The Lagaan-fallout continues. as a tribute to the Indian XI, actor Suneil Shetty has pulled out the song Humko to poora hai yakein from his and Raveena Tandon's film Stumped and dedicated the video to the "spirit of cricket". "New Zealand was not good, but they will live up to expectations," says Shetty, a cricket buff. The team needs help, but it is unclear if the presence of lookers like Bipasha Basu, Shweta Menon and Co in the video will be inspiring or distracting.

A Suite for Sir Vidia

Never mind literary history, V.S. Naipaul now creates hospitality history. With Maurya Sheraton in Delhi renaming a suite after him, Sir Vidia becomes the first contemporary luminary of Indian origin to have a suite in his honour. The suite-done up in ochre and blue-has all the Naipaul nuances: his Nobel citation, hat, pipe and complete works. "If you can't have a great writer permanently in residence, you can at least have a permanent residence for a great writer," gushes Maurya gm Gautam Anand. But be sure some travellers-a certain Paul Theroux for one-will not pop in for a stay.

Court Craft

New Zealand may cloud the Indian sporting horizons at the moment, but as the boys return home hammered, Chennai's Joshna Chinappa, 16, did a better job of mastering "alien conditions", winning the under-17 British Open junior squash championship. Chinappa is the second Indian (after Anil Nayar in 1965) to win the Open. "I underwent months of training to win," says Joshna. Catch her next month at the Asian Junior Championship in Pakistan.

Dream Debut

Considering that Bollywood is looking to reinvent itself with soul-stirring scripts, here's one right under its nose. Ruta Purohit, 21, who has a hearing disability and cannot speak, can inspire a Khamoshi III. Her brother was auditioning for a film but while he didn't make it, director Mangal Anand cast her in Kaash Hamara Dil Pagal Na Hota because she was "pretty, talented and deserved a break". What does she do? "She plays a dumb and deaf girl, but dances, dresses up, and talks in a few scenes like my other heroines." A real star, this.

-Compiled by Kanika Gahlaut