Filmmaker Sameer Iqbal Patel, who is making his Bollywood debut with comic caper "Hotel Beautifool", says his next film will be a black comedy.

"My next film is a black comedy titled 'Tata Good Bye'. I didn't want to direct this as my debut as it's a black comedy," Patel told IANS.

"It's a satire on death, which has never been done before. It is a meaningful film with an international concept," he added.

Patel's "Hotel Beautifool" is inspired by Hindi stage production "Baat Baat Mein Bigdey Haalat", but he says that "Tata Good Bye" is an "original film".

"It has a bigger budget than 'Hotel Beautifool'. When you direct your first film, the challenge is to get the producers. It's ('Tata Good Bye') a very tricky script and not everybody can produce a black comedy."

The film's story would revolve around a father and his two kids.

When asked about the star cast of the film, he said: "I have met Paresh Rawal and Boman Irani and both of them liked the first draft. I am also looking at Pankaj (Kapur) and Naseeruddin Shah because I need A-listers in the film."

"I have not finalised anyone for the film yet," he added.

His "Hotel Beautifool", which has been wrapped up, stars Imam Siddiqui, Johnny Lever, Alisha Farrer, Rohit Khurana, Shanti, Jia Sharma and Brijendra Kala

Former Indian beauty queen and actress Pooja Batra, who is settled here, has launched a new Bollywood radio station, Mera Sangeet. The effort is to cater to the Indian diaspora in the US and Canada.

"I wanted to provide the Indian diaspora in US and Canada with something that takes them closer to home. We have an iPhone app and an Android phone app and now people living here can listen to their favourite music for free," Pooja, CEO of Glow Bell Inc., which facilitates collaborative productions between Hollywood and Bollywood, said in a statement.

Apart from taking care of the station's operations, Pooja will also play radio jockey to engage with listeners.

Indian actors such as Deepti Bhatnagar, international photographer Ash Gupta and writer-director Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla have also been roped in by Pooja to be celebrity radio jockeys for the station.

Pooja says her friends "graciously agreed" and that she's thankful to them.

"It is going to be a wonderful journey that I'm most excited about," said the actress, who has collaborated with Anshuvijay Rode of Anjaney Entertainment and Opie Singh, for the venture.

While in Bollywood, Pooja featured in films like "Virasat", "Haseena Maan Jayegi", "Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye".

Actor Ashish Chowdhry, who has recently become a father to twin girls, says he always desired to have three daughters.

The actor took to Twitter to share his joy on becoming a dad for the second time. His first child with wife Samita is a son named Agastya, and the twins came their way Monday evening.

The joyous actor shared: "Yeah it's TWO lil' angels..It's TWO princesses..It's TWO times infinite happiness...It's TWO girls!! TWO GIRLS!!! I can't believe my luck!

"You know, I always wanted 3 daughters. It was my dream. But today I know God gave us lil' August to be the protector of his lil' baby sisters."

Ashish, who also takes care of the two children of his late sister Monica, who died in the 26/11 attacks, added: "Father of 5 now! Monica's two, Auggie n now these two lil' monkeys! I know Mona's watchin, blessin me, takin care of all of us. Wow. I've grown."

The 36-year-old, who has featured in films like "Dhamaal" and "Double Dhamaal", had also lost his brother-in-law in the Mumbai attacks. The family was bereaved. Some happiness came to them with Agastya's birth five years ago, but the birth of his daughters is special to Ashish.

Even when he was blessed with a son, Ashish had spoken about how much he had wanted a daughter who could fill the void his sister's death had left behind.

Now, he's not getting over his joy of having two daughters.

"Baby girls r a gift of God. N I feel that I'm bein looked at.#whatafeeling," Ashish said.

The girls will be named with the letter 'S', and Ashish has reached out to his friends and fans on Twitter for suggestions.

People in the eastern metropolis Thursday woke up to a very curious sight! Megastar Amitabh Bachchan cycled past a bronze statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on horseback in one of Kolkata's busiest intersections while shooting for Shoojit Sircar's "Piku".

Clad in a pink kurta, half-sweater and hat, Big B deftly pedalled past buses and cycles early morning just as the traffic kicked-in around the landmark 45-year-old statue at the Shyambazar five-point crossing in north Kolkata.

