Changing track

Remember Resul Pookutty? He (along with two others) won the Oscar for best sound mixing in David Boyle’s 2008 smash hit Slumdog Millionaire. Well, the talented sound designer is changing track now. He is gearing up to direct his first feature film. And reportedly, he is in talks with none other than Amitabh Bachchan to play the lead in his film. If Big B agrees, he will essay the role of an elderly Pakistani who crosses over to India to reunite with his family here. Well, if the project takes off, it will be a true crossover for Pookutty too. Jai ho!

Honey bunny

It took a few honeybees for Kannada actress Ramya to lose her cool. Last week she was shooting for her film, Neer Dose, when she was attacked by a swarm of bees. Two photojournalists present on the set shot pictures of her fighting off the bees and uploaded them on a local website. Immediately, all hell broke loose. Ramya filed a complaint with the Bangalore police saying that her privacy had been breached. The journos say they are shocked by the complaint. After all, it’s common practice to take photographs of celebrities during film shoots, they say. Guess Ramya doesn’t like being seen as a “honey bunny”.

Write resolve

Anita Nair has made a promise to herself. After writing a winning book, Lessons in Forgetting, and then a winning screenplay for the film version of the book — the movie won the National Award for the best film in English — the author has decided that from now on for every book she writes, she will also write its screenplay. First on the list is her psychological thriller, Cut Like Wound, which is to be made into a multi-lingual film. Now we want to know if Salman Rushdie has made a similar resolve after the film version of his book Midnight’s Children.

Urban malaise

Here’s something for Paoli Dam fans. In addition to working in Vikram Bhatt’s next, the bold actress continues to focus on women-centric roles in Tollywood. She is now busy shooting for Ajaana Bataash, directed by Anjan Das, two of whose films won National Awards in the past. Paoli plays a single working woman in the city who gets locked up in her lonely urban world and then comes out of her shell. The film, which explores loneliness and depressive disorders in a cut-throat urban life, is based on a novella by poet Joy Goswami. Way to go, Paoli.

Karma Kolaveri

Time was when Hindi cinema would only allow heroines from the south into its fold. Kamal Haasan did get a toehold for a while, but few other actors from the south have made it big in Bollywood. So both industries are keenly watching how Dhanush fares in Mumbai. Yes, the Kolaveri di pop icon will soon be seen in his first Bollywood film Raanjha. The film, which also stars the stylish Sonam Kapoor, is a contemporary love story. It’s a theme that Dhanush is quite comfortable with, having done many films of this genre in the Tamil film industry. Let’s see if this lanky lad from the south is a hit with his acting as much as he was a hit with his goofy Kolaveri song.