Eyecatchers

India Today, December 14, 1998
Dec 14, 1998

Picked and Chosen

Chief guest on a round-the-world peace cruise? Why pick Rishma Malik for that? Well, the spunky Channel V veejay calmed the rowdy crowd at a peace concert in Mumbai this August. Present there, and impressed, were members of a Japanese NGO, organisers of the cruise. Now Malik will join the ship on its Australia-Thailand-Mumbai stretch this month. "I'm glad someone's interested in my mind, not my body," she smiles. Can't say the same for Sting's son Joseph Sumner at the post-Channel V Awards do. The two did more than just party that night. One way or another, she makes an impression.

Nethra Raghuraman The First Leg

Govind Nihalani doesn't do things by halves. So not only does his first all-out masala movie, Takshak, star Tabu and Ajay Devgan, he's roped in model Nethra Raghuraman. Winner of the 1997 Femina Look of the Year Contest, Raghuraman plays a pop star in the film and even gets to belt out three A.R. Rahman numbers in Hemant Trivedi-designed glam rags. "I wanted someone very dusky, a young Whitney Houston type," says the director, who was struck by the first-timer's "positive energy". Not to forget a pair of legs that never end.

Two Unlimited

Shah Rukh and Juhi Chawla They've had a dream run together. No wonder Juhi Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan are calling their just-launched production company Dreamz Films Unlimited. Sounds suspiciously like Spielberg and gang's Dreamworks? Looks like they hope to imitate the success too. The firm's first film not only stars Chawla and Khan, the director is Aziz Mirza, same man who made last year's runaway hit Yes Boss. "Hit pair, great look, what else can you ask for?" muses Mirza. Another hit film, boss?

Cawing on Cue

If Babe the pig could be the star of Babe, why curb a crow's ambitions? The feathered presence in Shiamak Davar's video for the song Jhoot bole kauva kaate has now resurfaced in the film of the same name. For the video, Polygram trained five crows over one-and-a-half months to get used to human touch, then taught them to react to hand signals and caw on cue. As for the film, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee first used a dummy, then superimposed the live bird on the scenes. All this, he explains, "because there's a natural association between jhoot (lies) and the kauva (crow). I just wanted to show that lying doesn't pay." Perfectionism, we hope, does.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication