As if the countless remix ragas weren’t enough, we now have an Indi-pop singer from California waiting to zoom up countdown charts. Gauri Saksena recently released her remix album Chane Ke Khet Mein and has roped in Mumait Khan for the video of the title song. Lead singer in a band called “Dhun”, Saksena wants to sing for Bollywood. “I love songs with lots of variations,” says Saksena. And what’s life without variety?

Hit for a Six

Kiwi cricketer Chris Cairns is all set to make his catwalk debut. He will be strutting his stuff with Kim Sharma and Mandira Bedi at a fashion show marking the launch of The Chris Cairns Foundation in India. Cairns, who owns a chocolate fudge business back home, aims to provide education to under-privileged children. Designer Nisha Jamvwal will dress Cairns in a tie-and-dyed blue denim pin-tucked dinner jacket with jeans. “The denim look complements his rugged looks,” she says. All for a good cause, eh?

Road to Bollywood

He wanted to join the Army. Instead, Rannvijay Singh signed up for reality show MTV Roadies to win a motorbike, became a video jockey and is now set to graduate to Bollywood. Though he is in the news for signing Mahesh Manjrekar’s tentatively titled film Big Bazaar, Rannvijay will make his debut with Vivek Vaswani’s Direct Dil Se opposite Aditya Panscholi’s daughter Sana. But he has no plans of quitting his day job as vj. “The show and the profession are both close to me,” he says. Here’s one more for the road.

Seriously Yours

tv star Archana Puran Singh, known for her good comic timing, is excited about her serious role in Kavi Raz’s The Gold Bracelet. Slated to release later this year, the film, which won an award at the Cinequest Film Festival, focuses on misplaced anger against Sikhs in the US, post-9/11. Now that’s a change from comedy for her.

-Compiled by Kimi Dangor

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