The statue, sculpted by Nagesh Yoglekar, was unveiled by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (now Kolkata Municipal Corporation) in 1969.

Towering over the sea of humanity and maze of vehicles, it serves as a marker which points out the four cardinal directions, with the horse facing the north.

On Thursday, Bachchan went in the southern direction, in what seemed to be right beneath Netaji's nose.

The cine icon was on a bicycle while the Indian nationalist leader's replica rode a horse.

Both, however, had something in common - love and admiration from the city.

Onlookers and fans gathered at the spot. Some waved and cheered, while the majority indulged in a frenzy of clicking photographs.

Despite the presence of his fans, the 71-year-old actor was focused on his job.

Shyambazar is the busiest intersection in north Kolkata and is known to be the gateway to the northern suburban areas of the sprawling capital. Thursday being a public holiday, Guru Nanak Jayanti, the streets were relatively traffic-free.

This was Bachchan's second outing on a cycle since Sunday when he was spotted making his way through the city's nerve centre BBD Bagh that houses numerous heritage structures as also the Writers Buildings - the regular seat of the West Bengal government.

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan took a trip down memory lane on Gurpurab Thursday, and recalled his early days in Allahabad, his Sikh ancestry and how his mother, a Sikh, recited to him the Gurbani.

The 546th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev, was celebrated Thursday across India and abroad, including in neighbouring Pakistan.

On his official Facebook page, the silver screen icon reminisced his mother, a Sikh, singing the Gurbani (hymn) to him.

"Those early years in Allahabad, when Ma recited and sang the eternal pious and divine words of the Gurbani, in my ears... 'tati vaar na jaavaee...'

"My Mother as you know, a Sikh, Teji Kaur Suri, my grandfather Sardar Khazan Singh Suri, my Grandmother a Sodi, and whose family, her brothers and my Mother's Mama's were the Prabandhaks of the Anantpur Sahib Gurudwara...," Big B posted.

Amitabh arrived in Kolkata Sunday to shoot for "Vicky Donor" director Shoojit Sircar's upcoming film "Piku", where he plays the father to Deepika Padukone.

The 71-year-old took to Twitter earlier Thursday to greet his fans.

"Happy Gurupurb! Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji... 6th Nov... lakh lakh vadhaiyaan !!," Big B tweeted.

Actress Vaishali Desai, grand-niece of late filmmaker Manmohan Desai, will be seen playing a journalist in "Meet The Patels". She says doing a comedy movie will be fresh experience.

"I am doing comedy for the first time, so it's a bit new for me. I will play a journalist in the film and I have been observing how they (journalists) take interviews. An actor is supposed to observe, so yes, I am meeting a lot of journalists and I hope I do justice to this role," Vaishali told IANS.

"Meet The Patels" is helmed by "Mickey Virus" director Saurabh Varma. The film is based in Mumbai and is about two Gujarati boys Tom Patel and Jerry Patel, who know how to live life to the fullest and would do anything except hard work.

The actress is a Gujarati herself, and she's also playing a Gujarati character.

But she says, "I have been taking a bit of diction classes. I am Gujarati myself, but (at home) we speak English. So it's going to be different."

Vaishali, like many, admits "comedy is difficult". But her woes are being taken care of via a workshop involving the film's actors.

Vaishali made her debut in Bollywood with "Kal Kissne Dekha", and her hopes are high from "Meet The Patels".

"It's a clean comedy and everybody can sit together to watch the film. It's a normal commercial film, but the comedy is different. I'ts not crazy but you will laugh in every scene."

Produced by Krian Media, "Meet The Patels" also features Shiv Pandit, Shazahn Padamsee and Ketan Singh.

Film: "Rang Rasiya"; Cast: Randeep Hooda and Nandana Sen; Director: Ketan Mehta; Rating: *****

He's known as the father of calendar art. Raja Ravi Varma, played with arresting arrogance by Randeep Hooda in Ketan Mehta's exceptional biopic, brought the gods out of the temples and made them accessible to the masses.

