Salman to get new villain for Dabangg 2
It is final – Sonu Sood has made it official that he won’t be seen in Dabangg 2. Though till a month back there were rumours making the rounds that Salman has shown keen interest in roping him back for the sequel, Sonu’s final declaration has put things in black and white. However the twist in the tale here is that now Salman may have to hunt for a new villain and that when the film’s shooting is just a month away.
“Sonu has categorically stated that he isn’t doing Dabangg 2 since the character written for him wasn’t as powerful as Cheddi Singh. For the last six months there have been so many speculations about him being in and out of the film. However Sonu is now sick and tired of these rumours and wishes to quash them for good. For the record, he is not doing Dabangg 2. It is final and there would be absolutely no change in his stance”, informs a friend of the actor.
Though Salman is currently in Cuba shooting for Ek Tha Tiger, the onus is now on Arbaaz Khan to get his plan B into action.
“It’s a matter of time that a new name is announced for the young villain in Dabangg 2“, a source adds, “While Prakash Raj is the main villain, there is requirement for the second villain as well since the script already has place for such a character. With Sonu not doing the film, someone else has to fit in now. It is quite unlikely that this character would be done away in entirety since it is way too late in the day to make any amends to the script. After all, the film’s shooting begins in March.”
Meanwhile Sonu has moved on and is busy promoting his next film Maximum where he is playing a solo lead. As for Dabangg 2, he maintains calm exterior and says, “No, I am not doing Dabangg 2. I wanted to do the film but the script couldn’t do justice to a character which was going to be a follow up to Cheddi Singh. I thought that it would work only if it is much stronger than the one in Dabangg 2. However it is a creative call that has been taken by the writer and the director.”
While this means that the makers have to now rope in an actor to step into a part that is presumably ‘weaker’ than the one which was seen in Dabangg, Sonu is maintaining the stance of ‘all is well’. “My rapport with Salman and Arbaaz is as good as ever. They too realized that my take on not doing Dabangg 2 is right. I am sure in future we would do many good things together.”
Till then we wait to see whose turn is it to get bashed by Sallu. Well, on screen of course!
Pyaar Ka Punchnama director is busy shooting his next titled Akashwani in Delhi
There is a long queue of filmmakers waiting to start their films with Ajay Devgn. These include his long-term friend and collaborator Kumar Mangat. Mangat has partnered and managed Devgn’s career since the actor started acting. Mangat turned producer with Prakash Jha’s Ajay Devgn-Kajol starrer 1999 starrer Dil Kya Kare and has since then produced a number of films featuring Devgn.
With Devgn’s fortunes skyrocketing in recent times, Kumar Mangat has no choice but to look at new talent. Last year he produced the sleeper hit Pyaar Ka Punchnama featuring six newcomers. One of the debutant actors Divyendu Sharma is now playing one of the leads in David Dhawan’s remake of Chashme Buddoor.
Kumar Mangat has instead assigned Luv Ranjan to write and direct a film with one of the three leads pairs of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. The film entitled Akashwani is currently being secretly shot in Delhi by Luv Ranjan. It features the pair Kartikeya Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha who played Rajat and Neha in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.
Mangat and his director Luv Ranjan want to keep the shooting as quiet as possible. When contacted Luv Ranjan spilled the beans, “It’s a very intense love story about two young people who can’t think beyond their mutual love. It’s about the hardships in love. I’d call it a classic love story on the lines of Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.”
On why he chose Kartikeya and Nushrat and not the other two pairs, Luv Ranjan explains, “I chose the pair which suited Akashwani the best. But I am committed to making the Pyaar Ka Punchnama sequel entitled Pyar Ka Punchaama Reloaded with all three pairs at the end of the year. Besides they are being looked after well. Kumar Mangat Saab is managing the careers of all the six newcomers from Pyaar Ka Punchnama. He’s also negotiating for the remake rights of a Hollywood film which would star Rayo Bakhirta (another actor from Pyaar Ka Punchnama).”
This came as a surprising piece of news, since so far Kumar Mangat was managing only Ajay Devgn’s career.
“The film industry urgently needs new talent, don’t you think? I’ve two films lined up with Ajay. But he is busy throughout 2012.I thought I’d take that opportunity to give talented newcomers a chance,” said Mangat who is also launching television star Pulkit Samrat with Mangat’s daughter Amita Pathak in Bittu Boss.
