Big B and Naseer together

MUMBAI: Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s long-planned film with Amitabh Bachchan will finally roll on in 2005. Big B will shoot for the film at a stretch in September-October 2005. Bachchan seems to be quite charged about this film titled ‘Yagna’. Even the audience has enough reason to look forward towards this magnificent actor-director combination.

And wait! That’s not all. The casting has another terrific surprise in store for you. The film will also star Naseeruddin Shah along with Amitabh Bachchan. This is another first for the film — the coming together of the king of commercial and art cinema (Bachchan and Naseer respectively). Also the film may most probably star Saif Ali Khan who has recently completed Chopra’s ‘Parineeta’.

SRK to play a ghost!

MUMBAI: The odd pairing of Shah Rukh Khan and Amol Palekar in their next film comes as a surprise to many. The yet untitled film will also be produced by Khan, and co-stars Rani Mukerji. Khan dismisses speculation about the unlikely collaboration. “Amol Palekar narrated the script. I liked it. It’s a very sweet story.” What isn’t known as yet is that the ‘sweet story’ is actually a ghost story!

Shah Rukh Khan plays a double role in Palekar’s directorial venture. One role sees him as Rani’s husband and the other as a ghost. After his unexpected role in Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Swades’, Palekar’s film will give SRK another chance to go beyond his image.

Shahid is praying hard

MUMBAI: With his ‘Dil Maange More’, released last Friday, Shahid Kapur must be praying really hard. While his debut with director Ken Ghosh’s ‘Ishk Vishk’ was a hit, his next flick ‘Fida’, again with Ghosh, was as far from a hit as a movie can be. It was while shooting for ‘Fida’ that rumours — now confirmed — of the Shahid-Kareena Kapur link-up surfaced. It was during this time that Shahid and co-star Fardeen Khan’s less-than-cordial relationship came to the fore as well.

From sickeningly saccharine quotes about each other, to posing for pictures, Shahid-Kareena became the media’s favourite pair. There were some who labelled their affair as a mere publicity stunt — ‘Fida’ was to release that time.

Again regardless of people predicting the end of their relationship after the ‘Fida’ debacle, the two continued... the ‘proof’ appearing in a local Mumbai paper when pictures of the two kissing, err, allegedly kissing were published. Coming back to ‘Dil Maange More’, Shahid will be seen in the movie along with three pretty ladies. One of them being Sharmila Tagore’s daughter, Soha Ali Khan.

Once touted as the next Shah Rukh Khan, the audience has been getting strangely cold towards him. Shahid must be praying and hoping that if nothing else, all the publicity and interest his kissing pictures — the allegedly kissing pictures, have generated will at least get the people to come to the theatres. But will the audience say

“we want more”?