Eyecatchers

India Today, issue dated July 12, 1999
July 12, 1999

Cats Call
Life's a string of lucky breaks for Nafisa Joseph. She entered the Miss India contest for a lark, and won it. She was a judge at the MTV veejay hunt, and ended up a veejay. Then a friend casually asked if she'd act in the serial Cats, a desi remake of Charlie Angels. Know what? She's ended up with the part Farah Fawcett did in the original. "If Cats does well", she says, "I must consider theatre because I've heard true actors come from there." Know what/ Theatre might consider her too.

Captains' LOG
He's a role model off the field as well.Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh has been invited to head the Calcutta Girls Foundation which runs Udayan, the home for children of leprosy patients that he visited last year. Waugh, we hear, has agreed "in principle". He's also posting them a $ Baby Nasser with mum, dad and uncle Abid 12,000(Rs 5.16 lakh) cheque. And while Udayan celebrates in Cal, in Chennai a certain R Abid Hussain is smiling. Engaland's newest cricket captain Nasser Hussain whose parents moved to England from Chennai in 1973 when the boy was five happens to be his nephew. "When Clive came to India, one opf our ancestors, Nawab Wallaja, was ruling Tamil Nadu", says Abid. "Now one of Wallaja's descendants has gone to London to captain the English team." So there!

First TimeLucky
She wasn't expecting this. Aruna Thosar-Dixit, a PR pfficer at IIT Mumbai, wrote A Romance for Ruby in response to an ad by the Madras Theatre Group. It was her first play. Naseeruddin Shah happened to read it, and next thing she knew, he decided to direct it and premiere it at the Prithvi Festival in November. " I'm really satisfied that someone like Naseer appreciated it," says Dixit. It's kind of a compliment, isn't it?

Shades of Karisma
Is Karisma Kapoor going arty? Bollywood's Babe No.I has just been cast in Shyam Benegal's Zubeida. Kapoor, Benegal tells us, "plays the central character in a very strong love story. A character with lots of shades", adding, "her personality is just right for the part". But how will he deal with Mama Kapoor? Remember Rakesh Roshan chose to replace li'l sis Kareena with an interfering mom? "I haven't had to deal with her at all," says Benegal firmly. As for his leading lady, she's "flattered that he thought of me and very, very, excited". She ought to be.

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