Despite the scowl and those unkind Ann Robinson innuendos on prime time (Kamzor Kadi Kaun), Neena Gupta is not TV's Most Hated, yet. Gupta, who has not breathed easy since Saans, is on to more eclectic cinematic pursuits. Using the confidence gained from evening television, she's directing her first film, a biopic called Draupadi, produced by Pantaloon Films (makers of trousers and Hrithik Roshan's Na Tum Jaano Na Hum, which also stars Esha Deol). Draupadi is based on the eponymous Oriya novel written by Pratibha Ray. Nothing's finalised yet but strong rumours are that Madhuri Dixit will play Draupadi. That's one candidate Gupta can't ask to leave the room.

For The Record

The things people do to move the guys at Guinness. At Delhi's Andhra Bhavan last week, Akchinthala Sheshu Babu, 31, stood statue-still as Mahatma Gandhi for a full 35 hours, to beat Allahabad's Om Prakash Singh's 20 hours-plus record in the Guinness Book of Records. Babu, who did not eat, sleep, or even wink, already has an entry in the Limca Book of Records this year. His first "performance" was in Vijayawada in 1993 when he stood still for four-and-a-half hours. "It's like yoga," says Babu, a stenographer at Honda Siel. "You just learn to meditate." But why Gandhi? "I want to do something for my country." Beauty queens. Guinness aspirants. Same thing.

Praises All

She may not be the centre of the Bollywood universe but Sushmita Sen sure has a genius for fun. Even Aishwarya Rai has become scarce. Not so Sen. Despite a dozen or so films, most of them box-office duds, she's still beaming and staging special appearances. The offers haven't stopped coming either. There's Vishal Bharadwaj's Barf and Farah Khan's film with Shah Rukh Khan. Currently teaching blind men to rob a bank in the crime caper Aankhen, Sen was in the news lately for doing a Moulin Rouge number (left) at the India International Film Awards in Malaysia. Says Filhal director Meghna Gulzar: "Whether a film succeeds or not, Sen gets noticed. We haven't seen even a fraction of her talent yet." Sen?

When in Afghanistan...

Here's a story behind a story. There's a reason why Barry Bearak, co-bureau chief of The New York Times in Delhi and this year's Pulitzer prize winner for international reporting, sports a beard. Says a close friend and colleague in Delhi: "He grew a beard to visit an Afghan prison for a story during the Taliban regime. He liked it so much, he kept it." The $7,500 award announced last week came Bearak's way for his "deeply affecting and illuminating coverage of daily life in war-torn Afghanistan". In Delhi since 1998, the Illinois-bred Bearak, 53, shares the job with his wife Celia Dugger, the other co-bureau chief. Bearak, who has left his notepad behind at his Prithviraj Road home in Delhi, is at the moment collecting reams of praise in New York.

-Compiled by Methil Renuka