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Tough routine?

Diya comes from a home where she was allowed a "quota" of three movies a month and after each, she would secretly imitate the heroine of the film ­ Madhuri Dixit was her favourite. Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh, Aamir and Salman are her favourite heroes.

"Acting is not the most comfortable thing in the world. You sometimes have to wear warm clothes when it is scorching hot and skimpy nothings when it is cold. I have been working non-stop these three months. I barely get time to get my waxing, manicure and pedicure done."

Sales Pitch

Fardeen Khan for Provogue Shirts

From Amitabh Bachchan who charges Rs 60 million per television commercial to Shah-rukh Khan demanding Rs 50 million and Hritik Roshan Rs 40 million, star endorsements are ballooning in number and value with every passing day. Such is the mad rush among advertising agencies for film icons that rates for commercials far exceed what film producers offer. "Hritik's price is not even Rs10 million per film but he makes much more through ads," says papa Rakesh Roshan who has become a manager for the superstar.

"I don't mind selling myself at weddings, selling a car or a soft drink, as long as I earn substantially," says Shahrukh Khan. "In fact, I earn more from ads. As an actor I don't earn much. I haven't earned anything substantial from my last three or four films, anyway."

Govinda, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Amisha Patel and Fardeen Khan promote colas, ball-pens, branded clothes, jewellery, toilet soaps, liquor, cars and even financial bonds. The latest is Sunny Deol ­ brand ambassador for a company making vests: "I'm doing it because I can reach the masses this way. It has an earthy appeal. And yes, the money is a major consideration. After all, who doesn't want to earn more in less time with minimum hassles?"

Future tense

Preity Zinta has an opinion on everything from Afghanistan and Mumbai police to solar energy conservation and the politics of the late Phoolan Devi.

A typical Preity Zinta quote: "Men are like toilets... either occupied or full of s**t!"

She has been appreciated for her role in Dil Chahta Hai. "But I am so unlike Shalini," protests Preity. "I am so talkative. Also, I'd wallop any guy who treated me badly. Shalini took a lot of rubbish from her fiancé." She talks of getting married, having kids and staying far away from showbiz. "But will I be able to spend my life with a single person?" she wonders. "I value my personal space. I've been independent all my life. If I feel like taking off on a vacation, I just up and leave. I wonder if I'd be able to do that once I settle down."

Afghan flashback

The Manisha Koirala-starrer, Escape from Afghanistan, being currently shot in Ladakh, has landed an innocent Bengali couple in trouble. The film is based on Sushmita Banerjee's autobiographical account, Afghan, Taliban O Ami (Afghan, Taliban and I) following her marriage with Janbaaz Khan, a Pakhtoon dry fruits' merchant in Kolkata. Banerjee had to flee Kabul (with the help of the Indian Embassy) last year after the ruling Taliban discovered that she had not converted to Islam after marriage. She was harassed, humiliated and held at gun-point, when, in a widely reported incident, she gave her captors the slip and escaped to India. Now, according to Janbaaz, he is being forced to divorce her, failing which, the lives of his three brothers and their families in Kabul would be in danger. "How can I divorce her?" asks Khan, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I love her so much..." It was only when he was attacked "by three unidentified young men" in Kolkata, who insisted that with a film being made, the family was giving a bad name to Afghans, that he first learnt of the film. "I don't see how a film can make a difference to Afghans," he says. "Since 1992, cinema has been banned. As for the book, it is written in Bangla. Who knows Bangla in Afghanistan? Even I cannot read or understand the language!"

Choir! Choir!

An unidentified man created a stir in Sushmita Sen's apartment recently. The police describe him as "a robber", but Sen maintains nothing is missing from her house. According to media reports, Sushmita was asleep at night with her (adopted) daughter when the intruder broke into her sixth floor apartment through the window. "Suddenly, the dogs started barking and I woke up," she said. "In the shadows, I could barely see the shape of a tall man running away from my bedroom. I quickly put on the lights and raised an alarm. My daughter also woke up. By then the man had locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out." By the time the police broke open the bathroom door, the man had escaped, apparently through a window.

Wooing viewers!

Aruna Irani's Dil Ashiqana Hai will mark the revival in screening of Indian films in post-Taliban Afghanistan which used to be the third biggest overseas market for Hindi films (after the uk and usa). Aruna Irani commands a particularly high fan following among the Afghans since the release of Caravan in the mid-seventies.

Pay up or else! London-based Hindi music composer Nadeem Saifee has served the Indian government with a claim of Rs 65 million as compensation for legal costs incurred on being implicated in the murder of Gulshan Kumar in 1997. His counsel, Majeed Mem-on, said the cost of litigation was enormous given the battery of high profile lawyers engaged by the composer during the three-year trial. "I myself have made 23 trips to London in connection with the case," he said. Nadeem was accused of paying Rs 3.5 million to Abu Salem to gun down Kumar whom he suspected of ruining his career. Nadeem had moved to London with his wife and child before the murder.

Light-headed Govind Niha-lani's latest, Deham, is based on Manjula Padmanabhan's prize-winning play, Harvest. It is set in Mumbai of 2022 with its focus on trade of human organs through futuristic special effects with holograms of disembodied people. "While making it, I felt a tremendous liberation ­ a freedom from gravity. Reality is heavy. You are bound by logic and ideology!" says the film-maker.

Chatterji to play Tagore Well-known Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee will play Rabindranath Tagore in a film to be produced and directed by Ismail Merchant. Shooting is expected to start in Kolkata early this year. "This is the first time I will be playing a real life person," said the thespian, best known for being Satyajit Ray's 'stock actor' for close to three decades. "It could be the most challenging role of a lifetime as Tagore remains a literary icon in India, sixty years after his death." In March this year, Chatterji created a stir by declining to accept the National Award for his role as a blind poet in the Bengali film, Dekha. While he described the award-selection process as flawed, many saw this protest as an expression of bitterness towards an establishment that denied him recognition earlier.

Love ke liye kuch bhi karega! Om Puri wants to play the lover boy. "I want to do a mature love story," he said at the release of Bollywood Calling in which he plays a film producer. "Bollywood Calling is like an R.K. Laxman cartoon. It underlines the truth and is laced with humour."