Comic gene

It seems Bollywood has become all about Generation Next. Last year Shatrughan’s buxom daughter Sonakshi made a splash in Dabangg. This year may well be the turn of Govinda’s little girl Narmaadaa Ahuja, who is all set to star in as many as three films — a love story, a romantic comedy and a pure comedy. But the star kid is tightlipped about her debut project. All she will say is a cool and correct “I’m happy to work with a well-known production house in this romantic comedy”. And what about her leading man in the film? “My co-star is not a newcomer. I can’t reveal any other detail,” says a reticent Ahuja, who has studied acting at the Kishore Namit Kapoor Institute in Mumbai and the London Film Institute. That’s all very well. But does Govinda’s gudiya have daddy’s comic gene intact? We can’t wait to find out.

Dance on

Mohiniattam dancer Kalamandalam Hemalatha has pulled off an awesome feat. She has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for performing the world’s longest dance ever by dancing continuously for 123 hours and 15 minutes in Thrissur, Kerala. The previous record of 108 hours of dance was set in 2008 by another Mohiniyattam dancer, Yattikotta Yadagiri Acharya from Hyderabad. So what’s next for the marathon dancer? A bit of rest, you might think. Er, not exactly. The indefatigable Hemalatha is now planning to go on a month-long tour of Kerala to promote health and physical awareness among women and children. Phew! Now that’s called stamina.

Legend lore

If you know Pankaj Kumar Mullick only as the man who was behind the phenomenal radio programme Mahishasuramardini, this book is for you. A biography of the legendary composer and singer, titled Betar Chalachchitrer Jagatey Prabadpratim Sangeet Sadhak Pankaj Kumar Mullick, has been penned by his grandson Rajib Gupta. Says Gupta, who wanted to tell the younger generation that there was more to Pankaj Mullick than Mahishasuramardini on Mahalaya, “He was the first person in India to bring such Western concepts as harmonisation, interlude and countermelody to Indian film music. The young should know about his pioneering efforts and his contribution to Hindi film music.” That should be music to their ears.

 

Poster girl

Nothing succeeds like success. Take Anushka Sharma, for instance. The fresh-faced Bollywood newbie is riding so high after the success of Band Baja Baraat that producers are now falling all over themselves to please her and get some mileage out of her sudden popularity. That’s why the posters of the soon-to-be-released Patiala House — a film in which Sharma stars — have undergone a not so subtle change. Though they originally featured only Akshay Kumar and Rishi Kapoor (because the film is primarily to do with a father-son relationship), now the posters have Akki sharing space with this lissome lady. No doubt the producers hope that Sharma’s presence on the posters will act as a lucky mascot and break the jinx of Akshay Kumar’s recent spate of duds at the box office.

 

Sex ’’ swami

Scandals are delicious subjects. So you can’t fault filmmakers for wanting to put Swami Nithyananda on celluloid. First, we heard that Ram Gopal Varma was writing a script on the Bangalore-based godman who made headlines for his sexcapades with Tamil actress Ranjitha. Films on the fake godman are in the offing in Tamil and Telugu as well. And now, Kannada movie producer, Madan Patel, has also announced plans to make a movie on the sex swami. Patel claims that the film will be based on the widely-viewed YouTube clips, the chargesheet filed by the Criminal Investigation Department and witness accounts. The icing on the cake is that the script is being written by a former Nithyananda devotee. That should give the whole thing a nice bit of authenticity.