Amisha Patel gets a raise

MUMBAI: Aishwarya Rai’s exit from The Rising has set Amisha’s career on the rise. The actress is reportedly charging a whopping one crore per film. May be she wants to make hay while the sun shines. And there are quite a few releases lined up Humko Tumse Pyar Hai, Mere Jeevan Saathi and Zameer. All those rumours about director Ketan Mehta not happy with Amisha seem to have vanished into thin air.

Ekta churns out by the dozen

MUMBAI: Ekta’s ‘cottage’ is turning out to be a factory that churns out serials and films by the dozen, literally. Though Krishna Cottage is yet to see the light of the day, Ekta Kapoor has already announced other films. For starters she has roped in Sangeeth Sivan, brother of cameraman Santosh Sivan, to direct an untitled venture. “Dino Morea is to play the lead in this one. We have not yet decided on the actress,” she says. Buzz has it that Ekta is likely to zero in on Udita Goswami. Besides this, Ekta also plans to make a film with Partho Mitra who has directed Balaji serials earlier. “It will be feel good family film,” she said.

Karisma enjoys marital bliss

MUMBAI: “Marriage has worked wonders,” says Karisma Kapoor. “People should get married! It rejuvenates the soul.” And all those fans who thought that Karisma was going to shift base to Delhi can breathe easy now as the actress and Sanjay Kapur, whom Karisma lovingly calls Babu, have just bought an apartment in Mumbai. “I’m busy doing up my house. On locations, when I’m not shooting, you will see me busy giving instructions to the interior decorator at home because I’m doing up house myself. It’s turning out to be a wonderful experience,” she says laughing. Karisma is currently busy with serial Karisma and film Mere Jeevan Saathi. “There have been other offers too. I have not yet decided on them,” she said.

Meghna in another bold role

MUMBAI: The dusky damsel Meghna Naidu who is already making news through her steamy character in the hot and sensuous looking film Hawas has bagged another bold role in Husn. The film stars her Hawas co-star Shawar Ali and the Rules girl Meera Vasudevan. The film is being produced by Farah Ahmed, wife of late filmmaker Sultan Ahmed and directed by debutante Ajeet Sinha, who has assisted Inder Kumar and Kuku Kohli earlier.

In the film, Meghna plays the wife of Gulshan Grover with grey shades to her character. Sound like Jism? Wait and watch.

Priyanshu’s unhappy experiences

MUMBAI: Four films old and Priyanshu Chatterjee, who made a quiet, confident debut in the love triangle Tum Bin, is still carefully testing the waters in tinsel town. His fifth film Woh is about to be released. It is also his first suspense thriller where he gets to do some stunts. “I was excited about this film because it is directed by the versatile and prolific Raj Sippy who has worked with Amitabh Bachchan in Satte Pe Satta and Vinod Khanna in Inkaar.”

Last year for Dil Ka Rishta and Pinjar, Priyanshu got really favourable reviews. But he’s disappointed by the outcome of the films. “Specially Pinjar to which I gave two years of my life. Despite a few hiccups with Manoj (Bajpai) and Urmila (Matondkar), I got along well with the entire unit. At the end everyone got jittery and hostile with each other. The thrill of creation was gone.”

He plays “a simple boy from Goa who’s mistaken for a hired killer” in Woh. Priyanshu talks about his Woh co-star Cleo Isaacs. “I know her from the time she was seeing one of my friends and colleagues... very small world!”

Priyanshu’s next release is Tanuja Chandra’s Film Star where he plays a burnt-out alcoholic lawyer. In Mumkin, Priyanshu plays an ad filmmaker. In Julie he is “a good Samaritan who marries a prostitute”. There’s another long-delayed project, Koi Mere Dil Mein Hain.