The situation was very close to reality, as they had to play a couple constantly at loggerheads with each other.

Rajesh Khanna was thrilled, and Dimple too seemed willing. Just when the filmmaker was celebrating his casting coup, though, Dimple Kapadia dashed a bucket of cold water on his joy -- by citing a figure as her remuneration, that had the hapless filmmaker's blood pressure soaring.

It took him a while to understand -- and then the penny dropped. Dimple was none too keen on starring opposite her estranged husband, but did not want to say so either. And hence, the simple expedient of citing a figure she knew could never be met.

The last Emperor

Whatever Shah Rukh Khan undertakes, he does with great passion.

Lately, the star has been deeply involved with his pet project Asoka. Directed by Santosh Sivan, the film has Kareena Kapoor playing female lead.

Khan has been spending every free minute with the filmmaker, either in editing room, or at the designer's, giving final touches to the publicity material.

And what is more, he has personally been meeting with distributors and prospective music companies to negotiate all promotions -- so now you know why he hasn't signed any new films lately.

Bad times for Dev Anand

Times change, and how!

There was a time when Dev Anand was considered one of the top filmmakers, and it was every girl's dream to be launched by him. Ask Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim, two beauty queens who made the successful jump to the silver screen under his aegis.

Today, when they see Dev Anand coming, the girls are tending to run the other way!

Apparently, the yesteryears' matinee idol was keen to introduce any of the three reigning beauty queens -- Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza -- in his forthcoming films. He sent several feelers towards this end. Two of them did not bother to respond, while a third called back only to tell him she had no dates to spare.

Ah well -- even the fountain of eternal youth has, at some point, to run dry.

Farah rocks!

If there is any doubt about Farah Khan's supremacy, this incident should set the record straight.

Filmmakers Rajiv Rai, Boney Kapoor and Ramesh Taurani of Tips had decided to pool in and take a small unit to New Zealand for the picturisation of songs of their respective films.

The artists were different, while the technicians were common in some cases.

Two of the films had Saroj as the choreographer, while Farah was doing the film for Tips. But there was a date problem and Farah had to opt out.

Of course, Tips could have gone ahead with another choreographer. But they decided not to, and postponed their own shooting schedule.

So what if it meant a dent in their budget and extra expenses, they did not want to compromise. The song had to be filmed by the best, and the best today is spelt F-a-r-a-h.

Gutsy or greedy?

At a time when stars still shun the small screen, Govinda took up the challenge of getting into direct competition with the Big B, and hosted the show, Jeeto Chapper Phaad Ke.

And when stars run miles to avoid being signed on to do music videos, it is again Govinda leaping in where his peers fear to tread. He will, thus, star in an upcoming video featuring Adnan Sami.

Boldness? The courage to risk treading his own path? A desire to try his hand at everything, big and small? Or simply that the kind of money he is being offered for these small screen outings is too much for him to ignore?

There are your four options -- pick the right one, and you win. Chapper Phaad Ke!