Salman Khan’s unbelievable understanding of his girlfriend’s ambitions continues. On May 26, at the launch of trade journalist Komal Nahta’s new tabloid, The Film Street Journal, amidst a sea of male stars that included Dharmendra, Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Karan Johar, Rishi Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Jeetendra and Mithunda with Mimoh, the sole refreshing female face belonged to Katrina Kaif. But she didn’t look out of place with her confident stride and plenty of poise even as the cameras converged on her. Her attendance at a scribe’s party, in the company of Tips’ boss, Ramesh Taurani, had the obvious support of her boyfriend, Salman Khan. Far from resenting her streak of independence, a couple of hours later, Salman enquired through Katrina (she phoned the host long after she’d left the venue) if the party was still on and strode in after wrapping up his shooting in Lokhandwala.

The evening made two points clear: one, that Salman no longer cares for the cloak of secrecy over his friendship with girlfriend/fiancée Katrina even as she makes an individual mark of her own in the Hindi film industry. And two, the Khan has melted somewhat and doesn’t hold an unreasonable grudge against the entire media — he does occasionally break bread with them.

Meanwhile, Katrina Kaif’s lucky streak also continues. Apart from Tips’ Race directed by Abbas-Mustan, Katrina also has a role opposite Bobby Deol in Apne. With its faint resemblance to Rocky Balboa, Apne costars all three Deols together for the first time, and is already drawing a lot of attention before its June-end release.

Also on release in June is Vinod Pande’s Red Swastik which has sailed through the censors without a single cut! Anybody who’s familiar with Vinod Pande would know that he is the filmmaker who introduced a certain boldness to Hindi films. Years ago, he had made Ek Baar Phir about a wife stepping out of the Lakshman-Rekha. The film had costarred Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval (both newcomers then). He also made Yeh Nazdeekiyan around an extra-marital tangle, with Shabana Azmi, Marc Zuber (he passed away a few years ago) and Parveen Babi. When Parveen died, the TV channels had continuously flashed a shot of hers sensuously coming out of the water a la Bo Derek. That shot was from Vinod Pande’s Yeh Nazdeekiyan.

With a penchant for the unconventionally bold, his last film was Sins (about a priest from Kerala who gets maniacally obsessive about his mistress). That, and not Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, was Shiney Ahuja’s debut film, an introduction where he was completely in the raw (yup, lots of nude scenes).

Red Swastik which has nothing to do with either Communism or the Nazis, has the mandatory ingredients of a Vinod Pande film — nudity, kissing and lovemaking. But it’s essentially a Basic Instinct kind of murder-thriller with Sherlyn Chopra playing a Sharon Stone. Interestingly, the new girl already has several aliases. She called herself Mona in a couple of forgettable B-grade films. Vinod Pande gave her a new identity as she is Menaka Chopra in the credits of Red Swastik. But one hears that she has gone back to her original name, Sherlyn Chopra. Whatever the name, this rose is confident, tough and has a wow figure — the last-mentioned will be seen in plenty in Red Swastik.

Hey, psst!

* With cricketer Zaheer Khan and dancer-starlet Isha Sharvani breaking up and Kim Sharma parting ways with Yuvraj Singh, the number of cricketer-glamour girl liaisons and splits simply keeps growing.

Few would remember that the respected manager of the Indian cricket team during the just-concluded Indo-Bangladesh series was once engaged to fiery actress Amrita Singh! That’s right. Amrita once wore Ravi Shastri’s ring on her finger before they went their different ways. She moved on to Vinod Khanna and finally settled down with Saif Ali Khan for a brief, nine-year marriage. Saif’s own parents, the Nawab of Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore are, of course, the stuff that cricket-cinema legends are made of.

* Where’s Madhuri Dixit? She has wrapped up her work for Yashraj’s Aaja Nachle and has packed her bags from Mumbai. But she hasn’t reached her house in LA. Here’s news: Husband Dr Sriram Nene waylaid her and took her off to Mauritius for a quick, private moment. The Nenes are holidaying quietly in the land of beaches and casinos before Madhuri returns to Mumbai precisely for one day to pick up her bags and go home!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International