Role call

Character actor Rajpal Yadav tells us that he is now very choosy about his film roles. The pint-sized actor says that he is going to opt for meaty roles rather than playing a sidekick to a hero or in small comic roles in films. He also hopes that he will be noticed in the new romcom Thoda Lutf Thoda Ishq. Unfortunately for him, the film - directed by award-winning theatre man Sachin Gupta - is being panned by critics. Never mind, Rajpal. Life is full of thoda ups and thoda downs.

 

Gal pals

Bangalore's Bishop Cotton Girls' School (as also the boys' school) celebrated its 150th anniversary recently. At the old girls' meet, former students - including movers and shakers such as Biocon head Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising and golfer Sharmila Nicollet - sang paeans to their alma mater. "I still march to the tune of our rather militant school anthem, which told us to fight injustice, unfairness, corruption," Shaw said. Of course, the celebrations ended with a spree of selfie-clicking. That's called photosynthesis.

 

Cannes man

Working in Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur as an assistant director was like going to "film school" for first-time filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan. But he seems to have graduated with flying colours. The 35-year-old director's debut Masaan - a gritty indie drama set in Varanasi - won two awards at Cannes this year. A theatrical release is scheduled for later this month - and Ghaywan, an engineer and business school graduate, is keeping his fingers crossed. After all, Masaan - also called Fly Away Solo - shouldn't land with a thud.

 

Kids' corner

What does Sushmita Sen do with her two lovely daughters when school is shut but she is up to her eyebrows with work? She drops them at her father's place in Calcutta. Sen, who tweeted about holidaying with "d babies" in Coorg last month, knows that they are happy with their grandpa, Subir Sen. Renee, 16, and Alisah 5, were recently spotted swimming with him at a south Calcutta club. The two, says the fond grandpa, spend at least two weeks with him during their summer holidays - and swimming is a must during the break. "Alisah loves to swim and is a fast learner. She is the naughtier of the two and doesn't fear Renee, though she is 10 years older," chuckles the grandfather indulgently. Guess all that keeps Sush - who is now busy with Bengali films - happy.

 

Video wail

Poor Monica Dogra. All that she wanted was a bit of help from folks at large. What she got instead was a lot of sass on the Internet. Dogra, who's acted in films such as Dhobi Ghat and is a member of the indie band Shaa'ir + Func, recently sought crowdfunding for a new music video to highlight the problems of India's queer community. For that, she needed Rs 50 lakh, and was hoping that people would pony up the amount. Instead, they came up with all kinds of snide remarks. What will the LGBTQ community get out of this, some asked. Well, while that's not clear yet, what's evident is that Dogra has got some interweb flak. And there she is now - all alone in a crowd.