Karan Johars twitter account hacked
Karan Johar is the latest celebrity to enter the list of victims whose twitter account has been hacked. Along with Karan, even actor-producer Kamaal R Khan’s twitter account got hacked. While the hacker posted lewd tweets from KRK’s account, from Karan’s account direct messages were sent out.
Their accounts were hacked on Thursday but were recovered later in the day. Clearing the air on his tweets, Karan tweeted “So something weird happening to my Twitter account. Its sending random DM’s to the twitterati. Please be warned. Even KRK’s account is hacked!”
KRK also apologized for the demeaning tweets sent by his impersonator. He tweeted, “Friends I have just got back my account. I am really sorry for all the bad tweets since morning. Thank GOD I got it”
The accounts of Bollywood celebs like Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mahesh Bhatt, Arbaaz Khan and the late Shammi Kapoor have been hacked in the past.
John takes Marathi lessons for SAW
John Abraham, who is all set to play the role of the gangster Manya Surve in Sanjay Gupta’s Shootout At Wadala, will be taking Marathi lessons to brush up his Marathi speaking skills. Director/actor Mahesh Manjrekar will help him grasp the colloquial nuances of the language.
Since Manya Surve was a local Mumbai dacoit, he spoke colloquial Marathi and to get into the skin of the character, John too needs to brush up his Marathi. Since Mahesh is a Maharashtrian and knows how to speak fluent colloquial Marathi, Sanjay felt he would be the best to train John in speaking Marathi.
Manjrekar will also be acting in this multi-starrer. The film also stars Anil Kapoor, Kangna Ranaut and debutant Siddhant Kapoor.
Shootout At Wadala goes on floors this year on 1st March.
Salman misses Rohit Dhawans wedding in Goa
The one thing that can safely be said about the mercurial Salman Khan is that he is a yaaron ka yaar. Having done a number of very successful films with David Dhawan including the career-defining Judwaa and Biwi No. 1, Salman has over the years, become so close to Dhawan that it’s generally a toss-up as to who’s a closer to David: Govinda or Salman.
Govinda was in Goa for David’s son Rohit’s wedding yesterday (Friday). Salman, alas, couldn’t make it. Shooting in far-off Cuba for Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger, Salman actually planned to travel back to Goa for a day and attend the wedding before flying back.
Says a source close to David, “David was very keen to have Salman over. He spoke to Salman and Salman spoke to Kabir to be allowed to fly back. But the travel plan from Havana to Goa sounded too gruelling. At the moment with Salman’s neurological condition, he’s been advised to cut down on his travel. Also, Kabir’s unit is working on a very tight schedule. And since Salman and Katrina are doing intricate action sequences, stopping the shooting for four days would have meant huge losses for Yash Raj.”
Apparently, David told Salman to let it go. Salman agreed. But on condition that his brother Sohail reach the Goan venue for the wedding well in advance to represent bade bhaiyya Salman.
Speaking from Goa, David says affectionately, “Yes, Salman really wanted to join us here in Goa. He’s part of my family. But it was impossible for him to travel. Salman’s entire family Arbaaz, Sohail, Baby (sister Alvira) are here. Sohail arrived a day in advance to lend a helping hand.”
Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh and Ranbir Kapoor arrived on Friday morning. The Kapoor family had just returned from Delhi after attending a wedding in Rishi’s daughter’s sasuraal.
Says David, “I feel blessed. I haven’t made so much money in my career. But I’ve earned this goodwill that’s reflected in the guest list for the first wedding in my family. All the people, whom I’ve been associated with professionally and personally, are here for my son’s wedding. Sanjay Dutt and Govinda who have been with me from the start of my career, Rishi and Ranbir, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Lolo (Karisma Kapoor), Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, producer Vashu Bhagnani…they are all here.”
Earlier David planned a very private family wedding for his son. “But a small wedding was impossible. All these are stars are not just my actors, they’re part of my family.”
Ironically, David’s younger son Varun couldn’t get to Goa in advance. He reached on Friday.
Explains David, “Varun was shooting with Karan Johar for Student Of The Year. Much as we wanted him here in Goa in advance, he couldn’t join us. But that’s okay. My wife has taken care of every detail. My sons and I only had to attend. Biwi ho to aisi. I am a lucky man.”
Abhay Deol walks out of Rajkumar Santoshis film
A while ago it was announced by Rajkumar Santoshi that Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor would be starring in his next film. The duo, who had worked earlier together in Aisha, had agreed to be a part of Santoshi’s rom-com.
However, now the latest is that Abhay Deol has walked out of the project as he was tired of waiting for Santoshi to begin filming. While the filmmaker didn’t deny the reports, he said that Abhay is not doing the film owing to date issues.
