Payal Rohatgi

She’s tried everything but it’s not that easy to shed off an image, built over four years. So all those B-grade sleazy films are now haunting Payal Rohatgi who is desperately trying to make a mark for herself in ‘propah’ Bollywood. But if reactions to her new look in Priyadarshan’s Dhol are anything to go by, she is at least headed in the right direction.

“I am enjoying myself,” says Payal. “It has been one long wait and now with the right movies, things are finally happening. I still have a long way to go to prove myself.”

Right from Corporate and then 36 Chinatown, Payal has been desperate for a makeover. In Dhol, she is again caught in the item girl web, but it’s not regulation fare. Dil liya dil liya is essentially an Indian tune and doesn’t feature in her usual wardrobe — or rather the lack of it.

Rendered by Shreya Ghoshal, the number composed by Pritam is now all over the small screen and is said to be getting more attention than anything the film’s leading lady Tanushree Dutta has been able to grab.

Vinay the lightweight

Vinay Pathak, the podgy actor who fried everyone’s bheja with his antics in the surprise hit of the year Bheja Fry and has come up with a brilliant cameo in Manorama — Six Feet Under, has lost loads of weight. Those who bumped into the funnyman at the premiere of the Navdeep Singh film last Thursday, were pleasantly surprised to notice the change. “I have lost 20 kilos. I have done it for a specific film about which I will let you know in time,” he smiled. So will less of Vinay mean more?