Rani turns choreographer

Rani plays two characters in Dil Bole Hadippa — the carefree Veera and the cricket-crazy Veer, who poses as a Sardar and dreams of playing with the likes of Sachin and Dhoni. While shooting the title song, ace choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant was in a fix. Making Rani dance as a girl was a breeze, she couldn’t quite figure out how to make Rani boogie as a man! That is when Rani confidently announced that she would capture Veer’s spirit. The Bong beauty just went ballistic with a whacky dance. Everyone was in splits on the sets. And Rani found her groove.

In high spirits

The Kaminey team is finally exhaling. The film was beset by hurdles — an A certificate from the Censor Board first and then the swine flu scare which resulted in the film losing the invaluable initial weekend in Mumbai. But now it’s celebration time for the team. After getting positive box office reports and reviews from all over the country, an elated director Vishal Bhardwaj celebrated with his three close friends — Anurag Kashyap, assistant Abhishek Chaube (who has turned director with the Naseeruddin Shah-Arshad Warsi-Vidya Balan film, Ishqiya) and casting director Honey — by holding a party over the weekend where everyone had a good time.

Chunky’s Italian job

Whether as a hero (Aankhen) or a character actor (Paying Guest), Chunky Pandey has a strong connection to comedy. Believe it or not, the funster is now playing an Italian in Sajid Khan’s Houseful. The actor says: “I play an Indian-Italian, who is the waiter-cum-manager-cum-entire-staff of a hotel. I talk in typical Italian style with lots of phrases such as ‘mama mia’ and ‘pleaseooo’.” Though Chunky says “It was great fun”, he has some changes planned. The actor insists, “I want to concentrate on some serious roles now. No more comedies hereafter, ‘grazie’ very much.”

Not confused

Veteran actor Om Puri will be soon seen in director Ashu Trikha’s Baabarr starring Mithun Chakraborty, Sushant Singh, Urvashi Sharma and newcomer Soham. Ask the National Award winning actor if he feels the title of his upcoming film is a bit confusing and the actor shoots back immediately, “What did the title Om Shanti Om convey? Om Shanti Om sounded like it’s the title of a dharmik film. The confusion is good. It will raise people’s curiosity.”