Rajkumar Santoshi will be deciding whom to cast as a replacement for Abhay in the next few days.
Shekhar Kapur to play Kamal Haasans uncle in Vishwaroopam
Well known filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is seldom seen in front of the camera. However, the director will soon be seen playing Kamal Haasan’s uncle in the film Vishwaroopam. The film, which also features Sonakshi Sinha as Haasan’s love interest, will have Shekhar Kapur (who is just 12 years older than Kamal) playing his uncle.
What’s interesting to know is that this will be the first time after Saatwan Aasman (released nearly two decades ago) that Shekhar will return to acting. This apparent return to acting has been credited to Shekhar’s inquisitiveness towards exploring Kamal Haasan as an artist.
Siddhant Kapoors character is called Gyanchod in Shootout At Wadala
Shakti Kapoor’s son Siddhant is all set to make his debut as a gangster in Sanjay Gupta’s Shootout At Wadala. Interestingly, his character’s name would surely amuse Siddhant’s colourful father. It’s…er, Gyanchod. And he is called that with a reason.
Explains Gupta, “Gyanchod has gyan about everything and everyone. He’s one of John Abraham’s gang’s sharpest shooters with the sharpest tongue.”
Alas, Siddhant’s Big Scene in Shootout At Wadala may get snuffed out almost entirely by the censorboard. It’s a lengthy 10-minute sequence where the debutant has to hold forth on the virtues of the Hindi expletive bahenc**d.
Believe it or not, Siddhant’s monologue on the lurid cussword is actually inspired by a speech by Acharya Rajneesh.
Says Gupta, “Go to Youtube and check out the lengthy speech that Osho has given on the virtues of the word ‘f…k’. Likewise, Siddhant waxes eloquently on the ways that the Hindi cussword ‘bahenc**d’ is used by people. It can be put into any kind of relevance and any language -Punjabi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Bengali – and acquire a completely new relevance. Siddhant will be seen putting forward the many flavours and significances of that oft-abused cussword.”
Would the young debutant just starting out on his career be comfortable rattling off the taboo expletive at least 27 times in 10 minutes? Gupta seems think so. “The boy is a fabulous actor. He can do anything.”
We asked Siddhant Kapoor what he thought of doing a monologue where he has to put forward the virtues of the Hindi profanity with the same seriousness, gravity and profundity as Osho, but with plenty of pokerfaced humour.
Said the Kapoor boy, “I don’t think I’d be uncomfortable doing it, as long as it’s done in a humorous way. The characters in this film and their real-life counterparts used a lot of MCs and BCs. It will sound real and funny.”
Chip off the old block, we must say. But would the censor board allow the boy’s Big Scene to remain?
Sanjay Gupta has his fingers crossed. “I hope and pray they do. Because if they cut they wouldn’t know where to start. Siddhant uses the word so many times they’ll lose count. They would have to cut the entire sequence.”
Big B and Sanjay Dutt to star together again
After Department where the Big B and Dutt don’t have any scenes together, the two are expected to come together for an out-and-out action outing for director K. S. Ravi Kumar’s film.
Ravi Kumar has so far never done a Hindi film. The film has heavy duty action scenes for the Big B as well.
When contacted, producer T. P. Aggarwal confirmed, “Yes, Sanjay Dutt is doing an action film directed by K. S. Ravi Kumar. We’re also in talks with Mr. Bachchan for the film. It’s Ravi Kumar’s first film in Hindi. But it’s an original subject. It’s not a remake of one of his Tamil hits.”
What clinched the casting combination of the Dutt and the Big B was the director’s formidable reputation.
Says Aggarwal, “Ravi Kumar has done a number of films with Tamil cinema’s top most stars Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. In fact he was directing Rajinikanth in Rana when the star fell ill. Almost all of Ravi Kumar’s films are big hits in Tamil. We’re hoping he would deliver a big hit in Hindi as well.”
O P Dutta passes away
Veteran director, writer and producer O.P. Dutta expired late last night. The filmmaker was ill and admitted at the Kokilaben hospital at 7 pm yesterday and breathed his last around post 12 a.m. with the cremation scheduled today at Shivaji Park.
The filmmaker who began his career in 1948 as a director with Pyaar Ki Jeet, slowly transitioned into writing films like Border and Refugee which were directed by his son J P Dutta.
News Trends sends out heartfelt condolences to the filmmaker’s family and friends.
