MUMBAI MIRROR (December 31, 2019)

It’s like box-office clashes between A-listers, only, in this case, on foreign shores. Kareena Kapoor, who returned to her trusty New Year’s Eve destination, Gstaad, with husband Saif Ali Khan, son Taimur and sister Karisma, bumped into Varun Dhawan over the weekend. Around the same time, the 32-year-old actor, who is holidaying with steady date Natasha Dalal, had a chance meeting with his Sui Dhaaga co-star Anushka Sharma and her cricketer-husband, Virat Kohli, also in the snow-capped Alps.

Meanwhile, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, who jetted out to Phuket in Thailand over the weekend, were joined by their Brahmastra director, Ayan Mukerji, on Monday. “My sunshine is here,” Alia gushed, after offering (virtually, of course) a fruit platter to a close friend, whose wedding she had attended earlier this year.

Actress celebrated birthday with parents in Phuket on October 10
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 11, 2019)

Rakul Preet Singh who will be seen next in Nikkhil Advani and Bhushan Kumar’s Marjaavaan took off to Phuket on Wednesday to ring in her 29th birthday. She was accompanied by her parents, Col Kulwinder Singh and Rajender Kaur.

Speaking from the Thai city, the birthday girl says, “This is one of the best birthdays I have had. I am staying at this beautiful beach property in Phuket and began my day with a workout, followed by a walk in the greens, a bit of yoga amidst flowers and a hearty breakfast. I am glad I kickstarted my day by doing things that I love the most, a healthy routine and great food.”

Rakul, who has been shooting for S Shankar’s Indian 2 with Kamal Haasan, returns to the city today. “I had been looking forward to this trip as I don’t get enough time to spend with my parents. We hung out at the beach, jetskied and just relaxed. It was a wonderful day,” she exults.

Last month, Mouni Roy had taken off to Thailand’s Koh Kood island for a week to bring in her birthday with her best friends, while Akshay Kumar travelled to London to ring in his 52nd on September 9 with wife Twinkle Khanna and their kids, Aarav and Nitara. Ayushmann Khurrana and Tahira Kashyap’s week-long detox break in Austria happened in August, and sisters Kriti and Nupur Sanon took a quick vacation in the US and Canada last month.

Nushrat Bharucha is in Thailand for her best friend’s bachelorette with a gang of five girls
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 5, 2019)

Riding high on the success of her recently released film, Dream Girl, Nushrat Bharucha is currently in Thailand for the bachelorette of her best friend, Shrushti. It’s a 10-day hen trip with a gang of five who make it a point to travel together once a year. The actress will be back in the Bay on Sunday.

“I explored the islands around Phuket in the first seven days. We stayed at a resort in Coconut Village Island and it was a 20-minute boat ride to the islands,” informs Nushrat, admitting that she’s not an ‘itinerary person’ and prefers to explore remote places on her own rather than the usual tourist destinations. At the mainland, they sampled the local cuisine and checked out the coffee shops, but the real attraction was the old town in Phuket. “We have been partying every single night. Shrushti, who’s been my best friend for a decade, gets married in November,” she reveals. Any memories she can share? “I’m doing crazy things every single night, but I am not going to tell that to anybody,” she laughs.

Prod her for details and she says that her group has a rule: Nobody is allowed to sleep during the holiday. “The trips are so hectic that I need a week to relax on returning to Mumbai. The days are spent on the beach, riding the waves and indulging in water sports. We have dinner at a nice place, then go bar hopping. We get back at 5 am, sleep for two hours, then it’s an early breakfast,” she rattles off.

Basking in all the love and appreciation Dream Girl is getting, Nushrat is now gearing up for the release of Hansal Mehta’s next, Turram Khan, featuring Rajkummar Rao. “We just have a couple days of patch work left. Then, there’s a film that would be announced by the year-end. It will start in early 2020. Sorry, I can’t give details right now,” she signs off on an enigmatic note.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 31, 2019)

When Anees Bazmee approached Boney Kapoor with a story of three men and their sexual peccadilloes, which he had written and wanted to direct, the producer was game and they quickly decided that Anil Kapoor was apt for Kishan, the newspaper editor with a suspicious wife. “I had written films like Laadla and Deeewana Mastana featuring Anil, and knew he had great comic timing,” Anees reasons, saying they then approached Saif Ali Khan for the role of Shekhar, Kishan’s employee whom he treats like a younger brother. “Saif wanted to play Kishan but since Boney ji and I were convinced Anil was the best choice, we took Shekhar’s role to Fardeen.”

