Women's wrestling in America, which has always been proclaimed by organisers as a straightforward triumph of sinew over smut, now brings to India the 5 ft, 5 in powerhouse Lisa Moretti, a.k.a. Ivory, a three-time world champion whose favourite reiteration is, "I am a real woman". The 40-year-old was a student of public relations, a cheerleader and a Hollywood stunt woman before she got her first break ... most likely of her opponent's femur. Now she's already a huge draw in India, and according to a Ten Sports survey, about 30 per cent of WWE fans are women. The tickets, hopefully, will carry a warning not to try the stunts at home.

The Winner-ji

Raghu Mukherjee, 21, won the Grasim Mr International contest held in Delhi last week, but not before faint noises of favouritism threatened to cloud the choice, not so much of the winner, but of emcee Ruby Bhatia. The Bangalore lad, showing a sharp, six-pack body and the promise of Kannadiga stardom, convincingly defended the win saying that most of the judges were not from India and that he had topped the prejudging sessions. But the presence of Bhatia, whose exuberance overtakes her intelligence with terrifying regularity, was difficult to explain. Perhaps it had something to do with the sight of sun-kissed bodies glistening in the halogen-mixed moonlight that made her address one of the contestants as "Mr Polandji". The next event will be held abroad.

Travelling On

After becoming Miss Tourism World 2001, Payal Rohatgi became the cynosure of her panting co-stars in the American Pie inspired Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai. "I called my mom and told her what to expect," she says. She'll be calling her again-but for none other than Merchant Ivory's Refuge where she plays a Bollywood actress at the mercy of smarmy producer Dalip Tahil. And though this is just a sub-plot in a film that also stars Philip Taylor and Madeline Porter, she managed a full 20 minutes screen time. Was it the outfit?

Back in Harness

Emerging out of a year-long quasi hiber-nation that was mostly about drawing cola bottles from a well in front of girls who spoke Mayfair Punjabi, Aamir Khan is playing Mangal Pandey in Ketan Mehta's Indo-British co-production 1857-The Uprising. The mutinying sepoy, who fired the first shot of the uprising, has never been seen on screen and the shooting starts next year for a 2004 release. "Aamir is an intelligent actor and can play a folk hero and a historical hero at the same time," says Mehta. So the moustache can remain.

-Compiled by Anshul Avijit

Women's wrestling in America, which has always been proclaimed by organisers as a straightforward triumph of sinew over smut, now brings to India the 5 ft, 5 in powerhouse Lisa Moretti, a.k.a. Ivory, a three-time world champion whose favourite reiteration is, "I am a real woman". The 40-year-old was a student of public relations, a cheerleader and a Hollywood stunt woman before she got her first break ... most likely of her opponent's femur. Now she's already a huge draw in India, and according to a Ten Sports survey, about 30 per cent of WWE fans are women. The tickets, hopefully, will carry a warning not to try the stunts at home.

The Winner-ji

Raghu Mukherjee, 21, won the Grasim Mr International contest held in Delhi last week, but not before faint noises of favouritism threatened to cloud the choice, not so much of the winner, but of emcee Ruby Bhatia. The Bangalore lad, showing a sharp, six-pack body and the promise of Kannadiga stardom, convincingly defended the win saying that most of the judges were not from India and that he had topped the prejudging sessions. But the presence of Bhatia, whose exuberance overtakes her intelligence with terrifying regularity, was difficult to explain. Perhaps it had something to do with the sight of sun-kissed bodies glistening in the halogen-mixed moonlight that made her address one of the contestants as "Mr Polandji". The next event will be held abroad.

Travelling On

After becoming Miss Tourism World 2001, Payal Rohatgi became the cynosure of her panting co-stars in the American Pie inspired Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai. "I called my mom and told her what to expect," she says. She'll be calling her again-but for none other than Merchant Ivory's Refuge where she plays a Bollywood actress at the mercy of smarmy producer Dalip Tahil. And though this is just a sub-plot in a film that also stars Philip Taylor and Madeline Porter, she managed a full 20 minutes screen time. Was it the outfit?

Back in Harness

Emerging out of a year-long quasi hiber-nation that was mostly about drawing cola bottles from a well in front of girls who spoke Mayfair Punjabi, Aamir Khan is playing Mangal Pandey in Ketan Mehta's Indo-British co-production 1857-The Uprising. The mutinying sepoy, who fired the first shot of the uprising, has never been seen on screen and the shooting starts next year for a 2004 release. "Aamir is an intelligent actor and can play a folk hero and a historical hero at the same time," says Mehta. So the moustache can remain.

-Compiled by Anshul Avijit