Backlash of the Week

Ram Gopal Varma is soon to get a taste of his own sarcasm. He has taken potshots at directors like Karan Johar and Bonny Kapoor in his films and interviews. Now he must prepare to see an unflattering version of himself on the big screen. Filmmaker Anil Kumar is all set to make a film about a highly talented director who comes to Mumbai and falls for one of his heroines and she stars in all his films. Success comes, success goes, and the director starts making atrocious movies. Yes, that’s the storyline. And guess what, the film is called — Ramu Ho Gaya Pagal.

Now the Tantrum Rani

Rani Mukherjee

Rani Mukherjee is now a changed person. Ask Pradeep Sarkar. Her high and mighty behaviour had everyone from the cast to the crew of Choodiyaan reeling with shock in Varanasi. Especially the crew members who bore the brunt of her foul tongue. So far known as the most friendly actress, success seems to have changed everything Rani was identified with. Now she’s the Tantrum Queen instead of the Queen of Hearts. She made life miserable for the makeup artistes and other hired staff, yelling and displaying temper all the while. A stage actor, here her costar, also got a glimpse of what this new Rani is all about. When he couldn’t get his lines right, he got snapped at by Rani who thought this actor was getting nervous because he was shooting with her, the Rani. Seniors on the sets were stunned at the appalling language and abuses she hurled at others. Which kept her costars at bay, too. Instead she had her whole family down in Varanasi for company. Rani’s mom has been dismissing all this as rubbish and doing damage control, but the cast and the crew are hardly amused.

Fashion no longer remote

Twinkle Bajpai

After Bollywood fashion it’s Telly fashion time. From heavily bejewelled saas-bahus to the designer bindis of the vamps and exquisitely dressed smallscreen heroines making fashion statements in bold letters. The latest is Twinkle Bajpai in the serial Betiyann — Ghar Ki Lakshmi. She has been wearing a belt over her kurta and that is now being sold as designerwear in Orbit, one of the famous shopping malls in Mumbai. “It’s not because of me. The credit goes to the show’s designer and Zee TV who had planned my look,” says Twinkle modestly. Making a bold fashion statement is not what Twinkle is very comfortable with. In one of the scenes she was asked to wear a smaller, body-hugging kurta, but she refused since she didn’t want her waistline to show.

Next: Vidya victim of MMS

Vidya Balan

Who’s the next hottie on the MMS? Vidya Balan? Though with Lage Raho Munna Bhai Vidya has taken a 180-degree turn from being the traditional Indian girl in a sari to being a little more modern and described now as Sweet ’N’ Sexy, but a porny video clip featuring Vidya is too much to imagine (or digest). But those who have seen the clips on Internet or mobile phones swear that the resemblance of the woman in a one-minute sizzling video clip is incredibly close to Vidya. While the debate whether it’s a morphed video of Vidya or a look-alike performer rages, Vidya decided to keep absolutely cool about it. Her secretary said from Mumbai that ‘‘She is busy shooting here and does not want to react to this. The issue is totally irrelevant to her and we do not want to encourage any discussion on the topic.’’ So, that ends the topic. Or does it?

SPOTLIGHT

Neetu Chandra

Starlet mistaken for sweeper

Neetu Chandra, one of the Garam Masala girls, was mistaken for a sweeper girl, can you believe this! This happened while shooting for Neetu’s forthcoming Traffic Signal, directed by National Award winning director, Madhur Bhandarkar. “We were shooting the last song of the film at Mukesh Mills in Mumbai. I play the character of a Khatiawadi girl in the film. There were a few cleaner women around who were doing their regular job of sweeping when they mistook me as one of them. They got confused and thought that I am a new recruit,” says Neetu.

But Neetu is happily boasting about it. She seems to understand that it’s an artiste’s pride to be able to make her audience believe in the character she is playing. “Why should I be embarrassed? In fact, I am happy. If the sweepers considered me to be one of them, that means I have justified my character,” proclaims Neetu.

No doubt Neetu is taking her career seriously now. She is doing realistic film like Traffic Signal and grabbing every possible opportunity to talk about her role and her look in the film. Traffic Signal has 60 characters in it and if she can sweep away the attention from the rest of the cast then her effort will be worth it.Now can you dismiss Neetu as just one of the bimbettes in short dresses running around macho men?

 

Cut-n-thrust

I never did think that I had to resort to wearing skimpy clothes to get attention. It went with the language of Dhoom 2 — Aishwarya Rai