Salman Khan was Prem, though the director is quick to point out that his Prem unlike Sooraj Barjatya’s shareef, seedha family man, was a charming womaniser whose extra-marital affairs sparks off this comedy of errors and terrors. “Salman bhai had allotted only a day for the climax, but when I told him I needed three, he immediately agreed to stay back in Phuket,” Aneees reminisces. The climax was one of the film’s USPs, with the trio going over the edge of a cliff and hanging on to a tree for dear life, as a snake slithers by. “After we shot there, it became a popular tourist attraction and came to be known as the ‘No Entry Spot’ till the Tsunami washed it away.”

Anees surprises you with the revelation that after wrapping up the film, he had to wait for more than a year to release it. He had started writing his script with the title No Entry because, he reasoned, for a married man to court a woman other than his wife is like entering a ‘no entry’ zone. However, to his surprise, most members of his frat disliked it intensely and he was surprised by the almost violent reactions.

“People would snap, ‘Bakwaas hai’, and for a while I flirted with other, titles like Pati Patni Aur Woh, but eventually decided to stick to No Entry,” narrates the writer-director, who was later rewarded when it heard the audience raving, “Bahut achcha title hai”, encouraging him to experiment with Welcome, Ready and Singh Is Kinng.

But before that Anees almost despaired of his film seeing the light of the day. In fact, two days before the its release on August 26, 2005, he was suddenly told that it had been pushed again. “We finally opened without any advance booking and when I heard that there were very few people outside Chandan theeatre in Juhu, I resigned myself to the fact that two years of hard work had gone down the drain and went to sleep. I was woken up by the same well-wishers calling me a few hours later to say that the film was playing to a full house. In fact, business was better in the second week, with blackmarketeers doing brisk business. Even 14 years later, No Entry hasn’t gone into vanwas,” he exults.

Interestingly, despite its risqué subject and an escort, Bobby, at the centre of the plot, the film is seen as a family entertainer. Anees however reveals, tongue-in-cheek, that he knows of many husbands who have managed to distract their better halves from seeing the entire film, afraid that “unki sab pol khul jayegi”.

Prod him on Bipasha Basu’s Bobby who drives the men crazy when she enters the “Ishq Di Galli” and Anees informs that when the actress heard that this song was to be filmed on her, she begged him for 15-20 days to shed the weight she had put on during a holiday in the US. She turned up a fortnight later, looking gorgeous and her sexy moves still makes pulses race.

“Boney ji had wanted to shoot the song on a lavishly-mounted set in Mumbai, had allotted a Rs 3 crore budget only for it. Anu Malik (composer), Sameer (lyricist) and I had cracked while on our way to Lonavala. It was so catchy I immediately knew we had a chartbuster,” reminisces Anees. They eventually shot it in a real club in Bangkok, located opposite their hotel. Raju Sundaram who choreographed mostly for films down South, was cajoled into directing it and Anu’s opening beat became No Entry’s signature tune, used in the background at significant points in the narrative.

In the years since, talk of a sequel has come up several times. Anees admits that two years ago, he locked a story which can take the franchise forward. “We juggled five stories before settling on this one which took six months to finish. Now, I am waiting for Salman bhai and Boney ji to greenlight the project. Bahut khusboorat picture banegi,” he promises.

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 4, 2017)

After wrapping up a fun-filled Delhi schedule, the ensemble cast of Veere Di Wedding — Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Kareena Kapoor and Shikha Talsania, along with producer Rhea Kapoor, are taking off to Phuket for a 10-day shoot, during which a song will be picturised on the girls. The romcom revolves around Kareena tying the knot with Permanent Roommates-star Sumeet Vyas, and what the four girls do during the run-up to the wedding. “It’s all about a woman’s emotions and a special film,” says Kareena, who is jetting off to Thailand on November 5.

The gang of girls were dining, travelling and living together during the recent outdoor in the capital with Kareena pulling Sonam’s leg when the 32-year-oldactress admitted to being confused over whether to have dessert or not. “She shouldn’t be eating dessert because she just ate a box of Pringles,” the begum had revealed and while a guilty Sonam sulked adorably, everyone else had burst out laughing.

