Tired of hearing them called Fogeys (Friends of Gujral)? Try Pops (Pals of the PM). Or Bobbs (Buddies of the Big Boss). Sceptics insist they have a heavy presence on this week's list of Rajya Sabha nominees. Like journalist Kuldip Nayar who, of course, disagrees. "I've talked about important issues for long," he says, "I should've been there long ago." But junk the political gossip, there are other things these people have in common. Like their left-of-centre leanings and a desire to make a difference. Says filmmaker Mrinal Sen: "It will give me a chance to discuss cinema-related issues." While cerebral actress/jhuggi-jhopri activist Shabana Azmi is away in New York, her proud hubby, Javed Akhtar, preens: "These are people who will make their presence felt." They already have.

Simply Suchitra

You've heard of a Jack of all trades. Now meet Jill. Suchitra Pillai, 26, may be best known as a Channel V veejay (in Simply South and Eveready Red Alert) but she has also modelled, featured in music videos, acted in plays and a film. Make that two films. The latest latest from the house of Pillai is an English feature film (the earlier one was French), Guru in Seven, that was premiered in London in August and is going to the Edinburgh Film Festival in November. So far so good. Now for the hot stuff. "The film is really, really explicit. I'm sure the older people who saw it took quite a turn. I did," says Pillai (seen here with co-star Nitin Ganatra). But hold on ... before you dart off to call the video libraries ... our girl has no part in the nudity. "I wasn't even asked to," she says. Did she wonder why? "Well, yes, initially," being singled out to play the "chaste" character did strike her as odd. Doesn't surprise us, though. She's got that look, you know.

Cross Connections

Homosexuality? Most Indians would be uncomfortable discussing it, but Mahesh Dattani? Not he. The 39-year-old Bangalore playwright has just premiered his latest work, Do the Needful, commissioned by BBC Radio 4. It's a 60-minute saga on the marginalisation of gays, and as if that were not enough sensitivity from one man, there's more coming up: Night Queen, a short play -- again on gays -- for The Telegraph of Calcutta. Raised eyebrows don't deter Dattani. "All my plays are about marginalised sections of society," he declares. "Final Solutions looked at the Hindu-Muslim divide. Tara was about the girl child. Do the Needful is just an extension of that thinking." A man with a mission, is he? Just doing the needful, that's all.

O Mother! It's A Laugh

Motherhood will never be the same again. At least not in Bollywood. Rekha, yes Rekha, is getting maternal in her middle age, and what a hep amma she makes. The lady whose Rule No. 1 has always been saare niyam tod do (break all the rules), is starring in Mother directed by Sawan Kumar Tak (Souten) and co-starring the 30-plus Jeetendra, Rakesh Roshan -- the star who might have been -- and Randhir Kapoor, the actor who never was. The three musketeers are the Lady Re's ex-boyfriends who show up in Mauritius after 25 years with wives and children in tow. "The movie's one big laugh," says Tak. But what's the game behind the matriarchal name? Says an insider: "It's called Mother because Rekha teen ke saath flirt karti hai aur pregnant ho jati hai (Rekha flirts with the three and gets pregnant)." Looks like she just todofied every niyam in the book.

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