News is that Aishwarya Rai has been signed on by none other than Shyam Benegal for his next film, which will go on the floors after the filmmaker completes his venture with Vivek Oberoi and Kareena Kapoor.
Benegal was not available for comment but a source from his office revealed that they had indeed had discussions with Aishwarya for a major project, reports Bollywood Trade. "But it will be another year before it goes on the floor due to Aishwarya's commitments," he said.
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Marketing blitz for 'Socha Na Tha'
The Deols are going full steam ahead with the pre-release marketing for "Socha Na Tha", which launches Dharmendra's nephew Abhay Deol. They have tied up with ESPN channel and also joined hands with a leading media company called Wise Mindz, which will organise a huge premier of the film in Delhi.
Besides, the producers have tied up with the BBC for a London premiere of the film and with MTV for its world-wide promotion, reports Bollywood Trade. The film also has help from Zee TV that has acquired the distribution rights.
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T-Series signs Raj Kanwar for next
It appears that T-Series has some major production plans for the coming year. After recently announcing plans to repeat the Vinay Sapru-Radhika Roy team in its next film after "Lucky", the company has now tied up with producer-director Raj Kanwar for a joint production.
The film would be directed by Raj Kanwar and star Akshay Kumar, reports Bollywood Trade. "It is a joint venture between me and T-Series which will be launched on a very big scale early next year," confirms Kanwar, currently in the final stage of scripting for the film.
Kanwar has a long association with T-Series as the company has released the music for most of his films, the last of them being "Ab Ke Baras".
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Zee makes elaborate plans for 2005
Like T-Series, Zee TV also has elaborate plans for the coming year with as many as 14-15 film productions coming up, reports Bollywood Trade.
"We have a total of at least 14-15 productions in the coming year with various directors. Currently, we are holding discussions with Aziz Mirza, Raj Kanwar, Sudhir Mishra and four other known directors in the industry.
"This is besides our tie-ups with Nimbus for production and distribution," says Vivek Vaswani, who as head of the film production wing has his hands full.
Vaswani says the company will emerge a major player in the field of both production and distribution in the coming two years. "We have already drawn out a strategy and a time frame for completion of each project, besides its costing and execution," he says.
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The film based on a game show
Remember Kushan Nandy, the estranged son of Pritish Nandy who had last produced and directed an intriguing thriller "88 Antop Hill"? Well, Kushan is now ready with his next film "Humdum", which his associate Himanshu Pathak defines as an emotional entertainer.
The film is scheduled for a Jan 20 release, reports Bollywood Trade.
Pathak says the film will introduce two promising newcomers from the advertising world -- Romit Raaj, who is a popular face in advertising and was last seen in the HDFC ad, and Anjana Sukhani, the girl with Aamir Khan in the 'paanch' Coke ad.
The bigger USP of the film however is the fact that it will portray a reality-based game show for the first time on the big screen. "The story itself is based on the game show and what transpires behind the scenes," says Pathak.
--Indo-Asian News Service