Even as Indian singers sulk that they are unable to perform in Pakistan (while their Pakistani counterparts can here), it has not stopped music director Aadesh Shrivastav from combining Amitabh Bachchan's baritone with Pakistani singer Abida Parveen's honeyed voice in B.R. Chopra's Baghban. "This film is a personal milestone for me," says Shrivastav. If getting a visa for Parveen is tough, the composer plans to record her voice in London and Bachchan's in Mumbai. How's that for intercontinental sound mixing?

Jat, Set, Go

Rohtak may currently rule the runway, but the Jat-set also has its eyes set on the big screen . After Praveen Dabas bagged an international project, it's the turn of fellow Haryanvi and Monsoon Wedding colleague Randeep Hooda to flex his acting muscles. Hooda, Sushmita Sen's latest boyfriend, has caught the eye of Bollywood's one-man-talent-discovery-unit, Ram Gopal Varma. The director, who has cast Hooda in his monster budget Ek, says Hooda has "it", the star quality he first spotted in Vivek Oberoi. Jat's the way to go, we say.

V for Viva

It is suspect if anybody cares but Viva, the gawky gigglers positioned as India's first girl band, have another announcement to make. We will survive, they say. As proof, they are holding up their second album which shows-and this is their own assessment-"our sounds and songs have matured". Channel V may be on the hunt for the next batch, but the girls will be around, mentoring the newcomers and being their "elder sisters". Ear plugs, anyone?

Million-Nair from Where?

If the first scene was set in the front seats of a Christian Dior show in New York, the drama is now unfolding in Mumbai. Actor-model Liz Hurley, visiting her boyfriend Arun Nair at his Marine Drive home, gave the Indian press a chance at paparazzidom when they lunched together at the Oberoi with Nair's mum as chaperone ("If you take another photo, I will smash your camera," shouted Nair). Even as Nair is referred to as a "textile tycoon" in the international press, Mumbaiites are clueless about the supposed "millionaire" in their midst. The question everybody is asking: Nair from where?

-Compiled by Kanika Gahlaut