Q. Did you have a fallout with Kareena Kapoor?
A. We parted ways on this film for monetary reasons. However, we are still friends. I signed on Preity Zinta because she was the only other person I had in mind when I thought of this film.

Q. What is the significance of not one box-office hit this year?
A. It's a wake-up call for the industry to work on original scripts, and the stars to revaluate their prices because few stars can promise a terrific weekend opening.

Q. This is your third film starting with the letter 'K' ...
A. I was told by a tarot card reader that the letter is lucky for me after I did Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Now I can't get it off my mind and have become extremely superstitious about it.

-Nidhi Taparia Rathi

Scent of a Clan

Salman Khan's dance choreographer character jives to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music and Farah Khan's steps on Nitin Desai's sets ... the run-of-the-mill David Dhawan-starrer? Not quite. It is the script of a new Hollywood film to be shot in India, showcasing Bollywood at its all-singing, all-dancing best. At $10 million (Rs 48 crore), the budget of California-based Hyperion Studio's Marigold may be chump change in the West but is nearly the budget of Bollywood's biggest, Devdas. The hunt for the rest of the cast, including a lead Hollywood actress who flips for Khan, is on.

Jewel in the Crown

Countless roles in Bollywood; the titular corsair in Italy's Sandokan; Gobinda, the villain who battles James Bond in Octopussy; or roles in soaps like The Bold and The Beautiful ... there isn't an Indian to match actor Kabir Bedi's global repertoire. Last seen baiting Bobby Deol in Kranti and Sohail Khan in Maine Dil Tujhko Diya, Bedi next plays the nri dotcom millionaire in tanman.com and conspires against Sunny Deol in The Hero. But the strapping actor with the stereophonic voice says he's finally got a chance to play the role of a lifetime, in mainstream Bollywood at that-Shah Jahan in Akbar Khan's Mughal epic Taj Mahal. In white robes, silver beard and whiskers, he's the picture of a lion in winter, an emperor in spectacular decline.

BOX OFFICE

Tanuja Chandra's melodious Sur hasn't stirred the box office nor has Kundan Shah's Preity Zinta-starrer Dil Hai Tumhaara. But reeling in crowds all over the country, except Mumbai where it hasn't been screened thanks to the Shiv Sena, Shashilal Nair's Ek Chhotisi Love Story has shown how a controversy can turn an average movie into a BO behemoth.