Popular south Indian actress Saundarya passed away last Saturday when her aircraft crashed while on its way to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election meeting. The dead included her brother Amarnath, BJP leader Ramesh Kadam and the pilot. The accident took place on the Jakkur airstrip on the outskirts of Bangalore as the aircraft caught fire moments after taking off.
Saundarya, who had married recently, was on her way to Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh. Saundarya had acted in many Telugu, Kannada, Malyalam and Tamil films, starring with leading stars. She won the national award last year for the Kannada film "Dweepa".

May 28 will see the release of Kunal Kohli’s Hum Tum starring Saif and Rani together as a couple for the first time. Rani and Saif have shared screen time in two films, LoC-Kargil and Kal Ho na Ho. Saif who plays the role of a cartoonist, sports a new long haired look in Hum Tum, whereas Rani wears her hair real short in the film.

For all you crazy admirers of Salman Rushdie (this reviewer admits to being an unabashed fan of the sleepy eyed writer) and model/film star/ cook Padma Laksmi, here is some sad/glad news depending on how you look at it. The two lovebirds tied the knot in NY recently. Attending the wedding were Christopher Hitchens, Iman and Tina Brown among others. Rushdie wore a long black sherwani, a kind of frock coat, while Lakshmi wore a purple bridal outfit, say the lucky few who attended. Rushdie slipped a shoe onto his wife's foot, a traditional custom. He arrived at the ceremony with his son Milan.

Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding) has teamed up with Balaji Rao of Venky's Chicken to launch a film production house called International Bhenji Brigade. The filmmaker reportedly has three scripts in mind, none of which will be directed by her.

Will Asad Sikander, action co ordinator and Bulgaria based business man may be the one to lure Hollywood action hero Jean Claude Van Damme to Bollywood for a bilingual film ‘Bullet-On Target’? The film will feature the ancient martial art of Kerala ‘ Kalari Payattu’. Van Damme may star in Sikander’s Namaste too, it seems.

Mani Rathnam's Yuva starring Abhishek Bachchan will premier at the IFFA awards to be held in Singapore this year. Yuva is the story of three youths, played by Abhishek, Vivek and Ajay who meet at Kolkatta's Howrah Bridge and how their stories relate to each other. The film will hit the theatres soon.

More than 75% of the actors in Gulzar’s called 'Tehreer...Munshi Premchand Ki'" (or Writings of Munshi Premchand) will be from the from New Delhi's National School of Drama. The series will feature Godaan and Nirmala and he has Pankaj Kapur and Surekha Sikri acting in the series.

Rumors have it that Manisha Koirala will be acting in the main role of Radha in the remake of the 1957 Mehboob Khan classic ‘ Mother India” which will be made by the Nepalese Film Company 888 in both Hindi and Nepali.

Nagma, the popular actress from the South who has also acted in Hindi films, will campaign for the Congress party with central leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Telangana area. BJP had tried to coax the buxom star to join their party earlier.

Rumors also suggest that Kareena Kapoor may act in a Indo Pak project called Sannata. Pakistani actor actor Momi Rana is Kareena’s co star in the film.

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