Urmila Matondkar

Oomphy Urmila is part of a high-profile Singles Club — she has Ektaa Kapoor, Manish Malhotra, Tusshar Kapoor and Sunita Menon for company. They hang out together, watch films and go out for dinners.

Urmila Matondkar insists that the Singles Club is great fun. “We are all like-minded people. All of us like to watch movies and dine together.” On being asked what the club is up to these days, she chirps: “We are planning to watch Chak De! India. I’m so happy that it is being received so well. I think it’s brave of Shah Rukh Khan to do a film he believed in.”

Devdas aka Devinder

Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas Mukhopadhyay has been a favourite of Indian film-makers. Several directors have interpreted Devdas in their own way and actors like KL Saigal, Dilip Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan have played him with great success on screen.

Now it’s Anurag Kashyap’s turn to present his take on Devdas, albeit with a twist. His film Dev D is a modern version of Devdas. It stars Abhay Deol in the title role — but as a Punjabi called Devinder Singh.

One more for the Oscar library

Anil Kapoor's maiden production Gandhi My Father, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan, has been selected to be part of the prestigious Academy of Motion Pictures library (Oscar library). The script will be there permanently for the reference of cinema students, following on the heels of Chak De! India, which made it a couple of weeks back.

Gandhi My Father is based on the stormy relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal. The film has won a lot of accolades for the acting prowess of Akshaye Khanna, Shefali Shah, Darshan Zariwala and Bhoomika Chawla. World leaders like Nelson Mandela, President Mbeki and recently Nobel Laureate Nandine Gordimer have praised the film.

The academy has got in touch with Anil Kapoor directly to procure the script. “Yes, it does seem that we are on the international radar as we didn’t make any real attempt to reach out to the library. Out of the blue I received this call requesting for the script. They are now keeping track of what’s happening in the Indian motion picture scene,” smiles Anil.