And now Ketan Mehta, that artiste extraordinaire who paints his characters with the brightest colours of life, has brought the enigmatic ambivalent life and art of Varma out of the closet into the portals of palpable accessibility.

As depicted in "Rang Rasiya", the life of Raja Ravi Varma hovers heftily between the sublime and the mundane. He's at once an artiste and an entrepreneur, a lover and a debauch, a giver and, in his own words, a small selfish petty artiste. Hooda goes through the many phases of the artiste's life with first-hand familiarity.

Among many other things, "Rang Rasiya" is an illuminating exposition of a life that defies all demarcations and analysis. Varma was so many things to so many people. To thousands of Hindus, he's the guy who made worship of the gods accessible to all. To those close to him, he was a vain and selfish artiste who thought only about himself. To encapsulate such a scattered life in a two-hour film is a near-impossibility.

Mehta manages the miraculous. The film portrays the artiste as an icon and a rogue. An indolent genius who chances upon an ingenious formula to immortality: if Man can't go to God, bring God to Man.

"Rang Rasiya" is an extremely articulate film that never gets weighed down by its inherent erudition. The thought processes that define the age-old debate between art and freedom of expression, are given shape in fleeting scenes of marauders breaking down the doors at art gatherings. Scarily, the desecration of art, and the sub-culture of moral policing are shown to be as rampant in the 19th century when Varma took the gods out of the elitist temples, as they are now.

Mehta never over-emphasises the point of freedom of expression. Ironically, his lucid film often shows the artist misusing that freedom for his own selfish benefits. There are images in the film of destruction and creation, sometimes in the same range of vision. And if we have Ketan Mehta to thank for bringing Raja Ravi Varma alive, we have his cinematographer Anil Mehta, his art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai and his music composer Sandesh Shandilya to thank for representing the director's vision in images Acolours and sounds that are at once scintillating and subtle.

At the centre of this masterly portrait of an artist as a self-seeking pioneer is a passionate love story. Raja Ravi Varma's adoration and eventual abnegation and destruction of his muse Sugandha (Nandana Sen) is put forward in images visceral yet vivacious. The relationship is as steeped in the tragic ethos as the one between Devdas and Chandramukhi.

There are extremely bold sequences between the artist and the muse, including a shot of Sugandha baring her breast for Varma's brush strokes. Though the entire film wears a look of defiant provocativeness, none of the film's erotic moments are gratuitous. The director relies mostly an an understated approach to create a bygone era. The sets are minimalist and so are the costumes. No one is over-dressed, not even the British characters.

Floridity is anthema in Ketan Mehta's costume drama. Rather than focus endlessly on recreating the period, the director delves into the morality and mindsets that governed those times when prudery was frequently a disguise for hypocrisy. Mehta strips through the veil of double-speak. The dialogues between Raja Ravi Varma and the vanguards of organised Hindu religion are barbed acerbic and thought-provoking.

Wondrously, the film is never weighed down by pontification and verbosity. Painted in the distinguished yet disembodied colours of humanism, "Rang Rasiya" brings to vivacious life the very compelling love, lust and defiant art of Raja Ravi Varma.

Standing tall at the centre of Mehra's magnificent treatise of the artist and the morality of the times is Randeep Hooda. He lives and breathes life into Raja Ravi Varma's character. Admittedly some of Hooda's expressions are way too wry and cynical to be convincing in the 19th century. But overall he gets every aspect of the character right.

Luckily, Randeep has some outstanding co-stars who prop up his performance without patronising the protagonist's passion. Nandana Sen as Raja Ravi Varma's muse peels off all the coyness to portray a Fallen Woman who is deified through the artist's art. She has two extremely moving monologues which she delivers with feeling.

Gaurav Dwivedi as the narrator and Ravi Raja Varma's overshadowed sibling, Jim Boeven as Varma's German ally and friend, and the lovely Freyna Wazheir as a Parsi admirer, stand out in the supporting cast.

One of my favourite moments in the film is between the ever-reliable Sachin Khedeker and Randeep where Varma, demoralised by the turn of tides in his life is told to smile and welcome a new life.

