MIND THE GAP: Jiah Khan

Can you imagine an Indian doing a Shakira and letting her hips do all the talking? Well, Jiah Khan, who will be making her debut opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd, is planning to do just that. The 18-year-old, who is supposedly playing Lolita in Varma’s Bollywood adaptation of the controversial novel, will be featuring in a specially-shot song for the movie, where her hips don’t lie.

Jiah is a professionally trained dancer having learnt reggae, lambada, jazz, samba, salsa and even kathak. And since films were always her passion, she also attended an American film institute to learn method acting.

While Jiah has been inundated with offers, the dusky beauty has not yet taken up any. She wants to wait for the Nishabd promos to hit the airwaves before accepting a new film project.

Shhhhh: Jiah’s beauty secret — “caviar and champagne daily”. Well, beauty never came cheap!

City topper

AMAZING: Pallavi Majumder

Pallavi Majumder, a Class IX student of Vidya Bharati Girls’ High School of New Alipore, is tense. The girl is a finalist of the Pogo Amazing Kids Award 2006 in the artist category. “It all depends on the SMS polling now,” she smiles nervously.

The three contenders — the other two being Muskan Mehta (Mumbai) and Anjali Chandrashekhar (Chennai) — will be unveiled on Pogo at 7.30 pm on Thursday.

For the final round the three youngsters had to draw on the theme of “amazing”. “It was midnight when I sat down to draw and had only till dawn to complete the work as the shooting was to happen in the morning,” recounts Pallavi. Though tired after the train journey from Calcutta, she managed to produce a canvas full of amazing fantasies — flying with the birds, swimming with colourful fish, blooming like flowers, floating with the clouds and touching the rainbow. “I wanted to portray myself through nature,” says the nature-lover.

A student of Nehru Children’s Museum, Pallavi has won the Balshree award from the government of India (the children’s equivalent of Padmashri), had a stamp designed on her drawing after winning a department of posts contest and also took a medal home from the Asian Children Art Contest in Japan.

But her heart is set on this Pogo title. “As I am the only contestant to make it from Bengal, I hope to make my state proud,” she says.

For those who are messaging in, Pogo has announced a jackpot prize. A lucky kid who guesses the Pogo Amazing Kids Awards 2006 winners and votes for them across eight categories will get an exclusive Dilip Chhabria custom designed Maruti Swift.

Akki on song

Akshay Kumar will be singing Jingle bells in Punjabi this Christmas. The actor has shot special promos for his forthcoming biggie Namastey London that would be hitting the television screens this Christmas season.

“We are shooting specially scripted promos for the film and the moment director Vipul Shah narrated the concept to me, I was game for it,” says Askhay. “The way it comes across is hilarious and, yes, I have tried singing the Christmas song in Punjabi and it went off quite well.”

This is the first time that Akshay has actually shot for a film promo. “I was really hard pressed for time but took time off to shoot this and we shot for it right till the morning. I think Katrina (Kaif) has never got up this early,” he smiles.

Though Akshay is not revealing much about the content of the promos, sources say that it is about how a Punjabi guy is trying to woo a girl who is born and brought up in England.

“He is in love with the girl and wants her but he would not change his identity or style for it,” adds the source. The stylised promos of Namastey London will also have elements of special effects and animation.