Ask Upen Patel and he will tell you his accented Hindi suited his image in 36 China Town coz he plays a Casanova in Bangkok. But poor Upen was oblivious of the fact that the voice used was actually a dubbing artiste’s ' Viraj Jadhav. Subhash Ghai didn’t want to break Upen’s heart and so he thought it wise to hide the truth from him!

Esha Deol

Esha’s extra pressure

Esha was down with depression while shooting for her latest film, Ankahee. It has been the toughest character to enact for her till now she agrees. She used to get constant nervous attacks and nightmares throughout the shoot. The reason: her role of a glam gal, a Miss World (which is said to be ‘modelled’ on Sushmita) who falls in love with an ordinary doctor (read: director) who’s married and has a kid, too. This trauma of an extramarital affair is too sensitive for the poor girl and mama Hema has also lashed out at the media for grilling her li’ girl Esha on her ‘identification’ with her home scene. Esha has explained her problem with, “If I did fall for someone who is married, I would choose not to do anything about it. I have my dignity.” Though Esha has thrown out inhibitions about skin show, she’s got pretty used to bold scenes now, but playing a ‘negative’ role has taken its toll on her, it seems. Snap out of it, baby, it’s only a role.

Uncommon wealth

Aishwarya Rai

Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Closing ceremony. It was a 11-minute show where Bollywood filmstars showed the world what the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi has in store for them. It was a riot of colours and a dazzling 11 minutes no doubt. But it cost the public exchequer quite a sum. The Bollywood stars didn’t shine in Melbourne for nothing or just out of patriotism. They were paid big fat amounts just to be there. Aishwarya Rai got a whopping Rs 3 crore, Lara Dutta and Rani Mukherjee Rs 1.5 crore each, Saif Ali Khan got Rs 75 lakh. Not just that ' stars like Manisha Koirala and Pooja Bedi were also paid tidy amounts just to be present though they were not even part of the show! Now who wants work'

Back to square one

Sushama Reddy

Sushama Chocolate Reddy tried to change her box-office fate by going in for a numerology-prompted spelling of her name Sushhama. But the press went berserk with each spelling it differently. And when Chocolate proved to be a disaster in spite of all the ‘a’s and ‘h’s in her name she’s decided to drop it for good. And scamper back to square one. She’s also decided to drop her Westernised look and go for a gaon ki gori garb for her next film. Her new release, Priyadarshan’s Chup Chup Ke, has her acting coy (as in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Big Bazar). Welcome back, Sushama Reddy. And stick to that spelling now.

SPOTLIGHT

Nisha Kothari

Emraan won’t kiss!

Emraan has refused to kiss Nisha Kothari. He’s refused to kiss her in his upcoming film, The Killer. No, there is no problem between the two. And we don’t have any info if Nisha has bad breath, either. Nor is he wary of kissing onscreen since he’s getting married soon. It’s just that he refuses to kiss onscreen anymore!

Emraan, who is now being bracketed among the top heroes of Bollywood, can really make his producers go laughing all the way to the bank with every release. Not just that other filmmakers are reluctant to release their films close to an Emraan Hashmi release lest they get beaten in the smooch race. Remember how Tango Charlie fared when it came along with Zehar, or Ek Ajnabi that was released with Kalyug or The Mistress Of Spices and Darna Zaroori Hai that have clashed with Gangster' Thanks to his Kissing King image he’s regularly being hounded by producers who are ready with a million bucks only if he agrees to kiss onscreen. But Emraan is unrelenting. He agrees kissing is his ‘brand image’ but of course “images are not rigid”. Even Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt can’t make him kiss onscreen for The Killer. He says he has got “bored with kissing” and wants to shed his playboy image now. He is confident he can deliver a lot more than just a smack.