Bollywood Buzz - January 28

Kathak king Birju Maharaj is teaching Madhuri Dixit to dance. The veteran dance maestro started teaching Madhuri Dixit a few steps for her role as Chandramukhi in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas.

Bhansali has hired Birju Maharaj to choreograph Madhuri's bits in the film and the perfectionist that Bhansali is, wanted the best. Hence, he hired Birju Maharaj to set the steps of the song filmed on Madhuri Dixit who plays courtesan Chandramukhi.

All of Dixit's co-dancers are young girls who are being trained by Birju and have been specially flown down from Delhi. Bhansali is paying for their trips which is huge as the girls are also appearing for their college exams in Delhi and hence the trips will be more than one. Madhuri had earlier attended Birju Maharaj's workshops in the U.S.

The Chopra inspiration

If you guys are not aware, Uday Chopra's role in Mohabbatein, in terms of the characterisation and the feel of the character, was the same to what Yash Chopra had written for Rishi Kapoor in Kabhi Kabhi. And when Rishi Kapoor saw Uday Chopra in Mohabbatein, he was quite happy that the young lad had done justice to the role in his debut venture. So Rishi Kapoor sent a bouquet with a note saying, "Good show."

Young Chopra was floored. He could not believe that the man whom he had adored so much could be happy with his work. Uday has not got over the episode as yet. Last seen, he was still moving all over town with some flowers.

No home improvement

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh are back together. Perhaps, not in real life though. The Kapoors were not on very friendly terms, but Neetu and Rishi Kapoor have been offered a fabulous sum to act in the Indian version of Tim Allen's popular sitcom Home Improvement. The comedy serial based on Tim Allen's famed stand-up comedy shows, is all about bringing up kids, hilarious situations, family problems and the bizarre situations Allen finds himself in.

But more than anything else Rishi and Neetu need to do some improvement about their home. Maybe, a few good episodes could get them back on track. The Kapoors were offered serials earlier too but Rishi was busy. But now it is time to make big money.

Chopra signs on Madhwani

Do you know Ram Madhwani? You don't? Well he is one of India's leading ad filmmakers with innumerable ad films under his belt. Vidhu Vinod Chopra has also done many ads and thus knows Madhwani.

This time Chopra has signed on Madhwani to direct a feature film. This one titled Din, Raat Aur Subah is about the story of a man and a woman and which which lasts for 24 hours. Designed more as a thriller, the movie has the couple meeting in the morning and the woman is dead by night. Then comes the climax. Chopra is directing another film called Shatranj.

Raj Kapoor to remake Vaastav

Raj Kapoor is all set to remake Vaastav in Tamil. Very few Hindi films are remade into South Indian languages. Usually, Hindi filmmakers are short of ideas and also find their scriptwriters to be too silly, hence they borrow subjects from the south. But it is rarely the other way around.

Amitabh Bachchan's films were remade into Tamil with Rajnikanth, but Bachchan has been Bachchan. Now in the case of Mahesh Manjrekar's film Vaastav, which got Sanjay Dutt the first Filmfare award of his life, the guys from south have been impressed. The film is being remade in Tamil with Vikram as the hero and will be directed by the Raj Kapoor of the south. Raj Kapoor, if you arenot already aware, is a maker from the south.

Slip between the cup and Dilip

And now it is the autobiography of Dilip Kumar. Yes, Yusuf Khan is writing his memoirs now. The thespian, who has great films to his credit like Naya Daur, Mughal-E-Azam, Shakti, Ganga Jamuna and many more, has started work on his book. He basically records all the cassettes and they are then sent for transcribing.

The matter is then edited and brought to him for a look. Dilip Kumar then looks at them and deletes unnecessary and too controversial stuff and sends it for composing.

For those who know the charisma of this actor, the book is a long-awaited one. Kumar who has always been forthcoming in his views may well tell certain stories that could rattle Bollywood.

Where have the wives gone?

Why do all the guys in the industry suddenly grow over-possessive of their spouse? Kajol is hardly seen in any of the movies other than her hubby's productions. Juhi too had disappeared from the scene for quite some time, courtesy Jai Mehta. Recently, Akshay Kumar joined the list.

Akshay, who did not seem to be very pleased to see Twinkle wear any of those revealing costumes in Jodi No. 1, apparently also fired her for wearing one such dress at a recent party. Twinkle, like every adarsh Indian woman should, obeyed. Hmm!, no doubt she was in a sari the other day!

Khan't find 'em!