limelight

Going places

Unlike its Hindi counterpart, which tanked at the box office, the Tamil thriller Raavanan tasted success in the south. And now director Mani Ratnam’s southern comfort is all set to be screened in Korea. The Vikram-Aishwarya Rai starrer has been selected for the 15th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) which began on October 7. Ratnam and Vikram are planning to be present when the film is screened in Pusan. Apparently, Raavanan was much appreciated at the Venice Film Festival, where the audience gave it a thunderous applause after it was screened. Raavanan is clearly going places. Cry your heart out Abhishek Bachchan — the hero of the ill-fated Hindi Raavan.

Villainous voice

This Ravan is different from Mani Ratnam’s. And it is going to be played by none other than actor Ashutosh Rana. Known for his memorable negative roles in films like Dushman and Sangharsh, Rana has lent his voice to the character of Ravan in the upcoming animation film Ramayan. The actor says that ever since his childhood, when he used to take part in Ramlila, it has always been his dream to play Ramayan’s arch villain. Incidentally, Manoj Bajpayee and Juhi Chawla do the voiceover for Ram and Sita, respectively, in the film. This one’s bound to be an epic experience.

Alive ’’ kicking

Kannada actor and member of Parliament (MP) Ambareesh seems to have nine lives. And guess what? He has already exhausted four! Rumours of Ambareesh’s death did the rounds in Bangalore last week — for the fourth time in as many years. Needless to say, the actor was not amused. When calls began pouring in, an alive — and abusive — Ambareesh answered the phone personally to tell people that he was still in the land of the living. Apparently, everyone — from solicitous cops, to concerned politicians to his film colleagues — were given a mouthful by the MP from Mandya, Karnataka. Well, considering Bangalore’s history of violence when a celebrity dies, the cops, at least, must have been relieved to find out that news of Ambareesh’s death turned out to be baseless.

Kiss miss

Forget that moniker Piggy Chops. Priyanka Chopra’s just been voted the Bollywood star with the most kissable lips. The sexy star’s lip-lock with Ranbir Kapoor in the just released Anjaana Anjaani may have irked a certain Mr Kapur (we mean Shahid, of course), but Chopra was only doing what she does best — kiss. According to a recent poll by a men’s magazine, the former Miss World beats fellow Bollywood heroines to top the list of women with the most kissable peckers. Apparently, she bagged the title for her scrumptious “bee-stung lips”, à la Angelina Jolie. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan comes second in this august list, followed by Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu. And what of Mallika Sherawat, who began her career with 17 kisses in the film Khwahish? She, alas, was pushed all the way down to sixth place. Mwah mwah.

Act II

Prashant Tamang, the Calcutta cop-turned-singer, is going in for another career switch. The winner of the talent hunt show Indian Idol in 2007 is going to star in a Nepalese movie called Kina Mayama. The film is to be shot mainly in Sikkim and has a budget of around Rs 60 lakh. But not all his fans are thrilled to bits about Tamang shifting his loyalties from singing to acting. After all, thousands of them voted to see their favourite singer ride to the top of the heap in Indian Idol Season 3. On Facebook, some fans have actually advised him to give up acting and stick to singing. But looks like Tamang isn’t listening. And if he clicks in Nepali cinema — who knows? — he may just move to Bollywood and slip into the shoes of Danny Denzongpa, that other denizen from the hills of the east to make it big in Hindi filmland.