Kim Sharma, who? The lissome Liril girl, Jugal Hansraj's sweetheart and one-ninth the cast of Mohabbatein, has not been on-camera since Aditya Chopra's last movie, except perhaps for lethal pin-up shots such as this. The film got an emphatic box-office nod, but Sharma? She has a film releasing in April. Not another multi-star blitzkrieg but Tumse Achcha Kaun in which she will (unlike Mohabbatein) hog most of the frames with (thankfully for her) Bollywood nobodys Aarti Chhabaria and Nakul Kapoor. Deepak Anand, the director, has cast her as Bobby Gujral, "an aggressive girl who grabs whatever she likes". Anand has directed some eminently forgettable films like Yaad Karegi Duniya and Humse Badkar Kaun before. So the question: why did Sharma grab an Anand after a Chopra?

Mogambo's Musings

Bollywood villain Amrish Puri is turning 70 this June. Maybe that's why he is penning a memoir Acting is Reacting: Memoirs of Myriad Mogambo (Macmillan). The book will talk of his experiences as an actor, but most importantly, "as a person". It will also include a letter Hollywood director Steven Spielberg sent him after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, hailing him "my best villain yet". Says Puri, whose on-screen trademark is a growl and off-screen, a hat-he has 30 in his closet: "It could be my best release yet." Friends and foes have never known Mogambo so khush.

The D Factor

This year, there will be yet another Deol on the marquee. Sunny, Bobby, Esha and now—hear of star-nephews—Abhay Deol, Dharmendra's 25-year-old nephew. After what he did for kid-bro' Bobby, Sunny is launching Abhay in his next production Socha Na Tha opposite Mumbai model Dipannita Sharma and Phalguni Pathak music video regular Ayesha Takia. But the family's newest celluloid recruit, who has studied acting at the Pasadena City College in Los Angeles, is Mr Politically Correct, trying hard to keep the excitement down. "As a Deol, it's easier to get work," he shrugs. "But I don't want to take things for granted." Esha Deol's no-show must have had something to do with such apprehensions.

Rare Encomiums

Look who's talking Tagore. When Anushila Basu first heard father Somnath Chatterjee, CPI (M) MP from West Bengal, recite a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, she was floored. Last week, she got him to collaborate Je Accho Antare (You Who Reside Within), an album of Tagore songs, with her. As Basu sings, Chatterjee interjects with reflections on the bard. "Tagore's influence is in our thoughts, literature, culture, joys and fears," goes one effusive line. "We live with Tagore, we'll die with him," goes another. Chatterjee, who has been an MP from Bolpur, which includes Santiniketan, for 17 years, never met Tagore. Yet last year, he built an auditorium and cultural centre christened Geetanjali. But weren't communists supposed to be not-too-favourably disposed towards Tagore? Je Accho... could be an eye-opener.

-Compiled by Methil Renuka