Actresses going the 'item' way
There was a time when being seen doing an item song was not considered classy by movie stars. It was prominent in the list of things to be avoided. Now, however, actresses measure their worth by the number of item songs they have on hand.
If Guru Dutt put an item song in Pyaasa to cock a snook at distributors, the film-makers of today — even the biggest of them — want to take that path to market their films.
And now, there are a host of leading ladies — not just your Aruna Iranis or Helens or Rakhi Sawants — who are willing to show some skin. Once the outsider, Katrina Kaif, for instance, is now counted among the top three actresses in the industry thanks to her item songs.
The fifteen-day rehearsal that she did for Agneepath ensured that she sizzled in Chikni Chameli and for Tees Maar Khan's Sheila Ki Jawani. Aishwarya Rai also needed an 'item' push with Kajra Re in Bunty Aur Babli. Following that, she got films like Dhoom 2, Jodhaa Akbar and Guzaarish and rave reviews for her other projects like Raavan, Enthiran
and Guru.
Maharaja Features
A daring scene to shoot
Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh and Rajkumar of Abhishek Kapoor's next flick, Kai Po Che! recently proved to be daredevils — the boys, who play lead roles in the movie, jumped off a 60-foot fort straight into the sea. Apparently, this was for a shot that wasn't initially part of the film.
Manish Hariprasad, creative director, Studios Disney UTV, says, "The jump was never planned, but when Abhishek Kapoor reached the Diu Fort, he was mesmerised by the sea. He came up with the idea of getting the actors into the water. So, we made the arrangements to shoot the scene the very next day."
The boys performed the stunt without any equipment and the scene was supervised by Parvez Sheikh.
Ask him about this and he says, "Abhishek Kapoor wanted the scene to look real, so using body doubles was out of the question. There was a tremendous risk involved. We had to wait for the high tide as there were boulders around the fort and doing this stunt, while the tide was out, was too dangerous and could have been life threatening."
Parvez points out that the boys were made to go through the drill to make sure that they knew their exact landing position and from where they would have to take the jump. The scene has turned out to be visually spectacular.
'I am not a regular hero'
After spending about two decades in the industry as a choreographer, dancer and director Prabhu Deva says that he felt like a beginner of on the sets of upcoming film 'ABCD — Anybody Can Dance'.
The 39-year-old is returning to acting with the Remo D'Souza-directed film after his stint as a successful film-maker in the industry.
He was last seen playing a full-fledged role in Sapnay (1997) opposite Kajol.
"I felt like a newcomer on the sets after sharing screen space with young talents. I am not a regular hero. It was a good experience working with them because I was learning small steps from my co-stars. I didn't face any problem because Remo guided me well. I took up the project because of him," Prabhu Deva confesses.
The high-octane dance film is being produced by UTV and stars former Dance India Dance participants Salman, Dharmesh, Prince, Mayuresh and Vrushali.
It will hit theatres on February 2013.
The only thing that concerned Prabhu Deva was his inability to speak Hindi.
But he took it up as a challenge and delivered his dialogues himself, without taking the help of a dubbing artiste.
"Delivering my dialogues in Hindi was a test for me. My director gave me the dialogues and I used to sit in my caravan and memorise them. I worked hard to get the correct emotion associated with my dialogues and rest of the things were taken care of by Remo," he recalls.