Hollywood ho

Talk about making an international impact. Had Kamal Haasan’s latest film Vishwaroopam got Bollywood producers queuing up for remake rights, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. But the film has gone a step further — it’s got Hollywood interested. The buzz is that Barrie M. Osborne, the producer of The Lord of The Rings and Matrix, recently requested Haasan to hold a special screening of the spy-thriller film for him. So naturally the rumour mills are all afire, speculating what that was about. Well, we won’t speculate. We’ll just ask you to watch this space.

Comic creation

Utsa Shome, Bidisha Basu and Koel Chatterjee are three friends who remember the difficulty of getting hold of comic books when they were growing up. So they’ve now opened up their very own comic book library called Leaping Windows in Mumbai’s Andheri district. “We just wanted a place where people could sit down and read comics,” says Shome. “When we were kids, most of the time we would have to read the comics in a bookstore, and eventually get shooed out.” At Leaping Windows Japanese manga and obscure graphic novels rub shoulders with comic book staples such as DC’s Superman and Marvel’s Batman as well as Indian comics. To Shome, Basu and Chatterjee this bookstore is a dream come true. “Initially, we had an online store, but we always wanted a physical place. And now, we’ve managed to open it up with a café.”

New spin

Remember the anthem Hum honge kamyab? That old school favourite is set to get an image makeover when musician Kunal Avanti sings it in hip hop style with friends Prasad Ruparel and Megan Murray. “When we decided to rework Kamyab, we knew exactly what we wanted from it in terms of feel. However, because there are many sentiments attached to it, we had to be very careful not to upset people,” says Avanti. The initiative is being powered by Beasport, a social media organisation that brings together top cricket stars to help educate India’s youth through various programmes. With a tastefully shot video, the song is already a hit on YouTube. No doubt it shall be kamyab on other platforms too.

Poster girl

This calendar girl is going great guns. Model-turned-actress Ushoshi Sengupta, who was recently seen in a cameo in Sajid Khan’s Housefull 2 as John Abraham’s college sweetheart, was in Calcutta recently to unveil what is being touted as the city’s “first fashion calendar”. Sengupta has modelled for the calendar, launched by a local fashion brand called Palki, in a mix of traditional and contemporary creations. And there’s a touch of Tagore here too. The photographs, shot by lensman Somnath Roy, are accompanied with the Bard’s poems on different seasons for each month. Poetry and fashion — could Sengupta have asked for more?

Losers’ gallery

Sarnath Banerjee keeps a relatively low profile. However, India’s best known graphic novelist will grab lots of eyeballs when his installation goes on display at the London Olympics 2012. Banerjee is one among five artists commissioned by the London Olympics authorities to create artwork for a “public art project” to be set up on the streets of East London. Visitors to the Games will get a chance to gape at Banerjee’s series of posters and a graphic narrative on billboards on the subject of “near misses, and the people who almost made it” in sports. “It is a campaign on losers, a gallery of non-achievers... basically my work is about people who are psychologically hardwired to lose,” says Banerjee about his project. Admitting that he is “extremely privileged” to be part of this international project, he adds, “I like being a spokesperson for all those people who almost made it.” Strange, that. For Banerjee himself is certainly no loser.