Kabhi Kabhi Aisa Bhi Hota Hai
Producer-director Mehul Kumar launched his film Kabhi Kabhi Aisa Bhi Hota Hai on December 25 without any fanfare at Filmistan Studios. Mrs. Roshan Mehul Kumar performed the pooja, Mehul’s daughter Shamim broke the auspicious coconut and Jayantilal Gada of Pen, switched on the camera and Mehul Kumar sounded the clap. The muhurat was immediately followed by a song-dance number on a set depicting a restaurant designed by art director Liladhar Sawant. Shweta Shetty, who makes a guest appearance, specially came from Germany, to participate in the dance number being picturised on herself, Siddharth, Puru Raaj Kumar, Ghanshyam Nayak and dancers.

Choreographer Ganesh Acharya is also particiating as a musician. Some action scenes will also be picturised in this schedule which concluded on January 1. The film stars Nana Patekar, Mahima Chaudhary. One more lead man is being finalised. Being made under the banner by MK Pictures, the film has screenplay and dialogue by Dilip Shukla, music by Anand Raaj Anand, lyrics by Dev Kohli, cinematography by Mazhar Kamran, action by Bhiku Verma, editing by Yusuf Sheikh, sound by Jagmohan Anand. Pen presents the film.

Zamaanat shot in Chennai
Producer-director S Rammanathan canned some vital scenes for Raam Raj Kalamandir’s Zamaanat from December 22 to 25 at Vauhini Studios and on locations in Chennai. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Vijaya Shanti, Karisma Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Satyaprakash, Anupam Kher, Tinnu Anand, Shivaji Satam, Sharat Saxena, Baby Sana and Prakash Raj, a recent addition to the cast. The film has story by Om Shree, screenplay by Prayag Raaj and MD Sunder, music by Viju Shah, lyrics by Sameer, action by Vikram Dharma and cinematography by YN Murali. The film is marching towards the last phase of shooting.

Atul, Nikita in Raj Kumar Kohli’s film
Producer-director Raj Kumar Kohli has signed Atul Agnihotri to make a friendly appearance and has added newfind Nikita to the cast of Shankar Movies’ Prod. No.25. They participated in a week-long shooting spell which concluded on December 22 at Film City and various other locales of Mumbai wherein action director Tinu Verma picturised many thrilling action scenes. Some dramatic and other important scenes were also canned. Sharad Kapoor, Dinesh Hingoo and Munish Kohli also participated in the spell. The film also stars Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Arshad Bedi, Siddharth, Payal, newfind Kiran Rathod, Raju Mawani and Raj Babbar. Sonu Nigam also play one of the romantic leads. Based on a story by Aatish, the film has dialogue by KK Singh, cinematography by Thomas Xavier, art by Sunil Singh, sound by JP Saigal, lyrics by Sameer and music by Anand-Milind. It’s Nishi’s presentation.

Sanjeev Duggal signed for Pyaasa
Producer Ramesh Sharma and director A Muthu have signed Sanjeev Duggal to write the screenplay for their Triple Aar Movies’ Pyaasa. The film introduces Miss World ’99, Yukta Mookhey opposite Aftab Shivdasani and newfind Sayed Zulfi. Also starring Govind Namdeo, Anang Desai, Sanjay Narvekar, Smita Jaykar, Arif Zakaria, Mukesh Tiwari and Akhilendra Mishra, the film has story by Ikram Akhtar, cinematography by Harmeet Singh, action by Bhiku Verma, art by Gayatri Marwah, sound by Jagmohan Anand, lyrics by Faaiz Anwar and music by Sanjeev-Darshan. It mounted the sets on January 3 with a 25-day non-stop marathon shooting spell in Kulu-Manali.

Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage
HriThik Roshan, Ameesha Patel and Mukesh Tiwari alongwith director Vikram Bhatt, choreographer Ganesh Hegde, action director Abbas, 12 stuntmen and the technical crew of Mohan Kumar’s Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage are in Sydney and Canberra in Australia for a 20-day marathon shooting schedule, commencing from January 1. During the schedule, two songs (on the lead pair), action and other scenes are being filmed. In addition to this, producer Rohit Kumar has also hired the services of an English stunt-director for the climax. Earlier, music director Rajesh Roshan recorded another song in the voice of Abhijeet and Alka Yagnik. The film has cinematography by Pravin Bhatt, lyrics by Ibrahim Ashq, story and screenplay by Robin Bhatt and Sanjeev Duggal, dialogues by Girish Dhamija, editing by Amit Saxena and sound by Murari Krishna are the other credits. Being made under the banner of Emkay Films (P) Ltd., the film is presented by Gautam Kumar.

Mitti and Oh Calcutta complete
The entire shooting of Salim’s and Aftab Pictures Pvt. Ltd’s biligual venture Mitti in Hindi and Oh Calcutta in English is now completed after a 25-day marathon stooting schedule at Aarey Milk Colony, Film City, Kamal Amrohi Studios, Madh Island and Mumbai locales as well as on different sets. In this schedule, writer-director Iqbal Durrani picturised the climax portion, fight sequences, song parts and important scenes on the entire starcast. A special song of twelve minutes was also shot in this schedule on the major star cast and on ten different locations including Mahabaleshwar, Calcutta and Mumbai locales. The film stars newfind Firdaus (Bangladeshi star), Sharbani Mukerji, Vastavikta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Ragini, Pramod Moutho, Desirie, Arif Zakaria and Mukesh Tiwari. The film has music by Sajid-Wajid, Ali-Gani and Monty, English dialogue are by Gajaa, lyrics by Mehboob, cinematography by KV Rammana, action by Mehmood Bakshi and editing by Waman Bhosle. HM Ishaque presents the film.

Lal Salaam
The entire dubbing of Manas Communications’ and producer Sanjiv Karam-belkar’s Lal Salaam was completed at BR Dubbing theatre recently. The film is being directed by Ggan Vihari Borate, and is based on the true incident. Except for four songs, the entire talkie portion of the film is complete. It is scheduled for release in April. The film stars Nandita Das, Sharad Kapoor, Makrand Des-hpande, Akhilendra Mishra, Vijay Raj, Rajpal Yadav, Himangini, Lallan Singh and Sayaji Shinde. Written by Arshad Jamal, it has music by Adesh Srivastava, action by Abbas Ali Moghul and cinematography by Debu Deodhar.

Musical launch of Aur Phir EK Din
Star Entertainments Pvt. Ltd.’s musical thriller Aur Phir Ek Din was launched on December 25 with the recording of two songs by music directors Jatin-Lalit at Venus Recording. The songs were penned by Israr Ansari and were rendered by Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan. Being produced by TP Aggarwal, the film is being directed by Akashdeep and stars Jackie Shroff, Chandrachur Singh, Raveena Tandon, Sharad Kapoor, Sheeba, Gulshan Grover, Johnny Lever, Mukesh Tiwari, Bindu, Irfan Khan, Makrand Deshpande, Razzak Khan and Anup-am Kher with newfind Asha Saini. In credits the film has story-screenplay by Rajeev Kaul and Praful Parekh, dialogue by Imtiaz Hussain, cinematography by Surendra M Rao, action by Ravi Dewan, choreography by Saroj Khan, art by Nit-in Desai, editing by Aseem Sinha, sound by Bhaskar and lyrics by Dev Kohli.