Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions is ready with it's next venture after the stupendously successful  "Munnabhai M.B.B.S." Based on Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's novel, the new  'Parineeta' will be directed by Pradeep Sarkar and will star Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Raima Sen and newcomer Vidya Balan.  Pradeep Sarkar was Chopra's assistant during the making of 'Mission Kashmir'.  A 65 day start to finish schedule is planned by Chopra after the shooting's beginning in Darjeeling on October 30.

After Rani Mukherjee opted out of Mira Nair's 'Namesake', Konkona Sensharma is supposed to have bagged the role. It is now rumored that Abhishek Bacchan will play the protagonist, Gogol, a Bengali NRI in the film.

Ravi Chopra will have Amitabh Bachchan crooning a song along with Udit and Alka in his new film Babul.  Amit's songs in Baghban went down well with the masses and music director Aadesh Shrivastav  has Sudesh Bhonsle pitch in with a few lines himself. Babul has Salman Khan playing Amit and Hema Malini's son and the film also stars Rani Mukherjee.

Zoya Akhtar's 'Luck by Chance'  will have Tabu and Saif in the leading roles. Zoya says that she needs another actor to play the third principal role in the film. The search is on since talks with Hrithik did not work out.

One of my favorite Bollywood players, Milind Junaji (Fareb, Devdas, Dev, Asambhav and Ishq Qayamat) has accepted two Hollywood offers. The films are titled Singularity and 'Backwater'. 'Backwater' will have Milind in the role of a fisherman; the story is a murder mystery which will be filmed in South India. Nicholas Irons and Gulshan Grover costar. 'Singularity' has Milind match talents with Ash Rai and Vivek Oberoi.

Milind is currently busy with Vikram Bhatt's 'Elaan' and Dev Anand's 'Prime Minister'.

Rumors also indicate Ash may  play the lead role in director Kalpna Lajmi's film 'Sinhasan'.

Renowned film maker Shyam Benegal was presented the 19th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for contributing to communal harmony and unity through his films. Sonia Gandhi presented the award to Benegal, who is also the recipient of  Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri.

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