Shahrukh Khan in bid to secure Indian Cricket League franchise

The Khans, Shahrukh and Farah, have had to apologise to Manoj Kumar for making fun of him in one of the most hilarious scenes in Om Shanti Om.

“Mr Bharat”, as he is known for playing a string of national heroes in films like Upkar, Shaheed, Kranti and Purab Aur Paschim, felt insulted and humiliated, as “the soul of a patriotic Indian had been hurt”.

SRK called him and apologised for hurting his feelings and not inviting him to the preview. Farah offered to edit the scene, but Kumar asked her not to. Meanwhile, OSO continues to rock the box office. The demand for tickets was so great that, in its second week, 80 additional shows were arranged in Mumbai alone.

Did you know that Deepika Padukone is a product of Anupam Kher’s acting school, Actor Prepares? Kher says she was part of his June-August 2005 intake and remembers her as a “diligent learner who arrived with the reputation of being a successful model, yet did not have any airs about herself”.

Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan are firm believers in the adage “The family that prays together stays together”. Their latest high-profile prayer was offered at the Pedda Dargah near the town of Kadapa, about 400km from Hyderabad. Jaya Bachchan and family friend Amar Singh, who leads the Samajwadi Party, joined them on the helicopter trip from Bangalore.

Raykesh Mehra is finalising plans for his first musical, Bhairavi, which will bring together Amitabh, Jaya and Abhishek Bachchan in their real-life roles of husband, wife and son. Set against the background of classical music, it will focus on their internal strife owing to competitive creativity. Amitabh and Jaya previously explored a similar theme in the outstanding 1973 film Abhimaan. Father and son have already given the project the go-ahead, and Mehra has threatened to go on a hunger strike in front of their Juhu home if Jaya does not sign up. Mehra has a daughter named Bhairavi.

Property troubles for Rani Mukherjee: an Ahmednagar judge has issued a notice asking her to prove that she is of farming stock, a prerequisite for owning land in the district. A state bylaw prohibits agricultural land from being transferred outright to non-farmers. Mukherjee bought the property near Ahmednagar, where she regularly attends prayers at the Shirdi Sai Baba mandir. Amitabh Bachchan has a similar case pending against him.

After the release of Saawariya, Ranbir Kapoor has realised a dream of sharing the screen with his parents, Rishi and Neetu Kapoor. They star together in a short movie to promote safe sex, with father and son engaging in a chat about the birds and the bees.

Ajay Devgan is one of Bollywood’s leading pranksters, as his Halla Bol co-star, Vidya Balan, will testify. After joining director Raj Kumar Santoshi in praising one of the songs on the soundtrack, Devgan asked Balan if she would like to listen to it. When she plugged in his iPod earphones, she experienced a mild shock, and Devgan and Santoshi burst into howls of laughter. The impression of a brooding, serious actor is actually just good acting.

Sports lover Shahrukh Khan is among some 90 bidders for one of eight franchises in the soon-to-be-launched Indian Premier Cricket League, which has already attracted some of the world’s top players, including Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis.Sachin Tendulkar is also on the list of bidders, along with Kingfisher tycoon Vijay Mallya, Anil Ambani and Hollywood actor Russel Crowe, a cousin of former New Zealand cricket captain Martin Crowe.

The bidding is expected to start at 50-million a franchise. The IPL is a guaranteed money-spinner that will feature 20/20 matches played under floodlights across India.

As predicted in this column two weeks ago, Madhuri Dixit has made herself available to promote her comeback film, Aaja Nachle, which is to be released on Friday. It had been said that she would not make herself available because she was not happy with the end product. Now Mads is leading the publicity blitz for this Yash Raj movie, set against the background of dance.

Farhan Akhtar has denied that he plans to produce a sequel to his best film yet, Dil Chahta Hai, but he has said that his next movie is of a similar genre. He plays the lead in this film, to be directed by rookie Abhishek Kapoor. Arjun Rampal is also in the cast. Javed Akhtar’s son, who first starred in The Fakir of Venice, says he enjoys acting, but directing is his first love.

The countdown to the release of Vijay’s Azhagiya Thamizh Magan in South Africa has begun. The soundtrack by AR Rahmaan has been well received and it is only the second time that Rahmaan has scored music for a Vijay movie, the first being the unmemorable Udhaya. But this time Rahmaan has struck gold.In India, ticket sales for ATM took a dip after its opening weekend. This was a reaction to the film’s story and Vijay’s character, which is vastly different from the image he has projected in all his films since Friends. However, once Vijay’s fans had accepted his new image, ticket sales again accelerated. Now there’s a four-film race at the box office, with Soorya’s Vel, Prithviraj’s Kanaamoochi Yenadaa and Dhanush’s Pollaadhavan almost neck and neck with ATM.

Vijay’s fan following is said to be second only to Rajnikanth’s, and it will be interesting to see whether ATM can match the 100day run of Sivaji in South Africa.

After a break of six months, Vinay, the handsome model-turned-actor, has begun his second film. Titled Jeyam Kondaan, it was written and is being directed by Kannan, a long-time assistant to Manirathinam.The film was launched amid much fanfare a fortnight ago by producer Sathyajothi Thyagarajan, who agreed to back it on the recommendation of Manirathinam.

Vinay’s debut film, Unnaale Unnaale, directed by the late Jeeva, was a huge hit. He is hoping Jayam Kondaan will follow suit.

After several false reports about Vishnu Varadhan’s Sarvam, the director announced that Arjun and Aarya would head the cast of this new action thriller, to be produced by London-based Ayngaran International. This put to an end to rumours that Soorya had been signed to play the lead role.Soorya was approached to play the role but declined the offer. Whether that was due to callsheet problems or a disagreement over the script (the gossip-mongers’ favourite) is unclear.

Soorya, meanwhile, is shooting for Goutham Vasudeva Menon’s Varanam Aayiram and will soon launch his next movie, an action thriller by KV Anand to be produced by AVM, the producers of Sivaji.Anand was the cinematographer in Sivaji and has one film to his credit as a director, the romantic thriller Kanaa Kanndain, in which Shrikanth and Gopika played the lead roles. It marked the Tamil debut of Prithviraj and received critical acclaim.

Fans of the tragic 1980s sex siren Silk Smitha will be delighted to learn that her last movie, Thanga Thaamarai, is ready for release almost a decade after she committed suicide. Her fan club is still in existence.