Both Darsheel Safary and Kareena Kapoor have one thing in common. No, not Saif Ali Khan, but Aamir Khan.

Darsheel, who with his rocking performance and bucktoothed grin, won over the audiences of Taare Zameen Par, even had producer-director Aamir eating out of his hands. Aamir readily admitted defeat in all his pre-release interviews and said that Darsheel was the hero of the film.

Now, Kareena Kapoor may be on the arm of Saif Ali Khan, but admits to being a die-hard fan of another Khan, Aamir.

It is another matter that Kareena went on record in her early stardom days that she would give anything to star with Shah Rukh Khan, who she claimed was a peformer without parallel.

Okay, so Aamir adores Darsheel, and Kareena adores Aamir. But this wonderful equation works out like this: Darsheel has said in his latest interview that he adores Kareena!

Being nominated under the Best Actor category at the Filmfare Awards, little Darsheel Safary’s moving performance had him competing with four adult superstars, including Shah Rukh, whom in an earlier interview he precociously dismissed as no competition!

Ask all those who have watched Taare Zameen Par which actor rules their heart and the answer is Darsheel Safary. Of course, SRK is not one to give any quarter to anyone, adult or child, and bagged the Best Actor award anyway.

In a recent television interview Darsheel candidly admitted that he was a Kareena Kapoor fan and the one thinbg he was looking forward to, after Taare Zameen Par, was to meet the vivacious actress in person at some award function.

After Darsheel, it is Kareena’s turn with Aamir as she will be acting opposite the pint sized superstar in Raju Hirani’s next film. Reportedly Kareena is very excited about being paired opposite the intense Khan.

Kareena has worked with SRK and Salman and now Saif, too. But never with Aamir before. Her elder sister Karisma had paired magnificently with Aamir in Raja Hindustani years ago. With Raju’s film, she should make a fabulous pair with Aamir.

Trade insiders are equally axcited at the prospect and are touting the Aamir-Kareena duo to be bigger than the first-time pairing of Aamir and Kajol in Fanaa. If Kajol was making a kind of comeback as numero uno, today it is Kareena who is ruling the roost.

Yashraj Films ’ forthcoming venture Tashan not only required the acting credentials of Kareena Kapoor but also a change in her looks.

Kareena started losing weight for the film and since then, her size zero has attracted much attention.

Kareena is quoted as saying in a report, “Before this film started I knew that for this character to look different than what I have done before, I have to train really hard to kind of change the shape of my body.”

“A lot of actresses abroad do that, they work on one film at a time, change their look for a particular film body wise as well, people lose weight or put on weight as required for the character. For ‘Tashan’ it was a conscious effort to change my body structure and work towards it because I wanted to look lean. The character involves a lot of action, and I think a lean girl doing action always looks much better.”

“I trained really hard for about eight to nine months and was on a strict diet regime because that’s the only way this will look different from every other film. The response has been phenomenal. I am actually enjoying it and have got used to it.”

Scheduled to release on April 25, ‘Tashan’ also stars Anil Kapoor , Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan .

Move over comic capers. With Abbas-Mustan’s ‘Race’ hitting the marquee, adrenaline-pumping action flicks with jaw-dropping stunts are back at the Indian box-office and the film industry is betting big on it.

It is not just the gentlemen who are rolling up their sleeves and taking the plunge from skyscrapers but the ladies too are following suit.

Whether it is home grown Mumbai-based studio producers or their Hollywood counterparts trying to find a foothold in India, action thrillers are the latest fad. And for the mobile gaming industry, Bollywood’s re- awakened interest in the genre is godsend.

‘Race’, this year’s first true-blue action thriller that released Friday, got off to a flying start with collections soaring in multiplexes. The archetypical Abbas-Mustan movie was a welcome change for an audience that has been thirsting for adrenaline rush.

Starring Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy, the movie is an action thriller and murder mystery.

‘Race’ has heroes jumping from air balloons, well-toned female actors running besides cars that are going up in flames and state-of-the-art pyrotechnics by action director Allan Amin.

The grapevine is that Saif went up to the height of 200 feet in an air balloon and did bungee jumping for a scene in the film. The ladies in the film also had their piece of action.

Soon Saif will be seen in another action-packed film – ‘Tashan’ – that is equally high on style.

‘Action is an intricate genre now. It is meant for the audience who appreciate ‘Die Hard 4′ and enjoy the Bond flicks.

Though Indian films are yet to match the international budgets, we had to start from somewhere,’ said Anubhav Sinha, who was the man behind last year’s action thriller ‘Cash’.

For long Bollywood did not have the concept of genre films. Most films were family dramas with other elements like romance, action, comedy, etc, thrown in. Genres like sci-fi, horror, mystery, war, espionage did not exist in Bollywood. As a result we have not had too many nail-biting suspense flicks, or thrillers that truly thrill.

