Khan shatters Khan’s dream

MUMBAI: The hot and happening Khan duo — Shah Rukh and Fardeen — are Pepsi brand ambassadors. The ad tycoons thought why not feature Shah Rukh and Fardeen together in a Pepsi commercial. Fardeen of course, could not believe his luck — after all working with King Khan was his dream. He immediately agreed.

But buzz has it that Shah Rukh Khan turned down the offer refusing to share the camera with Fardeen. One wonders why? What problem could Khan be having with Fardeen? The new ad now features the other hot Khan, SRK’s Kal Ho Naa Ho co-star Saif Ali.

Nausheen no more Kkusum?

MUMBAI: In the last couple of weeks, there has been a constant buzz in the small screen world about Kkusum. That Nausheen Sardar Ali, who plays the title role in the serial, is unhappy with the show. She is planning to move out. Her reasons for leaving? “There are many. I have been doing Kkusum for the last three years. I feel I have reached saturation point. Guess all good things do come to an end. There comes a time when you have to move on to new things… The people playing Generation Next are close to my age group. In that sense I don’t relate to the character at present.”

What is up next? “There is this offer from a Pakistani production house for a film to be shot in Dubai. There are shows lined up abroad for Nikita Wadia’s Hindi play Kkusum Manhar Lele in which I play the title role. There have been other offers but would not want to talk about it at this stage.” Incidentally this Balaji serial is inspired by one of Kapoor’s assistant.

Katrina’s rough patch

MUMBAI: Things are going quite good for model Katrina Kaif except that she is not getting any offers from Bollywood. Katrina’s acting career has hit a big hurdle, with her problem being a poor Hindi diction and a lack of acting abilities — although she has done an item number in the film Rudraksh.

Acting offers may not be forthcoming but Katrina is busy in a number of the ventures on the modelling front. She has been selected as the face of this year for the Lakme India Fashion week, as well as the model for the Reliance Prepaid Mobile card.

However, with her selection Katrina replaces model Shivani Kapoor and joins her contemporaries Indrani Dasgupta and Yana Gupta to form the third angle of the Lakme India Fashion Week triangle.

Sonali stages a comeback

MUMBAI: Sonali Bendre, last seen in a role of substance in Amol Palekar’s Marathi film Anaahat, will now be acting in her first play in April. In the critically acclaimed film Anaahat she had played the role of a queen who chooses to assert her sexuality. There has been quite a lull in the work front for Sonali after her marriage to filmmaker Goldie Behl. But now she is all geared up to make her stage debut with a play called Aapki Sonia.

The play, scripted by writer Javed Siddiqi and directed by Salim Arif is a sequel to the much acclaimed play Tumhari Amrita that starred Farooque Shaikh and Shabana Azmi. While Tumhari Amrita involved reading of love letters, Aapki Sonia will have an exchange of hate mail.