Here’s a story for those screechy young things who’ve been swooning over Ranbir Kapoor ever since he kicked off Bachna Ae Haseeno with a confidently executed title number while the credits rolled. Dad Rishi Kapoor, who loathed being called Chintu by all and sundry, had taken a vow that he would never ever give pet names to his kids. He would cringe and then crib, “I hate being called Chintu, there will be no Pintus and Mintus when I have kids.” Sure enough, while brother Dabboo’s daughters are universally known as Lolo and Bebo, Rishi stuck to his stand. His kids, Riddhima and Ranbir have grown up with their full-fledged names, no short forms, no pet names. First co-star Sonam Kapoor tried to go against Rishi’s diktat when she got proprietorial during Saawariya and would follow Ranbir to every photo-session in town to fuss over her ‘Bir’. Oh well, no wonder ’affaire Bir turned out to be even shorter than his condensed name.

Wonder what pet name Sush has in store for the new man in her life. The news is that Sushmita Sen, who has put her dream project on Rani Laxmibai on the back burner for the moment, is concentrating on making a bit of moolah first. Hence Sushmita’s ‘yes’ to hosting the TV show Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena without even dumping her extra kilos before facing the camera. Wasim Akram, co-host on the show, may be a juvenile diabetic but he sure looks better maintained than our roly-poly Sen. Now don’t tell me that’s how director Mudassar Aziz likes her. The birds in the neighbourhood twitter that the director of her half-finished film Dulha Mil Gaya has moved in and Sush is happy with the latest arrangement. Come on, you would be too, if baby Renee got another new Uncle to carry her around!

The one who has successfully dumped his extra kilos is, as everybody knows, musician Adnan Sami who has gone from Size 36 to Jean Size 34. Guess who’s the one wailing over Adnan’s weight loss? His friend and dress designer, Shahid Amir. “Every time I call him up and say, I’ve got another bagful of clothes that needs to be altered, Shahid goes, ‘Oh no, not again’!” chuckles the singer-composer.

There is one more person who isn’t quite happy with the way things have turned out with Adnan. And that’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sister, Bela Sehgal. She had directed Adnan for the music video of T-Series’ Tera Chehra. Ever since that shoot, Adnan and Bela had a special professional rapport between them which was to culminate in a feature film, his debut as an actor. The story of an overweight man, everything had been finalised for it when Adnan suddenly went incommunicado. To this day, Bela has no clue what happened to their friendship or their film.

What has happened is that Adnan’s wife, Saba Galadari, has turned film producer and set up Saba Productions in Mumbai. “Saba Productions will not only be for films that I’m going to do but we’re looking at making films with other actors as well,” says Adnan. So the musician’s debut as an actor will be a home production.

“One of the things I want to avoid doing is playing a rock star. My playing a musician will be the most expected thing and that’s exactly what I don’t want to do,” he adds.

Turning producer also means that Adnan intends to put down roots in India. He has applied for citizenship and is here to stay.

Also here to stay are the same old stories, recycled with different names. The latest Stardust has Shah Rukh Khan as the most hated man in the industry, surrounded by Amitabh, Salman, Aishwarya, Aamir, Akshay and Ajay Devgan. It’s one of those table-top articles that puts together all the common-knowledge stories against SRK under one heading. Nothing wrong with it except that three decades ago, the same mag had done a similar story on the then reigning superstar, Rajesh Khanna, with Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Shashi Kapoor pitted against him. “Four against one,” Rajesh Khanna had happily pointed out, like it was proof of what a heavyweight he was.

This simply proves that the game remains the same, only the players keep changing.