So Rahul didn't make it at the BO.

Which has set Subash Ghai a few steps back.

Which also puts him in the not-so-pleasant position of appeasing his critics and well-wishers as well as his board of directors now that Mukta Arts has gone public.

Perhaps that's the reason why Ghai has been wooing David Dhawan to direct a film for Mukta Arts.

David, for his part, is walking tall and crowing about how Ghai has been wooing him for a long time and how he has finally consented to direct a film for Mukta Arts.

And now for Round 2 of wooing.

This time, Ghai is all out to woo Shah Rukh Khan to act in his film. He has even been sending out several feelers to the star.

Will he, won't he?

Sister act!

While mother Babita was recuperating at the Lilavati Hospital, Bombay, from a minor ailment, daughters Karisma and Kareena were busy juggling their time between their shooting and spending time with Mama.

For breathers, they drove down to the Holiday Inn for a relaxed dinner.

The girls walked in confidently with a friend in tow, handled the crowds with aplomb, even posed for photographs and signed autographs.

Conspicuous by their absence at this scene were their protective boyfriends.

Closed door and mum's the word!

Mahesh Manjrekar and Sanjay Dutt seem to be having one closed door meeting too many!

The Vastaav director and hero are coming together again for Pitaah and another film for producer Bhappie Soni.

As for the closed door meetings? They are for a secret project that the duo is finalising.

If all goes well, Manjrekar will announce and commence shooting for yet another film, this one being a sequel to Vaastav where Dutt will essay the role of the son (remember Namrata Shirodkar was pregnant and gave birth to a son who performed the final rites of his gangster father in Vaastav?).

As for now, mum's the word from Mahesh. No talking until all the details are finalised.

Urmila -- nerves in absentia

Rinke Khanna and Antara Mali have been signed on to play the female leads in Ramgopal Varma’s new film Company.

They should be happy, right? But no. The two are very nervous.

Because the regular fixture Urmila Matondkar is nowhere in the cast.

Which means that there is always the possibility that one of them might be thrown out to accommodate La Matondkar.

It's been known to happen before, you know -- Manisha Koirala and then Mahima Chaudhry had been finalised for the role opposite newcomer Chakravarthy in Satya.

But finally, you know who stepped in.

Padmini: If not Astitva, then Sachin!

Close on the heels of Rati Agnihotri's comeback comes the news of another. Of the immensely talented Padmini Kolhapure.

Filmmakers tried their best to woo the lady who is considered one of India's finest actresses from her hibernation. To no avail.

Why, Mahesh Manjrekar’s first choice for Astitva was not Tabu, but Padmini Kolhapure. Besides her talent, it was also the fact that Padmini is from amchi Mumbai -- fluent in Marathi. The film was a bilingual made in Hindi and Marathi.

That the script did not tempt Padmini is another story.

But now, having commenced work on her home production, a daily soap, Padmini seems to have succumbed to working in a film with director Mahesh Kothare. She will play Sachin Khedekar’s wife.

Sachin, for his part, is one happy man.