WhoOpee! Not that you can compare the two in any way. But we had Urmila Matondkar on Aahat 2 and Mallika Sherawat in Sarabhai Versus Sarabhai. And then, there was the ultimate star Amitabh Bachchan on BBC’s Talking Movies. Indian television is serving up multistarrers these days. A big multistarrer was Koffee With Karan where we got the never-before combination of Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman. While Zeenat was immaculately measured in her replies, Hema was absolutely frank. When talking about gossip-writing Hema told her host that every link-up about her was true….And when Karan announced a break, Hema wondered if there’s more of the show to go through. Maybe, Hema never needed to be diplomatic in her life or career. So why now!

Urmila on Aahat 2 was so special, you just wanted to see more of her in the parent film, Naina. The film’s promos just gripped you. And I for one wanted to see the film because of the way it was projected on television. Wish the same could be said about Mallika Sherawat’s vulgar appearance on Sarabhai Versus Sarabhai. She played a maidservant named Sunehri who bats her eyelids, drops her chunri at the men in the family and flees with the household goods.

In case the wannabes and never-beens need lessons in star power they should watch Amitabh when he addresses the foreign press. While Mallika put on a very strange accent in Cannes, the Big B’s trademark baritone boomed across as Tom Brooks’ queries on BBC’s Talking Movies in New York. Brooks was being subtly provocative. He wondered aloud how it felt to be relatively unrecognised in New York after being mobbed back home. “Thank God for that,” AB retorted. “It’s like Brad Pitt being on the streets of a city in India.” Bravo! Brooks got Mr Bachchan’s age wrong. He asked how long the mega-star hopes to go on with his vocation since he’s already 62. “Until people get tired of my face,” answered AB quietly.

You still want to know what separates the men from the boys? Or Amitabh Bachchan from Arjun Rampal? I caught the latter giving sound bytes to a Star News correspondent. Most of what Arjun said had to do with his long hair not about his anything-but-long career.