Eye Catchers

India Today
May 18, 1998

Cool, Huh?

Leonardo DiCaprio is "cool". Ditto for Shah Rukh Khan. And Amitabh Bachchan? Well ... "he wasn't the hero when I was born". So it's no big deal for Pia Zarana Sodhi -- 11-year-old daughter of actress Nafisa Ali -- that in director Tinnu Anand's next film, she's been cast opposite the Big B. The li'l lady will be playing a kid who befriends a convict. "I knew she would be ideal," says Anand. "It's her face. She is very vulnerable. She's prettier than Nafisa." Prettier still her response to that compliment: "No way. I'm not prettier than my Mom." And Mom? "She's not too good-looking either." Cool. Pretty cool.

(W)rapped in Ram

Satpal Rana Free Satpal Ram, says the song. the recent release by British Asian rappers, Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) decries UK's legal system that put Ram behind bars for killing a white man, allegedly an armed racist. Other Asian groups did remixes. But demands for Ram's freedom -- after 11 years in prison -- reached a crescendo last month when British band Primal Scream performed their own remix. Says Aniruddh Das of ADF, the guys who started it all: "People say politics and music don't mix. I believe they do as Satpal has had more attention in the past six months than in the past 10 years." No freedom, that's all.

His Match

Sanath Jayasuriya's with Sumudu Karunanayake The hurricane hitter's a cautious guy. So Sumudu Karunanayake, 23, Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya's bride, was spotted by a friend, approved by his parents, and endorsed by the family astrologer. The two were seeing each other for some months before their wedding last week. Now the inevitable question. Did she say yes because she liked his game? Comes the reply: "Only now I am taking some interest in cricket." And more than just "some interest" in Sanath.

Shanti, Shanti...

Papa-razzi to privacy was some change for Kate Winslet, on her India yatra last fortnight. Here she is, one with the universe, courtesy yoga lessons in Jaipur from her hostess Daya Vyas, a retired economics teacher. "An extremely nice girl," was the guru's verdict on her shishya. So Kate really was here.