A sea change has happened with audiences willing to see genre films and not the something-for-everyone omnibus films that Bollywood generally makes. And action is one genre that is fast catching on.

Even actors who started off as action heroes and later deviate into comedy and family dramas are coming back for more plain and simple action. One such example is industry’s original action hero – Akshay Kumar – who after a string of comedies will be seen in hardcore action-packed thrillers.

The actor, who started his career as a Karate teacher, plays a Hollywood stuntman in Sajid Nadiadwala’s ‘Kambakth Ishq’ which is being shot in Universal Studios. It is the first Indian film to be shot within Universal Studios.

Apart from that, Akshay will be seen in Nikhil Advani’s action flick ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ that is funded by a Hollywood studio. It remains to be seen whether these will be a concoction of all of Bollywood favourite elements or belong to action genre alone.

Not to be left behind, the ladies are taking to action like never before. Aishwarya Rai showed off her sword-wielding skills in a Hollywood film, ‘The Last Legion’, and in ‘Jodhaa Akbar’. Now, it is the turn of other Bollywood belles to call the shots.

Bipasha Basu, Esha Deol, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Tanushree Dutta and Koena Mitra are all rearing to fight it out.

After Priyanka stood her ground against Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Don’, she will be seen in a daredevil act in upcoming ‘Love Story: 2050′ as well as ‘Drona’ in which she plays Abhishek Bachchan’s bodyguard.

Not to be left behind, Kareena too will be seen as a butt-kicking babe in soon-to-be-released ‘Tashan’.

Director duo Abbas-Mustan is planning a heroine-based action film to be directed by Rohit Jugraj. There’s a growing market for action-packed roles for ladies now and the audience has become more open and encouraging to such varied roles for girls.

Shilpa Shetty has gone many steps further and announced her foray into production with a big budget action-comedy. The winner of last year’s Britain reality TV show – ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ – is investing her riches in a two-heroine project.

While Shilpa will be playing one part, she is in the process of signing on another big Bollywood heroine for the other. The film will be produced under Shilpa’s production house S2 Global Productions with some top-of- the-line international technicians as part of her crew.

Katrina Kaif, the only actress to have achieved four back to back successes last year in Namastey London, Apne, Partner and Welcome has surely started 2008 with a bang!!

The actress is going steady in her ‘Race’ and the two hot and sexy numbers ‘Touch Me’ and ‘Sexy Lady’ in Abbas Mustan’s film ‘Race’ has already caught the attention of public.

The songs have now topped the music charts and Katrina is surely in the reckoning for bigger achievements now!

Abbas-Mustan, having decided to cash on to the success that the pair, Saif-Katrina have got, have added another happening number in the film and the song now finds a place in the audio tracks too.

To add on to everything, Katrina’s Rs 6 cr deal with Studio 18 has generated interest amongst other A-list production houses who want to crack a similar contract with her.

Well, well, Katrina is surely going places now!!!

Actress Priyanka Chopra is not Bollywood’s face of Pepsi any more. She has walked out of the deal because she was not happy with the money being offered to her.

The electronic media has been going to town about how Priyanka had been “ousted” from her cola status. “Wrong!” says a very close friend of the actress.

“Priyanka just couldn’t agree with the price that was being offered. The Pepsi people wanted her to work for the same fee again that they paid her earlier. Priyanka wanted to re-negotiate the deal. When the company didn’t budge, she opted out,” the source said.

Adds the friend: “Priyanka is flush with endorsement assignments. In fact, she’s at this very moment shooting an ad with Saif Ali Khan in Bangkok.”

Race, one of the hottest films this season, is around three weeks away from its release. Still, it’s producers TIPS and composer Pritam are leaving no stones unturned to ensure that the film not just stays in news but also take one of the biggest ever openings at the Box Office.

To keep the film hot in circulation and add on to the immense hype that this action/thriller has been generating, the makers have decided to add on a new song in Race. The song is special since it features Saif Ali Khan and now hot-n-happening Katrina Kaif who was the only leading lady to have enjoyed a cent percent record last year (Namastey London, Apne, Partner and Welcome). Moreover, the title of the song is nothing less than inviting as it reads – ‘Sexy Lady’.

As per the film’s producer Ramesh Taurani (of TIPS), the song was added as it was found to be a good replacement for ‘Mujhpe To Jaado’ which was yet to be shot. “We are thrilled with the great response to the title song ‘Race Sanson Ki’, ‘Pehli Nazar Mein’ and ‘Zara Zara Touch Me’. We wanted to keep the momentum going. When Pritam made us hear the tune of ‘Sexy Lady’, we knew that this was the song for the film,” confirms Ramesh Taurani.

Adds Pritam, “‘Mujhpe To Jadoo’ was anyways waiting to be picturized. Since Abbas-Mustan also felt that ‘Sexy Lady’ could be a good replacement, everyone was in consensus with the decision.

