Andhranews

I am happy being in love, and am happy with my career and family too,” says Ayesha Takia, who is just back from Bangkok after a hectic shoot with E. Nivas for his forthcoming venture De Taali. “This film is about friendship. I am working with Ritesh Deshmukh and Rimi Sen for the first time and that’s all I can reveal at the moment,” Ayesha adds.

Ayesha’s performance in Naseeruddin Shah’s Yun Hota To Kya Hota received wide acclaim. The actress is now looking forward to Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor. “I have become spoilt as an actor now. I have become choosy about my roles. These two films have definitely widened my horizons. I have never aimed for the number one position nor am I in the rat race. I will do quality films and perform roles that satisfy me. I will not sign a film just to show my cleavage on posters,” the actress emphasis.

Speaking about her experience while working for Dor she says, “Dor was an emotionally draining experience. In fact Nagesh never thought he would sign me as he thought I was just a bubbly young actress. Nagesh has his own style. Once we interacted about the script, I realised what he actually wanted. I had to stay in a haveli with Rajasthani women so that I could learn the body language of these women. Earlier I had never understood the concept of getting into a character. But my perspective of looking at my roles changed with this movie.”

So what does this bubbly actress now have in store for us? “I have quite a few films on hand. I am doing Nikhil Advani’s Salaam E Ishq. Though it is a multi-starrer, every character has his own identity. Then there’s Ahmed Khan’s Fool and Final and Kya Love Story Hai with Tusshar Kapoor. I am doing different characters. It is important for me as an actress to balance it out and explore all kinds of characters,” says Ayesha.

Actress Urmila Matondkar wor-ked hard on her appearance and body language for director Onirban’s second film Bas Ek Pal, a film about urban relationships. “Yes, I cut my hair and also got designer Anita Dongre to do my clothes. This isn’t because I needed to look different. But we needed to show serious time transition, and that had to be brought into my body language,” Urmila said.

“My character is calm outward, but shaken and stirred within. I’m very proud of this role and Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara. In both, there’s no bravura performance by me. I want to be like Sachin Tendulkar on the field: making his presence felt without straining to do so. In BEP, I don’t want audiences to check me out in this and that scene. I want them to see the character rather than me,” she added.

Urmila has been given the colour orange to denote her character in the film. “Somewhere or the other I sport orange to show flamboyance. I don’t think characters have been given their own colours to denote their personality in any other Hindi movie. For once, I don’t play a traumatised character, though Sanjay Suri and Jimmy Shergill do,” laughs Urmila about her first real urban take on relationships. The film also has Rehaan Contractor and Juhi Chawla in pivotal roles.

Sooraj Barjatya has found a new “Prem” in Shahid Kapur, who plays the lead in his soon-to-be-released film Vivah. First it was Salman Khan, who essayed the role of the unforgettable Prem in Maine Pyar Kiya and then came Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan as Prem in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon.

Now, the ever-energetic Shahid dons the garb of the charming lover boy who will woo Amrita Rao in the film. Vivah is an all-out romantic film and who better than Shahid, the guy with a magnetic screen presence and a smile that melts every woman’s heart, could portray this character?

With Teen Deewarein, Nagesh Kukunoor gained the status of a sensitive director. His next release Dor deals with a sensitive subject about women in Rajasthan. Now taking up the issue of women once again, Kukunoor is all set embark on a tentatively titled film Five Women.

“It could be changed to Bemisaal,” he says. He adds, “The film will hit the floors only in July 2007.” The director is currently kicked about Aashayein that has John Abraham in the lead. “Aashayein is about a compulsive gambler who discovers a new meaning of fortune and life through some dramatic turns of events. John plays the primary protagonist in it. The rest of the cast is yet to be decided,” says Kukunoor.

Director Priyadarshan is upset with media reports about him publishing an entertainment daily in the South. “I will not deny that the plan is on the anvil, but reports in the media made out to be as if I had already come out with a publication and was the editor of it. Yes, to start a publication is very much on my mind, but it is a future plan. At the moment I am too busy with my commitments, so where will I find time and be able to do justice to a publication, that too a daily? One needs to give full attention to it. I think anything creative needs full attention,” he said.

Priyadarshan is currently busy with the filming of Bhaagam Bhag starring Govinda, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Paresh Rawal, which is reportedly based on the Hollywood hit It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Priyadarshan recently turned down the offer to remake Malamaal Weekly 2 saying that he did not believe in making sequels. The director said that he had also been offered to make Phir Hera Pheri. “But I turned down the offer because originals can never be messed with,” he said.

