Cool Bollywood

‘What is she going to wear?’ is the thought that first pops up in the mind the moment one hears that Bollywood’s sex kitten Mallika Sherawat.

Who’s been purring more in Hollywood lately, is off to the 63rd Cannes Film Festival (May 12 to 23) in France. Come May, Mademoiselle M is headed to the French Riviera town to unveil her film Hissss which is co-produced.

By her brother Vikram Lamba and directed by Jennifer Lynch. We hear that the film’s actors, including Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta, will attend a press conference and photo call at the Majestic Hotel.

where the film’s release date will also be announced. The film’s makers will also throw a cocktail party for international buyers and VIPs. Mallika’s presence at the festival is mandated by one more event surrounding her upcoming American film ‘Love, Barack’. But what we can’t wait to watch is the dress that Mallika will choose for the event. Another eye-popper!

Bipasha Basu has been in the news for walking out of two recent shows. And now, a print ad for a well-known jewllery brand (endorsed by many B-Town actresses) featuring Bips ran into.

A problem because of the over-inflated budget submitted by her designer for the costumes.Says a source, “Print ad budgets cost anything between Rs 5-7 lakh but the Bongshell’s budget for.

This one had skyrocketed to 12 lakhs! What was shocking was that Bips’ designer Priyanjali had charged five lakh for five outfits.

Other expenditures included studio charges, photographer fees, make-up and hair stylist, etc. When the owner saw the breakdown of the expensive photo shoot, he decided to cancel it.

The source continue “Bipasha also put her foot down and told the brand that she would stick to her designer and cancel the contract.

When it became clear the brand owner wouldn’t change his mind, everyone tried to convince the actress to find a workable situation.

Finally, the designer’s fee was drastically reduced and the ad was shot on Friday.”However a source close to the Bengali bombshell adds, “It’s not Bips but her endorsement agency that is responsible for inflating budgets of print shots or her walkouts from a few events.”Bipasha’s spokesperson says, “I am not aware about the cancellation.

They took three alternate dates and finally shot on May 23 for the same. Every artiste is entitled to give couple of photographer and stylist options.The clients are free to choose and lock accordingly. They had problems fitting in one of the photographers’ budget so we had given them five choices…

The same was true for stylists. The stylist who worked on the shoot charged only Rs 50,000 as her fee. The clothes depending from whom you source it or buy it from, vary in budgets. Priyanjali happily budgeted the clothes within the quote given by the brand and apparently, the shoot results are awesome.”

After playing a quasi-biographical character in Raajneeti, Katrina Kaif is set to play a real-life character – Madhubala.

Katrina will reprise the legendary actress’ role in the Kishore Kumar biopic to be directed by Anurag Basu. Katrina was finalised for the project after she opted out of Basu’s other film, Silence, in which she was to co-star with Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor.

A source says, “Katrina couldn’t do two back-to-back projects with Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor. So she picked the biopic on Kishore Kumar in which she will play Madhubala.”

While she was considering her option back then. Katrina had said, “If I do another film with Ranbir, I’d want it to be a full-fledged commercial love story.” And it can’t get any more mainstream and romantic than the Kishore Kumar-Madhubala saga.

In fact, the actress has already begun doing her homework for the role and watched Mughal-e-Azam, Mahal and Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi.

While Katrina chose not to reply, Anurag says guardedly, “I think it’s a little early to talk about it. I still haven’t got the principal cast of my current project, Silence, in place. But yes, Katrina is someone I am very, very fond of…for her looks, talent and nature.

I am definitely working with her, if not in Silence, then in my next film.” One of the song sequences from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi that Anurag Basu’s film will be looking to recreate is the Kishore-Madhubala song Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si.

The music of Mani Ratnam’s upcoming film Raavan was unveiled in Mumbai on Saturday night and the attention grabbers of the evening were the film’s stars Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram, music director A R Rahman, director Mani Ratnam and lyricist Gulzar.

While Abhishek and Rahman lit up the evening with energetic performances, Aishwarya Rai hosted the event. Dressed in a fetching cream-coloured saree with red embroidery, she looked every bit enchanting and shared many things about the movie, her role and the conditions in which the film was shot.

She revealed that Ratnam first gave her the idea about ‘Raavan’ in the days when she shot for Guru with him. “For the song ‘Nanna re’ (in Guru), I was dancing in full abundance in the rain. Little did I know that Mani was in the process of making a decision that I will be his new character Ragini for ‘Raavan’,” she said.

The actress aid that her role in the film is the most challenging of her career. “This is the most challenging role of my career,” she said. Describing the condition in which the film was shot, she added: “We shot with snakes, rabbits, leeches moving around us. This has been the best adventure experience.” Abhishek, in a jovial mood as usual, said Mani has pampered him. “As an actor, Mani helps me to behave badly and get away with it,” he said.

The film ’3 Idiots’ topped the box office, and many a filmmaker was keen to buy the rights of this flick with the intention of remaking it in South India. Gemini Film Circuit now owns the copyrights to make ’3 Idiots’ in Tamil and Telugu. While actor Vijay has already been roped in to play the lead role, it has been heard that the first choice of the female lead was Katrina Kaif.

We’re told, “Katrina was offered the movie in spite of Kareena playing the female lead in the original. However, she had date problems and couldn’t fit the assignment in her schedule. Also with her doing big banner Hindi films, her priority will be Hindi films for the time being, although she would like to try different things and keep her options open.

” Wonder whom the filmmakers will approach next? Will it be yet another Bollywood hottie, we wonder.