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Nov 29, 1999
 Cover Story
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 Sophiya's
Choice
Do you wonder what Sophiya Haque is doing post-Channel V?
Don't. She's setting the catwalks on fire. Also revealing hitherto undisclosed talents. At
a big bash in Mumbai for the launch of Universal India, Haque and fellow model Diya
Abraham did a John Travolta with a torrid, body-against-body dance number to Greased
Lighting from the movie Grease. Choreographer Marc Robinson chose her because of her
"wacko wild look". "She's one of a kind," he says. "If she was
not there I'd have dressed in drag and done it myself." Whew! Close call!
 Divine Spread
It was a feast fit for the gods. It had to be. About 800 dishes were laid
out before the deities at the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir (SSM) in Neasden,
London, whipped up by devotees across the UK for the Hindu festival Annakut. Don't worry.
The food's not being wasted. It's being distributed as prasad. SSM, incidentally, figures
in the Guinness Book's millennium edition as the largest Hindu temple outside
India. Does another record beckon?
 The Bollywood Four
Aamir Khan has done it. So has Sanjay Dutt. So of course the rest will
follow. Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Bipasha Basu have
sung a song, Haan tumhe hum chahte hai, for producer Vijay Gilani's film Ajnabee.
"It's a funny, romantic number," says Gilani, "and it helps move the story
forward." Tough task for music director Anu Malik though. The star quartet rehearsed
for two days, "Bobby and Kareena were nervous", while "Bipasha couldn't
stop giggling at her mistakes". None of them has ever sung before, by the way. Not
even in the bathroom, we've been told.
 Raving over Raveena
Enough masti for the mast mast girl. After the critical acclaim for her
role in E. Nivas' Shool, Raveena Tandon -- long dismissed as a gorgeous
bimbo -- has landed the lead in Kalpana Lajmi's Daman, the story of a middle-class girl
married into a wealthy family of tea planters in Assam. Lajmi's raving over Raveena:
"After watching Shool, I was sure I wanted her for the film." To which the
actress responds: "It feels great that after so many years one is being recognised as
a talent." About time too.
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