A masterpiece by any reckoning, "Rang Rasiya" has a dazzling display of colour, desire, erotica, drama and emotions. This is Mehta's most intricately woven and enchantingly textured drama since "Mirch Masala".

Among the many startling ideas that emerge from Mehta's majestic exploration of religion, art, sex and the male ego is the one suggesting that Dada Saheb Phalke's dream of making a film was funded by Raja Ravi Varma.

Thank god and Varma, then, for the birth of Indian cinema.

And thank god and cinema for Ketan Mehta, who lives to tell the tale. If you love art and cinema, and cinema as art, then don't miss this one.

Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan, who turned 60 Friday, has launched the cleaning of Madhambakkam lake here as part of the Clean India campaign.

Kamal is spearheading the movement along with the volunteers of 'Narpani Iyakkam' (Welfare Club).

"Kamal Haasan launched the cleaning of Madhambakkam lake earlier this morning. Later in the day, he is expected to announce his plans on how to take the Swachh Bharat campaign forward and get more people involved," read a statement.

Recently, Kamal accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invite to join the Clean India campaign and in turn invited nine million people to make this a "nation building" initiative.

He also said he will "pursue this exercise not for any political philosophy".

Family and close friends of Kamal are expected to organise a birthday party later.

Film: "The Shaukeens"; Cast: Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Piyush Mishra, Annu Kapoor and Lisa Haydon; Director: Abhishek Sharma; Rating: ****

Who says remakes can never be as good as the originals? Abhishek Sharma’s new-age rendering of Basu Chatterjee’s "Shaukeen" is a smartened-up avatar of the original. It’s the smartphone of the current generation as compared with landline version of the comedy that Chatterjee made over 30 years ago.

Thanks to Tigmanshu Dhulia and Sai Kabir’s writing, the characters are spunkier and more rounded even when they appear to be as curvaceous as Haydon.

In principle, "The Shaukeens" hijacks only the basic idea of the original film. Three 60-plus men get lustfully attracted to a PYT (pretty young thing). Incidentally, the PYT from Basu-da’s film has now metamorphosed into a sad boring housewife in "The Shaukeens". A tragic bit of self-reference that makes no sense.

But we are digressing. The three over-the-hill lechers in "The Shaukeens", played with dignified horniness by Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra, are as dangerous as a child with a toy gun. A tone of ironical self-mocking bravado runs throughout the two-hour comic celebration of the wrinkled libido.

Not that Dhulia’s writing and Sharma’s astutely tongue-in-cheek direction spare the childlike-oldies the rod. There are some scenes of embarrassing humiliation meted out to the prowling trio -- for instance, the one where a girl on a deserted Delhi road reacts violently to their leching.

More power to the actors’s sporting spirit.All three actors, seen in a collective huddle of jaded horniness, give off their best performances portraying their sexually famished characters with a mix of childlike guilelessness and over-ripened curiosity.

I specially loved Piyush Mishra’s home life. A bland manufacturer of a masala brand, his two sons are shown to come forward one at time each evening, the first to offer him his meal and the other a choice between a blue and white pyjama.

These are lives awaiting excitement. Mauritius and Lisa Haydon provide that much-needed break from ennui in the three elderly thrill-seekers’ lives. Haydon, full of trivialised existential problems about the number of ‘likes’ on Facebook and other puerile prattle, plays her unselfconscious hottie’s role with the required amount of innocence and sauciness. She serves as an able foil to the three old men’s heightened horniness.

Rather than indulge the lechers, the narrative mocks them without letting them know. That’s the film’s primary victory. But the main-stay of "The Shaukeens" and the reason why this film must be seen is Akshay Kumar. Playing an alcoholic bored and cranky version of himself, Akshay quite simply takes over the show, bringing into play the kind of self-deprecatory humour that we have not seen any Bollywood superstar indulge in.

There are scenes showing Akshay Kumar the star, targeting himself as a non-actor, surrounded by yes-men and minions who smirk and cheat behind his back. Look out for Cyrus Broacha as the star secretary, Mohan Joshi as the star-director and Kavin Dave as an on-location fixer. This could have been a tragic saga of a superstar’s isolation from reality. Instead, Akshay turns the whole stardom game into an inhouse joke.

