High on success
Southern actress Asin, who has appeared in a number of Bollywood films after making her debut with Ghajini, says that she is yet to come across a role which allows her to perform even better than her first Hindi film.
The 26-year-old actress played the love interest of Aamir Khan in the 2008 thriller and grabbed the best female debut Filmfare award that year.
"I do hope that something like that comes my way. As an artiste, you need some creative satisfaction. You too crave for a platform where you can get a chance to perform, by digging your teeth into a fleshy character," says the actress.
"I too am looking forward to a film which is in a commercial format and allows me to perform to an even better characterisation than Ghajini. That would be terrific," Asin adds. Having started her career primarily with Tamil and Telugu films, Asin did some light-hearted movies in Bollywood, such as 'Ready', Housefull 2 and Bol Bachchan, after starring in an intense film like Ghajini.
She says that she is happy with her choice of films, which are generally box-office successes. "Other than the fact that your film definitely needs to be good enough to fetch audiences, another major factor that comes into play is luck. Without that, you can't really score a success. Secondly, the number of people who are watching Hindi films has also increased tremendously," she says. Asin also scored a hat trick of 100-crore hits with Bol Bachchan, Housefull 2 and 'Ready', which has led to her being compared with actress Kareena Kapoor, who has four 100-crore earners in her kitty.
Sonakshi's red-hot act!
Ajay Devgan is known for the innovative pranks that he plays on his co-stars, crew and directors. From nearly every movie set he acts on, one can hear stories of the mischief that he creates — and the sets of Son of Sardaar is no different. The cast and crew of the film also witnessed a lot of Devgan's pranks and this time, to give him company, was his best friend Sanjay Dutt.
And the first victim to fall prey to their caper was none other than the film's leading lady, Sonakshi Sinha. Known to have a sweet tooth, Sonakshi was challenged by Ajay and Sanjay to eat a few chillies, all in one go. To everyone's surprise, the actress accepted the task quite sportingly and ate ten red chillies all at once.
A source close to the team says, "Sonakshi had just started shooting in Patiala with the rest of the crew and Ajay decided to play a prank on her. So, Sanju baba and Ajay went to Sonakshi and challenged her to eat a few chillies at once. Sonakshi started laughing and accepted the task."
Vidya turns 'housewife'
Playing the role of a homemaker is often considered to be boring. But Vidya Balan, who plays a homemaker in Ghanchakkar, says her character will dispel this notion completely. "I play a Punjabi housewife in Ghanchakkar and hopefully, I, with this one, will put to rest the notion that housewives are boring. That's a very huge misconception and I hope people realise that after Ghanchakkar," the 33-year-old says.
Vidya has teamed up with her 'The Dirty Picture' co-star Emraan Hashmi in the film. About her chemistry with Emraan, she says, "I think the secret of our chemistry is that we may have said three words to each other in 'The Dirty Picture', but in this one, we have said six words. So, it should probably double the chemistry between us (sic)."
Directed by Rajkumar Gupta, Ghanchakkar is said to be the sequel to the 2006-hit Pyaar Ke Side Effects, which starred Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat.
'We had a lot of fun'
Southern actress Madhurima, who is gearing up for the release of her second Bollywood film Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal, considers herself lucky to work in the Hindi film industry.
"Both industries, Tollywood and Bollywood, are very different. But this (Bollywood) is national, so I am happy and consider myself privileged to have got this chance and exposure," the actress says. "We had a lot of dhamaal (fun) with a kamaal (amazing) script and hope it will be malamaal (money-minting)," quips Madhurima, when talking about the film. Her debut in Bollywood was the 2000 movie 'Toss'.
Meanwhile, the lead actor of the film, Shreyas Talpade, vouches that the film bears Priyadarshan's trademark style. "It's a complete family entertainer. Like Priyan sir's previous films, this one also has his trademark style of comedy — a nice, clean family entertainer," the 31-year-old explains.
Shreyas further adds that this Ganesha Habba, he will pray to lord Ganesha for the film's success. Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal, releasing on September 28, also features Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Shakti Kapoor and Asrani.
Plenty of work for Prabhu
Prabhu Deva has made sure that he is going to settle down in Bollywood for good. After making a super hit like 'Wanted' with Salman Khan, the choreographer-turned-director resurrected Akshay Kumar's action avatar with 'Rowdy Rathore'.
And now, having been paid a huge sum of money to direct Ramesh Taurani's son Girish Kumar, Prabhu Deva is spending a lot of energy on the same.
Once done with launching the producer's kid, Prabhu will move on to the Shahid Kapoor-Sonakshi Sinha starrer Namak.
Come 2013, and Prabhu Deva will have yet another film with Ajay Devgan, followed by Ramesh Taurani's big film with Salman Khan.
And as if that wasn't enough, Prabhu Deva has now signed up to direct a film for Reliance Entertainment.This director is obviously on a roll.