Snippets: All thats happening in B-Town

It is everything you wanted to know but had little time to read about...

Deepa Mehta to adapt Midnight's Children

Director Deepa Mehta has taken up the challenge of making a movie out of Salman Rushdie's book Midnight's Children. The novel written in the early 80s, won the Booker of Booker prize. It was pathbreaking in that it took the writing style of South American masters like Marquez and Borges, called magic realism, and adapted it to India's geography.

But its uniqueness also makes it a tough film to make. This is because the writing is not wholly sequential, and a lot of the action unfolds in the mind of the protagonist, Saleem Sinai, who is born at midnight on August 15, 1947. "I love challenges and adapting Midnight's Children is a challenge for me," Mehta said.

"I read the book during the 80's when it first came out and I loved it but I never thought of making a movie on it at that time. I wanted to work with Salman for a long time and once told him 'Let's work together' and that's how it began," Mehta said.

Midnight's Children revolves around the partition of India. "Salman and I will write it together. We start working on it in June and we will be done by August. It is real fun and I am very excited." Mehta is also working on a film based on the 1914 Komagata Maru incident with Akshay Kumar in the lead.

Raavan disturbs Abhi-Ash quality time

April 20 would normally be a day for Abhishek and Aishwarya to spend together - it's the day of their second anniversary - but not this year. Alas, director Mani Ratnam, who is making Raavan with the couple has scheduled a shoot for the day in Kerala.

The couple was looking to escape to Mumbai for the day to be with their family but that is now off. "There are no special plans for us. We will be shooting for Mani's film on that day. So I guess we will wish each other on the sets," smiled Abhishek.

Ranbir turns down Rs 4 cr ad deal

Ranbir Kapoor's career is being carefully crafted by his parents. First mummy Neetu Singh became his manager, and now dad Rishi Kapoor stepped in to reject an advertising deal that could have got Ranbir Rs 4 crore.

The ad was for a suiting company, but Rishi felt the brand was not big enough for his son to endorse. At this early stage in his career, he ought to be careful with what he was associated with, Rishi reasoned.

Second innings for Ajay Jadeja in Bollywood

Cricketer Ajay Jadeja came to Bollywood after he was banned (along with Azharuddin) in the wake of the Tehelka match fixing scandal.

His debut was in 2003's Khel, with Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley, but that flopped. Now seen regularly on news television, Jadeja is going to have another crack at the movies. This time he will star opposite Mahie Gill (of Dev D) with Vinod Kambli for company. The movie is called Pal Pal Dil Ke Ssaat. Hope Jadeja has a better outing this time.

Slumdog kid to play young SRK

Tanay Chheda, who played childhood roles of Dev Patel's Jamal, will now act as the young Shah Rukh Khan. The film is Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan. Tanay says that other than this movie he will not be doing much other work. "My parents want me to concentrate on my studies," he said.

Fresh from the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Tanay has shifted from Campion School in Colaba to the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Bandra.
Earlier Tanay played the role of Darsheel Safary's best friend in Taare Zameen Par.

Gere with Big B in Teen Patti

Ageing Hollywood star Richard Gere may act with Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Teen Patti. Gere, who often comes to India, got into controversy when he kissed Shilpa Shetty at a charity event. The star has never acted in a Bollywood movie before, and his big Hollywood hits were his debut An Officer and a Gentleman and of course the monster movie Pretty Woman, with Julia Roberts.

Gere will not be shooting in India for the movie, and the schedule is set to be shot in London.

Salman campaigns for Milind Deora

Salman Khan is campaigning for Congress candidate from Mumbai South Milind Deora. The actor rode on the back of a truck for over two hours as Deora canvassed for votes in the areas of Bhendi Bazaar and Nagpada. Traffic was choc-a-bloc as people mobbed Salman.

Earlier, Salman campaigned for BJP's Vinod Khanna, and for Congress' Anu Tandon, in UP. He says he campaigns for the person and not the party.
"I'll never support an inefficient candidate, even if he is a friend of mine," Salman said.