This is Akshay’s best performance in recent years. He adds considerably to the film’s comic quotient. As do the three veteran actors with performances that go beyond the bawdy.

"The Shaukeens" is a rib-tickling rumbustious sleaze-less comedy that Basu Chatterjee is likely to smile at. It’s bound to make you laugh out loud.

Arbaaz Khan Friday began shooting for a comedy film, to be helmed by the Abbas-Mustan duo under whom he last worked in the 1996 movie "Daraar".

"First day shoot for Abbas-Mustan's new film. Working with the duo after 'Daraar'. Great feeling to be back on their set," Arbaaz posted on Twitter.

He also posted a photograph featuring himself in his character's costume, along with the directors.

The 'mahurat' shot was canned Friday morning for the comedy film, which will mark ace comedian Kapil Sharma's foray into filmdom.

"Kapil Sharma makes his film debut. It's a super comedy. Looking forward to working with him," Arbaaz tweeted.

Moulana Azad National Urdu University (MANU) Friday launched its 'tarana' (anthem) written by well-known poet and lyricist Gulzar, composed by eminent filmmaker and musician Vishal Bhardwaj and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Rekha Bhardwaj.

The melodious 'tarana' was launched at a glittering ceremony attended by the Bollywood stalwarts, who refused to take remuneration to show their love for Urdu. The words penned by Gulzar, Vishal's music and Sukhwinder's voice had the audience spellbound.

The anthem starts with the line "Urdu ki udey khusbhoo" (the fragrance of Urdu). "Yeh Jamia-e-zaban-e-Urdu, zaban-e-Urdu ka ashian hai" it goes on to describe the university as the abode of Urdu.

Gulzar, who expressed his love for Urdu in many of his songs, told the gathering that he is in love with the sweet language. The poet described 'tarana' as a 'flag of voice' which will remain forever. He said the anthem was an inspiration from his past.

The poet, who went down the memory land and referred to his visit to his hometown in Pakistan after 70 years, revealed that he had failed in Urdu in the eighth standard.

"I am a servant of Ghalib and Urdu," said Gulzar, who produced television serial "Mirza Ghalib", on the life of the famous Urdu poet.

He hailed the contribution of Naseeruddin Shah, who played Ghalib, and singer Jagjit Singh for the runaway success of the 1988 serial.

An e-commerce site has invited ace designers like Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna to groom young entrepreneurs and designers.

Myntra.com has started an initiative "Designer in Residence" under their Myntra Fashion Incubator (MFI) programme to inspire fresh talents who have a flair for the business of fashion.

Apart from Gandhi and Khanna, designers like Wendell Rodricks and Rina Dhaka, Rahul Mishra, Paras and Shalini, Shantanu and Nikhil and Ami Patel are also on board to mentor the contestants under the programme.

These celebrated designers support the initiative.

"As designers we would love to see young talent creating waves in the industry. We are passionate about supporting aspiring designers and aim to help them find a new identity and a destination for themselves through this platform. This is just the start of a great beginning," Gandhi and Khanna said in a joint statement.

Participants will also receive financial support to create designs for one season.

As the programme has generated a lot of interest, Myntra has decided to extend the last date for submission of applications to Nov 10.

The first batch of the incubator programme is expected to roll out in January 2015 and as many as 10 entrepreneurs will get on board early next year.

Ringed by a circle of admirers at the crack of dawn Friday, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan shot for "Piku" at the British-era Howrah Bridge here and thanked the local police for its efficient management.

The Bridge, Kolkata's iconic landmark that serves as a crucial gateway for the eastern metropolis and ferries hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day, was abuzz with a different kind of excitement Friday.

Big B was seen cruising in a car along the bridge with co-stars Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan during the filming.

They were greeted with loud cheers and waves.

"Up at 4 am .. at Howrah Bridge !! Sympathetic crowds, love and affection and the superb management of the local POLICE ! Thank you !," the 71-year-old actor tweeted.

Over the years, the bridge has become a symbol of Kolkata and featured in numerous films by Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Raj Kapoor, Roland Joffe and Mira Nair.

Shakti Samanta's Hindi film "Howrah Bridge" featuring the beautiful Madhubala was also a huge box office success.

