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December 9, 1997

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The camera-shy Khannas

Akshaye Khanna. Click for bigger pic!
While most other actors peek over their shoulders looking for shifty-eyed guys in these extortion-prone days, Akshaye Khanna and Papa Vinod keep an eye for press photographers. Both have their own separate, individual reasons. And nothing do with each other, see!

Akshaye is diving into cupboards when the paparazzi stroll by because he wants to avoid over-exposure in the glossies, feeling it could ruin his nascent career. Not, of course, that shots in passing are usually plastered on covers but the thought that everyone wants hunk pics of himself must sound good.

Conversely, and maybe perversely, Vinod Khanna is avoiding the press because he is looking and feeling good. He's lost so many kilos for a plum -- sorry, sleek -- role in Dus that Mother Earth is taking the strain now.

In fact, so trim has he become that he gave heroes Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan a complex apiece. Vinod also edged out Amrish Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, both of whom were keen to do the role.

Vinod wants to keep the fitter version of himself for the big screen without any sneak previews in the glossies.

Govinda gela re

Govinda. Click for bigger pic!
Mithun Chakraborthy saw age catching up and, instead of fighting it, ducked the disadvantages it threw at him. He starred in movies for the smaller centres which have a long memory for heroes and became an important hotelier in Ooty. Now he is looking forward to a prosperous old age.

Govinda didn't wait for superannuation before turning to the service industry. He's begun work on two hotels now, one in Bangalore, to be managed by brother Kirti Kumar, and the other in Shimla. Govinda will repair to Shimla and handle things there.

Some uncalled for attention in the form of a mysterious caller may have something to do with him taking to the hills. Poor chap, he's so uptight that he refused to do a shoot in Hyderabad because the security was insufficient.

Now he hopes to keep a low profile, finish some commitments and quietly retire to Shimla.

Jackie Gandhi

Jackie Shroff. Click for bigger pic!
Jackie Shroff may be an unlikely Gandhian, but that's what he looks slated to play in a film being produced by Janki Das, the veteran Olympic cyclist and actor in over a thousand films. Das is apparently very taken up with the ideals and ideology of the father of the nation.

"It's a film on his message on non-violence and truth called Sangam Hoga Ke Nahin," says Das, whose son Shanu Janki Das is co-producing the film. Ravi Shankar will direct the film.

Besides Shroff, the film also stars Jas Arora, last seen in a Dev Anand forgettable, Madhoo and Milind Gunaji.. Janki had asked Dimple Kapadia to star opposite Shroff, but she said had other commitments.

No matter, now he's found a heroine, Das has a project going full steam.

Nice ol' Nana

Nana Patekar. Click for bigger pic!
Nana Patekar has this rough-hewn look that makes the gentler elements of the race scuttle into their shells.

But beneath that crusty exterior, there lies a heart of mush. Though he doesn't put out ads in the papers about it, for every birthday of his son Malhar, a few street children are also invited along with the boy's other friends. Nana also gives these street kids gifts himself. And there's none of the magnanimous, condescending baron about him when he plays Father Christmas.

This year, the party was held at an orphanage in Matunga, Bombay. As usual, after the entertainment programme was organised for the kids in which Patekar too participated, he went about distributing the sweets and gifts among the kids.

But the kids had an ace up their own sleeve. Falling short in moolah but knowing Pats was making an appearance, they cobbled together a gift for Malhar of their own. It moved Nana to tears. So happy was he that he stuffed another load of dough into the orphanage kitty.

Mama Mia!

Shabana Azmi. Click for bigger pic!
You must know that Saawan Kumar Takis making a film called Mother starring Rekha in the lead role with Rakesh Roshan, Randhir Kapoor playing second third and fourth fiddle, not necessarily in that order, of course.

So HMV targets higher ground making a film called Godmother. The role of the sanctified momma is being played by Shabana Azmi. So we naturally aren't clear what to expect. Particularly since the lady seems to be impressed by the script. Marc Robinson also figures there somewhere.

Other famous faces too are expected to figure in the film. For now, Azmi is shooting for it, when she finds time from campaigning for slum-dwellers or sitting in Parliament as a Rajya Sabha member.

Love, rains and Basu Chatterjee

Basu Chatterjee has finally returned to his roots, making a film in Bengali aptly named Hathat Brishti (Sudden Rains).

The gentleman admits that this movie is inspired by a Tamil one directed by Athiyan, Kadal Kottai (Fortress of Love). And it's an Indo-Bangladesh production, with Priyanka from Calcutta and Firdaus Ahmed from Bangladesh playing the leads.

"I prefer to have simple narratives in my films... It is a film about love and the rains. The theme of the film is an eternal longing on the part of two lovers to meet, but it never happens till the end." Sorry, maybe we missed something there, but as far as the description goes, it sounds like any old Hindi romance. Not, of course, that we expect the cliched and the contrived from Basuda.

Interestingly the same Tamil film is being remade in Hindi by Boney Kapoor starring brother Sanjay K and Priya Gill. Maybe realising there's going to be some heavyweight competition from Bengal, Boney has cannily roped in Athiyan to direct the Hindi version.

Should be interesting to see which film turns out better...

-- V S Srinivasan
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