Will Ferrell loves stripping off on-screen because it helps starving children. The comic actor, famous for showing off his body in his movies, has joked that UNICEF receive a sum of money every time he strips off. He said, “I actually have that written into scripts now because it’s tied in with UNICEF. I actually have it put in to my contract. Every time I strip down to my underwear some money goes to the charity so it’s kind of my way of helping, making a contribution. Plus, it brings the ladies in. The ladies love it.”

However, Ferrell can’t decide whether or not he likes the fact he spends half his life being laughed at in a state of undress. He mused, “I’m not as comfortable as you would think, but after three takes you can do anything.”

Jude Law has a new admirer, four-time Oscar-nominee Kate Winslet. Kate and Jude have just finished working together on new movie All The King’s Men and the Titanic star has revealed she is a big fan of the Alfie actor, describing him as “extraordinary”, “brilliant” and “breathtaking”. She said, “Jude’s a brilliant guy and an amazing actor, he’s an extraordinary combination. He’s unbelievably powerful and passionate and so intricately subtle, it’s like watching a glorious tapestry unveiled every time he’s on screen. It’s breathtaking.”

The film is based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren and follows the life of idealist Southerner Willie Stark’s rise to political power in Louisiana and the corruption that leads to his downfall. The movie has an impressive cast with Sean Penn playing the lead character, while The Sopranos actor James Gandolfini and screen legend Sir Anthony Hopkins both have prominent roles.

Sir Elton John is still haunted by the death of “soul mate” Gianni Versace. The Rocket Man singer was left devastated when the Italian fashion designer was shot dead on his doorstep in Miami in 1997, the same year another of his close friends, Princess Diana, was killed in a Paris car crash. Elton revealed in an interview with Britain’s the Sun newspaper, “There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think of people like Gianni and Diana and John Lennon and other friends who have gone needlessly.”

Sharon Osbourne claims Tom Cruise would never appear as a guest on her chat show because she would tell him he was a “nutter”. The star, the plain speaking wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, wants to interview the Top Gun actor, but he has turned down her invitation. Sharon, 53, said in an interview with Britain’s the Sun newspaper, “Tom won’t come on my show because I’d tell him he’s a nutter. He’ll do Michael Parkinson’s show because he knows he’ll be safe and Parkinson will do a proper interview.”

Michael Parkinson is an established chat show host in the UK and is known for being very flattering to his guests. Sharon said, “I look at people from a mature woman’s point of view. I’m not after dirt and I don’t ask difficult questions, I ask wacky questions. So for now I’m happy to do real people with real stories. Tom Cruise can wait.” The Sharon Osbourne Show launched on British station Channel 4 last month.

Sharon Stone is getting serious about the next man she invites to share her life because she wants to find the perfect father figure for her three adopted boys. The single mum insists that she can’t just think about her own likes and dislikes anymore, she has to consider her kids.

She says, “My children need to have someone they can look up to, someone they can look at and say, ‘Gee, I’d like to be just like him. I don’t want to bring some schmuck around them, so, when I meet people, I have to think about whether they will be good examples to my sons.”

Even the busiest A-listers can spare at least One Day for a good cause. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have committed to perform on the single One Day, to be produced by Swizz Beatz in honour of the United Nation’s International Day of Peace. The couple join Sean Paul, Chris Brown, Eve, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Cassidy, Floetry, Lyfe Jennings and Mario in what certainly sounds like what will be an R&B and hip-hop-influenced project. The International Peace Concert, celebrating the UN’s 25-year-old initiative, will be televised live from Rome on December 9.

“Since each of the Grammy-winning artists who have signed on to sing One Day represent a different type of music, from R&B to pop to Latin pop, to hip-hop, rap, reggae and funk, this song will relate to everyone and show that peace has no boundaries,” Garson Entertainment President Rick Garson said in a statement.

In the meantime, Lopez and Anthony are off to Toronto enjoying the fruits of their latest labour of love, the musical biopic El Cantante, about Puerto Rican salsa legend Hector Lavoe. Not only did the film allow the duo the chance to spend gobs of time together, but playing the roles of an explosive husband and wife who undergo major emotional trauma helped Anthony and Lopez, who attribute their successful partnership to “just simple love”, appreciate each other even more.

“I realised for the first time how sane we are as a couple, really,” Anthony said recently during a festival press conference. “As crazy as we are,” Lopez interjected. “We’d do these scenes and I’d go home and say, ‘We’re normal’,” Anthony continued. Then Lopez added, “And I was like, if they could do this for 20 years, surely we can make it through the next weekend.”