The 26,500-tonne structure, which finds mention in Rudyard Kipling's works, was commissioned in 1943 replacing a pontoon bridge linking the two towns.

The steel behemoth, also known as Rabindra Setu, forms the crucial connect between the bustling eastern metropolis and Howrah district over the Hooghly river.

Shoojit Sircar's "Piku" has generated tremendous curiosity among the public and anticipations run high.

Kamal Haasan, who turned 60 Friday, is not just an actor par excellence, but he has also donned multiple hats such as a filmmaker, writer, dancer, music composer. His colleagues speak highly about the versatile talent.

IANS got in touch with different people Kamal has worked with, to find out more about the multi-faceted artist.

Nobody can understand cinema like Kamal, says renowned filmmaker K. Vishwanath.

"I haven't seen a better actor who can understand cinema like Kamal does. I say this, because most actors only focus on acting, but Kamal waits for an opportunity to learn a new craft. He's a great dancer, but when we were shooting for 'Saagara Sangamam', he insisted that he'd learn especially for his role," Vishwanath told IANS.

Haasan played a gifted dancer who turns alcoholic in the Telugu film, which received two National Awards.

In last year's Tamil spy-thriller "Vishwaroopam", audiences were mesmerised by Kamal's Kathak performance in the song "Unnai Kaanadhu Naan", which was choreographed by maestro Birju Maharaj.

"Even though he is a highly talented dancer, he trained hard for the song. He spent hours getting every step right and he deserves special appreciation for that. What is more interesting is that he is the only male I have ever choreographed for," Birju Maharaj had told IANS after receiving the National Award for the song.

Playwright and scriptwriter Crazy Mohan, who has worked with Kamal in over 20 Tamil films, considers the latter "a gifted writer".

"There are a few actors who can also write really well. Kamal is definitely one among them. I think he should write regularly. Then, we might get some great stories from him. He writes poetry as well," he said.

For sound designer Kunal Rajan, who had worked with Kamal in "Vishwaroopam", the experience was "delightful".

"Not only do his movies give technicians like me the scope to perform, but also, Kamal Haasan, the director, always wants to experiment with new ideas and state of the art technology to tell stories innovatively," Kunal said.

"Working with Kamal and seeing him explain what he wants, his energy and his innovative ideas made a lot of difference to the output. He is one of the most brilliant filmmakers I have ever worked with and his enthusiasm was not only inspiring for me but for my entire sound team," he said.

Actor-filmmaker Ramesh Aravind says Kamal is always keen to learn new things. And he does that with a lot of patience.

Ramesh has directed Kamal in upcoming Tamil film "Uttama Villain". In the film, Kamal has dabbled with an ancient art form called Theyyam.

"It was Kamal's idea to use Theyyam. None of us had even heard about it. He spent a lot of time to learn it. Which actor is willing to spend time to learn new stuff for films? Most do what they're told by their directors," Ramesh told IANS.

Kamal underwent exhaustive make-up sessions for the role.

"He patiently sat for four hours the first time he got the make-up on his face for the motion poster of the film. He had also designed the look of the character and he ensured that he got it right every time he sat down in the make-up room," Ramesh said.

While Ramesh enjoys watching Kamal Haasan act, he looks up to him when he dons the hat of a writer.

Filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao says Kamal has the "zeal" to do "anything for a role".

"I've been asked over a hundred times how Kamal Haasan did that dwarf's role in 'Apoorva Sagodharargal'. And I keep saying only he could do it. We did use some tricks, but he worked extremely hard for the role," he said.

Kamal Haasan has never ceased to amaze everybody. Here's wishing he continues doing so with many more years in cinema.

Actor Siddhanth Kapoor says with his next film "Bombairiya", which will go on the floosr next month, he will step into a "different zone" with the "challenging" role.

"The film lies in a very different zone for me as the role is pretty challenging with a lot of chase sequences. I was part of the script since the character was being developed," Siddhanth told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

"I play a local courier boy who is not from Mumbai. He is trying to fit in the scene, but he knows how to get his work done. In the film, he gets involved in a conspiracy and the story revolves around how he finds a way out," added the actor who made his debut as a gangster in "Shootout at Wadala".

