SHORT TAKES

SPEECHLESS!
She’s a true pro, is Jaya Prada. When we caught up with the mesmerising MP the other day we found her speechless. After several rousing speeches while on the campaign trail, Jaya had all but lost her voice. What was worse was that she was racked by a sniffing cold and a hacking cough but that didn’t prevent the lady from switching on a power-packed performance every time her director demanded it.

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CHANGES
Talk about Satya and Urmila Matondkar throws up her hands in mock surrender. “Look if you’re going to talk about all the changes which were worked into the project after I joined the cast let me tell you that nothing’s changed because of my entry. We’re still going by the director, Ram Gopal Varma’s original concept. If we’ve added any songs it is because Ramu wanted that and not because I’m in the film,” the Rangeela girl says firmly. Satya’s through and now Ramu’s signed Urmila for his next.

THREE TIMES UNLUCKY
Rani Mukerji is a lady in the news... and for all the wrong reasons. She’s just lost three prestigious projects — Mansoor Khan’s Josh, Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se and Mehul Kumar’s Kohraam. Rani insists that she opted out of all these films for different reasons and without any ill-will. “I left Josh because my role wasn’t shaping up well and Mansoor told me very frankly that there really wasn’t much for me to do,” Rani informs. She then goes on to explain that she had never been signed for Kohraam but for another Mehul Kumar film, Aye Watan Tere Liye. And no, Kohraam isn’t the same film with a different title. “Even the star cast is different,” she points out, “so I was surprised my name was there in the credits of Kohraam. With Amitabh Bachchan, Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Jaya Prada and Tabu around there won’t be any scope for me, I realised. Even Mehulji admitted that I wasn’t too off tangent and so we parted ways, amicably.” She lost Dil Se because she couldn’t fly down to Delhi immediately as required because she had a schedule of Salim Akhtar’s Mehndi in Jaipur. “I could not leave Mehndi half-way through, could I?” she argues. “And though I tried my best I could not adjust my dates. I was really disappointed to lose out on such a good offer” At the moment, Rani has three films on hand— Vikram Bhatt’s Ghulam with Aamir Khan, Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with Shah Rukh Khan and Salim’s Mehndi with Faraaz Khan. “I am very happy with my roles in these films and I hope I’ll get many more such good roles which will help me make an impact.”

NO PASSION FOR POLITICS
Not too many in Mumbai would have heard of Shatabdi Roy. But in Bengal the lady’s a rage. She’s the reigning superstar of Bangla cinema and with Bappi Lahiri’s Love Story ’98 she’s hoping to find her way into Hindi films too. Interestingly, despite being a red-blooded Bengali, Ms Roy doesn’t share the community’s passion for politics. The election fever seemed to have left her virtually untouched. In fact, Shatabdi confessed that she might not even cast her vote. “What’s the use,” she sighed dispiritedly. “I’m sure there’ll be fresh elections again next year. They’ve become like the Durga Poojas. An annual event.”

MIND-BOGGLING
Rani’s loss is Preity Zinta’s gain. She’s grabbed Rani’s role in Dil Se and though she cannot divulge any details about the hush-hush project, she insists that it is a “mind-boggling” role, something no heroine has performed in a Hindi film before. She’s just wrapped up a long schedule in Delhi and asserts that working with Mani Ratnam was a “memorable experience”. Preity has other “mind-boggling” roles like in Abbas-Mustan’s Soldier with Bobby Deol, Kundan Shah’s Kya Yahi Pyar Hai with Saif Ali Khan and Chandrachur Singh and Guddu Dhanoa’s Farz with Sunny Deol.

LOSE ONE, WIN ONE
Ayesha Jhulka has been accused of being unprofessional by the producer of Hadh. He insists that he was so fed up of Ayesha’s starry ways that he was forced to replace her. But Ayesha insists that the only trouble cropped up because the man just wouldn’t pay up. “Even though I had been generous with the dates and had completed a long schedule. And after that he decided it was pack-up for me so he could save on the remaining instalments,” she says angrily. However, all’s well that end’s well. Ayesha lost Hadh but landed Mehul Kumar’s Kohraam. “And that’s a bigger and more prestigious film,” she points out.

MUM’S THE WORD
She’s left her wild days behind and settled down to being a good mama to her little baba. And though this bonny baby is only her first child, Pooja’s become quite an expert on the subject of motherhood and has even written a book about post-natal care. And she’s also taken care to shed all those extra kilos pronto so she could slip into the Versace suit her hubby gifted her with. Today she’s looking svelte, sexy and very Madonna like as you can see from the picture. Way to go, Pooja!