His father is a firebrand actor but Malhar Patekar prefers to bat on a different wicket. Nana Patekar's 23-year-old cricket-crazy son is all set to don the director's hat with a short film. Having dabbled in cinematography, the young man, who made a special appearance in Prahaar as a teenager, seems to have put his acting aspirations on the back-burner for now. Malhar has completed a filmmaking course in London and is ready with new scripts and concepts for a 'shortie' before making his 70-mm debut. Moving in a whole new direction, eh?
TOP GEAR
To go topless or not is the dilemma model Mugdha Godse is facing. The sultry Maharashtrian has been offered the lead role of a painter's muse in an Indo-French production called Raas Leela, which will require frontal nudity. And while the offer is tempting, Godse has expressed reservations. "My Indian values will not allow me to do the scene," she admits. So does it mean she will give up the role? No, she says. "We are negotiating. I'm ok if they use a body double or tweak the scene a bit and film it differently," says Godse. Clever career move, indeed.
World Class
Former beauty queen Shyla Lopez scorched TV screens with Instant Karma's Baahon mein chale aao. Settled in Moscow with husband Vladislav Vershinin and their five-month-old baby, she is far from bidding India goodbye. Lopez will represent India at the Mrs World pageant in Sochi on the Black Sea coast in Russia. Here's one foreign connection we'd like to keep.
Golden Harvest
Rajnesh Domalpalli made a switch from electrical engineering to movie-making and hit gold. The IIT-Mumbai and Columbia University alumnus's first film Vanaja, about a poor girl's passion for classical dance, bagged the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. But with no takers for the Telugu film in Andhra Pradesh, he plans to release it in the United States, even as it continues to draw critical acclaim. Here's a desi reel with international appeal.
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