Siddhanth will share the screen space with Richa Chaddha and Akshay Oberoi in the film, which is an ode to Mumbai. It will go on floor in December and the actor is working hard to look convincing on the screen.

"I am meeting local delivery boys and going to local chor bazzar to portray my character in it's true sense," said Siddhanth who has done a wonderful job in "Ugly", which has been screened at a few film festivals.

Being produced by India-born British producer Michael Ward and directed by debutante director Pia Sukanya, the film will come out next year.

Actor Randeep Hooda's long delayed "Rang Rasiya" has finally hit the screens and the actor is relieved. But he adds that a film is incomplete unless it doesn't get larger critical reviews.

The period drama, based on Ranjit Desai's novel titled "Raja Ravi Varma", hit the screens Friday. Directed by Ketan Mehta, the film revisits an era that was revolutionised by renowned painter Raja Ravi Varma. It has been lying in the cans for about five years.

"I am feeling relieved," said Randeep, who was recently appreciated for playing a ruffian in "Highway".

"I am happy that it has released after five years because I feel that had it released then, it would have been ahead of its time. The story is anyway 100 years old.

"I am happy for Ketan because he has worked hard for the film. Unless, you don't get a larger critical review, your film is incomplete."

In the film, Randeep plays the painter, while Nandana Sen is seen as his muse.

Though the commercial release of the move had been delayed, it entertained movie aficionados at film festivals.

Randeep says that the viewers in India have misconceptions bout the films that are circulated at the film festivals.

"In India, people feel that a film that gets many awards or goes to festivals are boring and that it is an art house cinema, but that's not true. It's a nationalistic picture.

"I had told Ketan not to send it to international festivals because it's an Indian film. But those who have watched the film, got emotional after watching it."

The upcoming Children's Film Festival of India will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Clean India pet project as its theme, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said here Friday.

The three-day festival to be held from Nov 14-16 will have around 1,500 students from various schools in the capital and Sania Mirza would be the chief guest, Javadekar told the media here.

The festival would be opened with a dance performance by dancer Shiamak Davar's group, which will also have cleanliness as its theme.

Apart from the various films screened, the festivals will host a cinematography workshop, animation and puppetry workshop and a magic performance.

There will also be a workshop on how to make the best stuff out of waste products.

Actress Richa Chadda will soon head to Mexico to attend the Los Cabos International Film Festival, where her movie "Words with Gods" will be screened. She feels honoured.

"I'm grateful that the organisers of the Los Cabos festival saw fit to invite me. It was an honour to work with Mira Nair and the beautiful cast. 'Words with Gods' is a beautiful film and I am proud of being a part of it," Richa said in a statement.

"Words with Gods" is an exploration of the relationship between different cultures and religion. Based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga, it features nine episodes presenting different perspectives by various directors -- one directed by Mira Nair.

The short film also features Indian actors like Ram Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Vinay Pathak, Cyrus Sahukar and Shefali Shah.

Vivek Oberoi who has deep admiration for veteran Anil Kapoor and his work , recently bonded with him at the Hiru Golden Film Awards in Sri Lanka where the two performed live.

Both Anil Kapoor and Vivek Oberoi were seen bonding backstage and spoke at length about their upcoming projects - While Vivek has been spotted sporting a moustache for his look in Bank Chor,very few know that the actor took inspiration from Anil Kapoor 's character in Ram Lakhan which he recently revealed.

What's more coincidental is that while Anil Kapoor played a cop in Ram Lakhan ,Vivek's role in Bank Chor too is that of an inspector.

Vivek Says,"It was great meeting the real Lakhan...Anil Kapoor is truly ever green and continues to inspire generations

B. Hridayakumari, winner of the Kerala Sahitya Academy award and a literary critic, died at a private hospital here Saturday, her family said. She was 84.

She was suffering from age related illness.

A respected figure in the social milieu of the state, she was the former principal of the Government Women's College here.

She headed a committee constituted by the Kerala State Higher Education Council to suggest improvements and reforms to the choice-based credit-and-semester system.

The funeral will take place here later in the day here.