Sakshi who? The actress who starred in Aapko Pehle Bhi Kabhi Dekha Hai! If she still doesn’t ring a bell, change your batteries, guys. Soon she’ll become the only actress to have worked opposite five MPs! Now that’s a record of sorts even if Down South and she is confident that she’ll make it to the Guinness World Records for this feat. Her latest film is with MP Govinda and the film is called Jahaan Jaaiyega Hume Paaiyega. The other MPs she’s worked with are, of course, from the South (are there any actors there who aren’t MPs?): Mohanbabu, Sarath Kumar, Yogeshwar and Ambrish.

Bipasha BasuAmisha Patel

Bips' bash at Bangla boi

Bipasha is longing for recognition in Bengal, from where she jumped to Bollywood. And she is determined to do a Bengali film. She is feeling completely Bengali-at-heart now. Yes, we know she speaks Bengali fluently and her parents want to see her in a Bengali film, too. If Ash can come and do a Bengali film then why not the one who’s known as the Big Bong Babe in Bollywood, actually. Though Bips was to do the lead in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Kaal Purush, which later went to another Bolly babe, Sameera. Even her ‘date’ with Raja Sen fizzled out. But now she is determined and “dates permitting,” (or cash, actually) she’ll jump for it, she’s promised. She reveals, “Yes, I’m in serious negotiation with Rituparno Ghosh. We met in Mumbai when he was here. I had spoken to him on phone for so long and so warmly that I felt I knew him from long before we actually met.” Well, well, every body feels warmly towards Ritu, darling ? ask Ash (she did a Hindi Raincoat with him, too). Ritu also seems to have Bips on his mind; he admits having offered her both Chokher Bali and Dosar, the one he’s working on now with Konkona and Prosenjit. Now Ritu is “working on a couple of ideas specially for her”.

Amisha Patel

Chakmak without pancake

This can be only Amisha’s rising obsession with her own self. She admits she used to think that big brands only sign on glamorous chakmak faces for their products. And points out that, “It was amusing that after seeing my no-makeup look in The Rising, a host of skin care companies want me to endorse their products.” Got the point, Amisha. You are oh-so-beautiful even without the pancake.

 

 

SPOTLIGHT

Rani Mukherjee

Freeze shot, and after

Rani Mukherjee has become the true representative of Bollywood now. Be it the state dinner in honour of Parvez Musharraf or for the Singapore PM, the choice seems to rest with Rani. And Rani is enjoying the attention immensely. She must be happier still that the limelight isn’t going to India’s face of Hollywood, Ashu Ma (that’s what Rani used to call Ash in their bosom-friend days till she ‘betrayed’ her with the film, Chalte Chalte. Quietly, she had stepped in to Ash’s stilettoes and since then there’s nothing she could have done to make Ash forgive her. Recently, on the flight to IFFA Awards, Karan Johar egged her on to extend the olive branch to Ash. So she did, and went up to her seat, asking if she was sleeping. But got the expected freeze shot from Ash! Yeah, she was, and the divine eyes went wide shut again!

But Rani did get a heart-warming reception at the Casablanca Film Festival in Morocco recently. Among her other films, Chalte Chalte was also screened. And this is one experience Rani can’t forget ? “Fifty thousand people on the beach watching Chalte Chalte with me, then asking me questions about the songs and dances, the idiom and language of expression! Why she’s suddenly become the face of Bollywood baffles her. “I was surprised and baffled. But then the honour began to sink in and I felt good. ‘Yeah, Rani, you’ve done something to deserve this,’ I told myself. It was a very good morale booster,” she purrs. Another light-eyed achiever, kya?