SHORT TAKES

Dancing Deol
Raju Mavani roped in Sunny Deol for the Bhangra rap of Iski Topi Uske Sar, Punjabi Punjabi, and since then Raju just can’t stop raving about the deadly Deol. Sunny exploded the myth that he had two left feet and dazzled the unit with his deft footwork. The number was wrapped up in just six days thanks to Sunny’s new found talent for dancing and his diligent ways. He was there on the sets at 10 a.m. sharp and there were no interruptions to coo into the mobile or have hurried discussions with his assistants. In fact, Sunny would keep the mobile far away from him when he was on the sets and attend to all his calls only during break. Now that’s certainly an object lesson for other actors.

Another perfect role for Dilip Kumar
Working with Dilip Kumar in Qila has been a memorable experience for Umesh Mehra and there’s no way he’s going to let the legend get away from him once the film is wrapped up. In fact, even while working on the post-production, Mehra’s hard at work on a script which will have such a “perfect” role for DK that he won’t be able to say “no” to his next venture.

Cats, dogs and film crews
Leena Chandavarkar is a busy lady these days. She’s leasing out Kishore Kumar’s bungalow, ‘Giri Kunj’ to select film and television units. The crews and assembled cast certainly have livened up the once silent-as-a-mausoleum house. And the ever friendly Leena is always rushing around trying to make life easy for these filmwallahs. Even when she doesn’t have a unit stationed at home, Leena has her hands full supervising interior decoration plans and nursing her 10 dogs and many cats. She’s one person like Maneka Gandhi who has such an extended family of pets. In fact, friends laughingly call her the Mother Teresa of Homeless Animals.

No hitch in schedule
Some weeks ago the buzz around town was that Govinda had returned to his unprofessional ways and that the first truant was cancelling his dates for N Chandra’s Shikari in South Africa because he was committed to a show in Australia. However, when confronted with the rumours, Chandra denied that anything like this had happened. “Govinda was there for every day of the shoot. If he went to Australia after that, it’s not my headache,” Chandra said shortly.

The pardesi babu
He was a telephone operator in the US. And now this Afro-American is one of the stars of Shashilal Nair’s Hum Panchi Ek Daal Ke. Yeah, William Weekes, the man mountain with the baby face is Dagdu, who along with Aishwarya Rai, her brat pack and her doggie, is there in almost every other film. And he’s quickly slipped into his new role with the panache of a born actor. In fact, after all these weeks with the cast and the crew the pardesi babu can even understand Hindi. And when you quiz director Nair about whether he got the idea of using a Goliath as a crowd-pulling gimmick from David Dhawan’s Mr & Mrs Khiladi , you’re told with a dark frown that his film was conceived much earlier and while David Dhawan’s Sumo wrestler was just an item, his Big Man is an integral part of the script.

Manisha's "cleansing" experience
Manisha Koirala recently spent some quality time at Osho’s ashram in Pune. And all the meditation she did there apparently helped her “cleanse her inner-self”. And born again Ms Koirala, like Vinod Khanna and Mahesh Bhatt before her, is an ardent Rajneesh convert today. In fact, she intends to spend many such “cleansing” weeks in Pune. So the next time she’s missing from Mumbai and not on an outdoor for a film shoot, you’ll know where to find her.

Hyderabad calling
Zarina Wahab is another actress who keeps making flying visits. No not to Pune but to Hyderabad. And it isn’t because she’s being courted by a nawab or has a taste for Hyderabadi biryani. The Chit Chor chokri like Tabu is a Hyderabadi girl and despite all the years she’s spent in Mumbai Hyderabad’s still home for her. That’s where her sisters have settled and what’s more, that’s where she can catch up with the latest Telugu flicks.