Bollywood’s baby doll, Diya Mirza is playing judge in Disney’s Little Princess Hunt. Diya says, “I have always had an attachment with children. My shooting schedule is not so hectic at present, so I thought I could well do this.”
2006 has not been a very good year for Diya. Her movies, ‘Parineeta’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ tasted success, but Dia hardly got recognition from them. But Diya holds a positive attitude. She says, “I feel every passing year is a setting stone for the next year. Whatever I did in 2006 adds value to 2007”.

Rajpal Yadav can be tagged as one of the best comedy actors of Bollywood, but Rajpal has incredible talents up his sleeves. Soon coming is his movie ‘Under Trial’ where he is in a negative role. Rajpal is very excited about the role. He says, “A change is desired by everyone and I have always tried to do something different, be it ‘Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chhahti Hoon’ or ‘Main Meri Patni Aur Woh’. This is also a very different movie. The entire movie starts in the jail and ends in the jail”.

The movie is a portrayal of the life of Sagar Hussain (Rajpal Yadav), who is a under-trial prisoner at the central jail. He is ‘accused’ of raping his daughters continuously for eight years, and also, for conspiring to murder them.

Yesterday, Bolly queen Aishwarya took blessings at Khwaja Muinuddin Hassan Chisti’s Dargah and at the Brahma’s temple in Pushkar. Ash had been at Jaipur for shooting. At around 9:00 a.m. in the morning, she secretly arrived at Ajmer and wore a Black Burka to avoid recognition. Like an ordinary devotee, she went to the Majaar amidst much pushing and shoving. She had her mother and a few friends with her. She offered ‘Chadar’ and flowers at the Mazaar and then went to Pushkar to offer her prayers at the Brahma temple. Hearing the news of her arrival at Pushkar, a huge crowd gathered outside the temple and Ash had much difficulty reaching her car. For us to guess……. What blessings did Ash want? Was it Abhishek’s love?

Bollywood’s emerging talent Kangana Ranaut has made a premature New Year resolution that she will never waer a saree. “I wore the apparel for the first time in my life for Emran Hasmi’s wedding reception. And I could have died of suffocation! I couldn’t move. I was repeatedly tripping over my face, trying to balance on my feet and taking mincing steps. Never again! Even if it means being unpatriotic, I won’t even ear a saree for any of my films,” says Kangana. The saree was a last minute brain wave.

“My designer has been extra- busy these days, what with all the awards functions for which exclusive designs have to be created. When I decided to go for Emraan’s reception, at the last minute my designer decided to deck me up in a saree. It was the biggest mistake of my life.”

She is one pretty lass. However, ask actress Celina Jaitley if she will ever take the help of botox or plastic surgery to look ‘forever-young’ and compete with younger actress who may enter the filmi world a few years down the line, and she says, “I don’t know. Right now, I am myself very young, and botox and plastic surgery is the last thing on my mind. In order to look young, fresh fruits and good food is the only way.” Now that’s your beauty-tip for the day!

Mallika Sherawat will welcome her new year by a hot and sizzling performance in a hotel in Mumbai, and she will not be alone. To add to the glamour, there will be twelve more Australian dancers with her who have been specially invited for this. Inside sources say, that Mallika has charged Rs.75 lakhs for the show. When the start is bashing, the oncoming year seems to be very promising for this Haryana girl.

Though ‘Don’ added a hit to Isha Koppikar’s list but she had nothing much to do in the movie except sip Martini. Now, there are some promising roles for her where she gets to show her acting genre. She plays a housewife in ‘Darling’ and the non-glamorous role of Shabri in ‘Factory’. After the glamour girl of ‘Don’, we are eager to see Isha in these diverse roles.

At the music release of his latest album Shut Up And Dance, Biddu was in for a rude shock. Riya sen, the leading lady in the video, ditched them at last minute and didn’t turn up at the event. Riya sen was supposed to come and release the album. The organisers and media kept on waiting for her to come and do the honours but to no avail. However, when two hours passed and the actress showed no signs of arriving, they went ahead and released the music themselves. Sameer Hans who’s paired opposite Riya in the video says, “I can’t comment on what happened and why she didn’t come. We did wait for her but I am nit aware of anything else as I have not spoken to her”.

Actress Vidya Balan hasn’t escaped the linking game. But ask her about her ideas on getting hooked to man, and she says, “I am very committed person so i would probably wait if I really love the man, but only if I knew there was some hope of getting together.” In comparison to her Printneeta character, Lolita, Balan continues, “We both are very commited and emotional, but Vidya is also practical.” Now, that’s more like the new age heroine.

Bollywood has not had it so big in quite sometime. As cricket took a bit of a back seat in year 2006, the front seats got filled up again at the cinemas. The year definitely belonged to the familiar and the fearless ‘n’ the audiences were happy to return to the known faces-‘Munna and Circuit’, ‘Jai and Ali’, ‘Don and Roma’, ‘Raju, Shyam and Babubhai’. Let us take a look at the much talked about movies of the year:

* Lage Raho Munnabhai

Director-Rajkumar Hirani

Cast-Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Varsi, Vidya Balan, Boman Irani

Boman Irani says, “It makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it makes you ready to conquer the world.”

* Dhoom 2

Director-Sanjay Gandhvi

Cast-Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Bipasha basu, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra

Sanjay Gandhvi says, “Full entertainment has been the motto for the Dhoom films. It should be paisa vasool. This is no pathbreaking cinema, just straightforward storytelling with lots of masala.”

* Krrish

Director-Rakesh Roshan

Cast-Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Rekha, Naseeruddin Shah

Hrithik Roshan says, “The genre of superhero movies did not exist in India and so it was more important that the first one was convincingly portrayed.”

* Phir Hera Pheri

Director-Neeraj Vora

Cast-Akshay Kumar, Paresh rawal, Suniel Shetty, Bipasha Basu, Rimi Sen

Neeraj Vora says, “I knew people wouldn’t accept one less than the first film. But I gave them two bit better. This was an extraordinarily entertaining film.”

* Don -The chase begins again

Director-Farhan Akhtar

Cast-Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani

Farhan Akhtar says, “The old Don lent itself to being easily adapted and contemporarised for today’s sensibility and audience.”

* Umrao Jaan

Director-J.P.Dutta

Cast-Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Suniel Shetty

They have nothing to say. We say, “What a movie Yaar! Laga teen ghanta nahin, teen din beet gaye!”

Deepal shaw has already made a name for herself, inspite of coming from a non-filmi family, and Deepal shaw is convinced she will go much further. And this is all due to her talent and attitude. Her motto in life? “I will change the world and will work for it till the end of my life,” says the girl. As for her success, here’s her secret: “I don’t look what i am and that works for me even more,” reveals Deepal. No wonder she’s slowly converting the audience into her fans one by one!

The Big B continues to be the flavour of the season. And when the man himself is not in the film, it is his name which holds up the flame. Amal Neerad- The cinematographer for Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’, ‘James’ and ‘Shiva’- is now directing a film called ‘Big B’ in Malyalam for producer Naushad. Mammootty will play the title role, that of a bodyguard who returns to Kerala after a long stay in Mumbai.