Says a confident Taurani, “We are quite happy with the way Race is leading up to it’s March 21 release. The songs are doing quite well and are leading the charts all over. We would begin unleashing the talkie promos early March. They would be a mix of action and drama which forms the USP of the film.”

Meanwhile shooting of ‘Sexy Lady’ is currently on and would be wrapped up in quick time so that the song is on air before the release of the film. Moreover, there won’t be much wait for the new edition of the music album of Race to arrive too. By first week of March, latest addition ‘Sexy Lady’ is expected to be a part of the newer lots of Race that would be out on stands.

As Katrina Kaif goes ‘Zara Zara Touch Me’ in her new film RACE, the promos show the Glamour Goddess sporting a new makeover for the particular song, courtesy designer, Anaitha Shroff.

Speaking about her new look, Katrina says, “Anaitha Shroff has done an excellent job with my new look in this film. The look in the song ‘Zara Zara Touch Me’ is completely different from what I have done earlier.

It is a situation based song that defines my character, where I want to win over Saif’s affection.”

The outfit for the song was specially purchased from Dubai, from a high-end designer, Jenny Packham. The beautiful flowery blue attire with a picturesque 60’s look gave the song the lift it needed.

Talking about the lady, who gave her the needed makeup for the song, Katrina quotes, “Whenever Meher Kohla has done make-up on me, the songs have been huge hits. So she is my lucky charm, and I hope that this song also proves to be a hit”.

Katrina, who was in the capital to launch a product on Sunday, refrained herself from answering any queries related to her boyfriend Salman Khan.

“Please! I don’t want to discuss anything related to Salman. It’s very personal.”

She also feels that life has been cruel and unfair to her as despite delivering one hit after the other, she still couldn’t get nominated in the best actress category in award functions.

“Oh dear! life is so cruel and unfair to me. I have delivered so many hits and won accolades for my performances, but every time I failed to get nominated,” says the actress.

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan has finally admitted dating Kareena Kapoor.

At Manish Malhotra’s fashion show for the Lakme Fashion Week, Saif admitted to his relationship with Kareena saying, “Yes, we are not exactly shouting from the rooftops but yes, clearly we are together. And we are happy together.”

The couple was spotted together in public for the first time.

Reports of a romantic linkup between 27-year-old Kareena and 37-year-old Saif first surfaced while the two were shooting for Yashraj Films Tashan on locations in Ladakh and Rajasthan.

Then came the news of Kareena celebrating her 27th birthday last month with a small party for select friends including Saif.
Saif and Kareena also hit a nightclub in Delhi on October 5 where when a photographer clicked Saif and Kareena hugging after which they bullied him and deleted the photograph.

Saif had been single for months now, since his break-up with girlfriend Rozza , and has, since, been linked to Bipasha Basu and Dia Mirza .

As their romance intensified, Kareena unceremoniously dumped Shahid Kapur August end while he was shooting in Toronto, Canada.

However, Shahid who had been stoically maintaining silence for sometime also quipped on the sets of the Sony show Jhalak Dikhla Ja in the course of an interview, “For all ye girls out there, I am single and ready to mingle!”
Shahid’s next release will be Jab We Met opposite Kareena.

Madhavan has been in and out of hospital this year because of his dad’s illness. “It’s scary! Actors aren’t infallible. Saif’s illness proves we all need to respect our health,” says Maddy.

But over-work seems to be the order of the day in Bollywood. Ask Hrithik Roshan. It’s not just the stress of doing his first costume drama that’s putting an extra-stress on Hrithik Roshan.

Right now Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodha-Akbar is proving stressful to Hrithik for an extra reason.”We’ve been shooting in Karjat which is about four hours’ drive from Mumbai. Every day I’ve to drive back from Karjat to Mumbai and then back again to start shooting early morning.”

Reason? Hrithik is rehearsing in the evenings in Mumbai for his performance at the upcoming Filmfare awards.

Not believing in half-measures can be awfully taxing at times. And the sooner our actors learn to not combine long grueling hours of shooting with extra-curricular activities, the better.

“Didn’t Mr Bachchan’s health serve up a warning last year?” reasons a close friend.

A lot of Saif’s colleagues are now planning to cut down drastically on their work load and smoking too

The two Bollywood stars will lend their voices to an animation film.

At last, animation films are slowly finding a place in Bollywood. While in Hollywood, an animation movie like ‘Happy Feet’ can give James Bond a run for money at the box-office, Indian film industry has yet to explore this genre.

Save for a few films like ‘Hanuman’, ‘Lord Krishna’ or ‘Ramayan’, there have hardly been any memorable animated movies from our industry.

But now more people are venturing into this field.

The latest is actor Jugal Hansraj, who is all set to make an animation film for the prestigious banner Yashraj Films.

Reports have it that the movie will feature voices of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The two will lend their voices to the characters of a dog and a bitch.

Just last year, we saw Shah Rukh Khan and his son Aryan dubbing for the Hindi version of ‘The Incredibles’.