When Vipul Shah, the director of Namastey London that is releasing this Friday, was asked, what was Katrina Kaif doing in his film except playing a baby doll, he said, "You will change your opinion after you see her as Jasmeet Singh alias Jazz in it. I didn't know she had so much pent-up emotions. She surprised me many times by not using glycerine in emotionally-charged scenes." While Katrina says, "All of us are emotional, aren't we? Sometimes, we associate our feelings with those we play which gives us ample reasons to cry, particularly when we always wanted to do something but never had the time or occasion... "

Nisha Kothari has fallen out with her mentor Ram Gopal Varma according to the B-town buzz. Apparently she is upset with Ramu since he has been promoting his latest protégée, Jiah Khan, much more than her. He is so enamoured with Jiah that one of his future projects, starring Kothari, is now in the Nishabd actress’s kitty. A lead role for one of his upcoming films was written specifically keeping Nisha in mind, but now that same role is being reworked for Jiah,” says a source close to the Factory.  “She wants to do a variety of roles and does not want to get typecast as the pretty girl next door. In fact, Nisha is now sending signals to loads of filmmakers to get interesting roles,” says a friend close to her.

There are strange and thoroughly uncharitable rumors  about Mr Bachchan  demands on the producers of Rituparno Ghosh's English-language film The Last Lear, and even "threatened" not to shoot for the film until he was given the Presidential Suite at a particular luxury hotel in Kolkata. However the fact is, the presidential suite of the hotel is occupied by the film's leading lady Preity Zinta. Explains a horrified associate of the Big B, "Of course Mr Bachchan was to be put up in the Presidential suite. He doesn't need to throw a tantrum for that. It is his by right. However when he reached Kolkata for the shoot the presidential suite was occupied by someone else. Without the least fuss Mr Bachchan quietly took an ordinary suite with an interconnecting room for his valet Pravin who needs to be with him to give his food medicines and so on , on time.”

The Shahid-Kareena Kapoor starrer Milenge Milenge directed by Satish Kaushik has been in the making for nearly two years. Apparently Boney Kapoor's lucky mascot Salman Khan who bailed the distressed producer out by doing an extended guest appearance in No Entry, is in an indirect way, responsible for the film's delay. Salman was in fact supposed to do an extended 12-day cameo guest appearance in Milenge Milenge, not just because of his rapport with Boney but also for Satish Kaushik with whom Salman collaborated over the memorable Tere Naam.Even the dates on which Salman was supposed to shoot for Boney's film had been roughly worked out.

Sushmita's impending appointment with Hollywood actress Ashley Judd has her excited like seldom before. "What makes Ashley's trip to India so special is not only the fact that she cares so deeply for the AIDS cause. It's also because she's coming all the way to our country to raise funds for this cause. And as far as I'm concerned that's enough reason for India to play host to Ashley. I feel she's my guest and I'm going to do my best to make her feel at home," says Sushmita.

First, it was Jackie Chan in Myth, and now it is Bill Bannerman, Hollywood stalwart Clint Eastwood's right-hand man. What's with Mallika Sherawat impressing foreign directors? Our very own oomph girl Mallika Sherawat now has signed for a woman-centric Hollywood film "Unveiled" to be directed by Bannerman. "It's a fantastic story - part thriller, part psychological drama, part film noir... It was so fast paced and exciting and so well written, I couldn't put it down for a second," said Mallika. "And the icing on the cake was that it's a story from the point of view of a woman -- a woman who has relationships with three men from different continents, and she goes from an ultra-traditional Muslim environment to an ultra-liberal Western one. This is a script I could never say no to," she added.

Not many people know that actress Amisha Patel is quite fond of Mumbai’s bhelpuri and sevpuri.Although her sylphlike figure will have us believe otherwise, Amisha Patel actually is quite a foodie. And she doesn’t mind gorging on junk food also.Amisha, who is presently shooting for Priyadarshan’s movie Bhool Bhulaiya in Rajasthan, actually took along with her snacks, farsan, chutneys and bhelpuri ingredients from Mumbai for her 40-day long schedule for the film. And every evening on the shooting sets, Amisha mixes some of these ingredients, adds some masala and imli chutney to make herself the mouth-watering bhel puri. We wonder how Amisha maintains that svelte figure.

|