is not the one to lie low and see herself being stripped of the diva title by an actress her daughter’s age. No, Rekha has put her heart and soul together to keep her aura intact and keep reminding people that she’s the real one. And that has taken the form of yet another courtesan role in Goutam Ghose’s Yatra. This film also has a mujra filmed on Rekha and reportedly she has excelled in that, too. Now Rekha wasn’t just satisfied with the dance looking good. She wanted to put Yatra up against Umrao Jaan and so a back-to-back release of the film along with Umrao Jaan. Though the tentative date so far announced is November 10, that’s a week after Umrao Jaan’s release, Rekha wasn’t satisfied still. She also used her magic to get the television promo released alongside Ash’s Umrao Jaan for the audiences to get a glimpse of what’s in store.

Riya Sen

Heat: Occupational hazard

Making love on a bed of roses is passe. With hot babes like Riya Sen around choreographers are souping up real hot love scenes. So Riya had to shoot something torrid with Shreyas Talpade (of all people) on a bed of red chillies in her recent Apna Sapna Money Money..? And it wasn’t fun even for this chilli babe. After some hugging and rolling on the dry red chilies Riya felt her skin burning. The dry chilies had her sneezing as well. To get the shot right she had to roll through the scene the whole day! Solution: The brave gal called for ice cubes to rub all over her burning skin, and went ahead with the rolling.

Qazi Touqeer

Ab kya karega Qazi?

Remember cool dude Qazi Touqeer, winner of Fame Gurukul, the same about whom some said he didn’t have much singing talent? Well, even then Qazi had made no bones about his plan to get into films. And so he did get into a film until director Bobby Khan, who’s claim to fame is being Sunidhi Chauhan’s estranged hubby, dropped him from his film, Piya, opposite Sneha Ullal. He argued Qazi was way too thin and hence lacked screen presence. But wasn’t Qazi always skinny! According to Bobby Khan he had given him enough time to fatten up, and go through gym training, etc. But Qazi Miyan was so busy with his shows he couldn’t do it. But for Qazi there is no dearth of offers. Soon he’ll announce his debut film. In fact, Qazi wanted to do another film alongside Piya which actually put Bobby Khan off, we guess.

SPOTLIGHT

Salman Khan and (right) Govinda

Partners in comedy

Salman Khan and Govinda together can bring everything to a standstill. They proved it by taking a walk along the streets of Mumbai — Juhu, to be precise — after coming out of the press meet of Jaan-e-Mann at J.W. Marriott. Without any prior warning both walked out on the street instead of getting into their cars causing quite a surprise for the people there. Yes, that’s just like Sallu. His bodyguard managed to protect the actors from the frisky crowd in the street. They walked briskly to another residential complex nearby. This cameraderie between the two David Dhawan favourites will be seen onscreen soon in Dhawan’s Partner.

Govinda is too much of a gentleman and humble, openly thanking Sallu for his ‘comeback’. In the press meet of Jaan-e-Mann he even put that on record saying, “I have been jobless as an actor for so many years. I am thankful to Salman for giving me a chance to make a comeback in films.”

All said and done it will undoubtedly be the audiences thanking David Dhawan if he can once again spin the same magic with Govinda and Salman in his kind of rollicking comedy.