The friendship isn’t restricted to workdays. After the first schedule ended and the actresses were back home for a month-long Diwali break, Kareena sent Sonam an air purifier after reading reports of how Mumbai was experiencing the worst air quality this season owing to vehicular traffic and crackers. Sonam had been wheezing and developed bronchitis.

The quartet has shot a wedding song, followed by emotional sequences between Sumeet and Kareena. The duo also shook a leg. The next song will be different with the actresses trading wedding wear for beach wear and donning party hats. This marry-go-round promises to be a riot.

DNA (March 12, 2015)

Nargis Fakhri may be on a self-imposed sabbatical, but the actress seems to be taking it extremely easy. So much so that, she hasn’t had a release since David Dhawan’s Main Tera Hero opposite Varun Dhawan last year. There has been no news of the actress signing any new film either or that she is being approached for any new project. She has been travelling extensively as her social networking websites are full of her travel escapades. Recently, she was in Phuket learning some form of martial art. While it was being speculated that it was for a Hollywood film, there have been no confirmations on the same. And now, we hear that one of her skincare brand endorsements has also slipped out of her hands. She has been replaced by Taapsee Pannu of Holiday fame. While we understand that she could be doing all this for her Hollywood film, we just hope for her sake that her Hollywood ventures work or else it won’t be long before she could be written off in B-Town!

MID-DAY (October 22, 2014)

Ameesha Patel is currently shooting in Thailand for her debut production, Desi Magic. The unit has been shooting on the beaches in Phuket and the actress-producer is happy to be away from Mumbai’s sweltering heat. Desi Magic is being produced under her banner, Ameesha Patel Productions and has her business partner, Kuunal Goomer, as co-producer. Zayed Khan and Sahil Shroff, who feature in the romantic comedy, are part of the current shoot schedule. The unit has been shooting for a song sequence. According to a crew member, director Mehul Atha had the cast in beach wear for the shoot. “It was a colourful sight. The characters created quite a stir on the beaches in Thailand,” adds the unit member.

Upala KBR (DNA; August 10, 2014)

As a child, I’d make a lot of money on Raksha Bandhan (laughs). I have two younger brothers, Sahaj (21) and Shivang (20) and a lot of cousins and I would get a minimum of  Rs 100 from each one of them. Back then, my dad would give them  Rs 100 to give to me. Now that my brothers have all grown up, I tell them they should give me from their own pockets (grins). Of course, the stakes are higher now and I insist that each one give me at least Rs 1,000 per brother this time. I have to make more money!

THE DAY ITSELF
I think Raksha Bandhan is a day of fun and celebrations. But the bond formed between brothers and sisters and the principle behind the festival — for brothers to ensure the safety and security of their sisters — should be applied all through the year and not just one day. The day is also an excuse for families to come together and eat good food. We have big rakhi thalis with the sindoor, akshat, boondi laddoos and chocolate (some people don’t eat sweets). It’s a day of masti, shouting, everyone getting up early and getting ready for the rakhi-tying ceremony, going out with your brothers for lunch. A lot of photo sessions also happen that day...

ANGREZI DABBA, DESI DULAAR
Before I became an actress and was studying in England, where rakhi means nothing, I would buy red-and-gold coloured theads and send the rakhis. It’s very hard to find them there. It was just a simple thread, but along with that I would buy them something — like shoes, tees or even gadgets. So they would get these dabbas from London on Raksha Bandhan.

NEVER TOO FAR
Normally, I make it a point to always tie rakhi to Sahaj and Shivang every year but unfortunately this year both are not here and I am also shooting. Shivang is completing his 2nd year MBBS in Pune while Sahaj finished assisting Dawaat-E-Ishq (her next release) and is now in Ambala with my parents where he will stay for a month and help our dad out with his business. He had moved in with me to Mumbai last year as he wants to become an AD.

Of course, though, I won’t be there to tie rakhis on them this year, I have sent my rakhis and letters and am now just waiting for the cheques to arrive (laughs) as my side of the deal is done. We are planning to talk on FaceTime today as one of my one cousin sisters also ties them rakhis. Of the two, Sahaj is more mature as he takes care of all of us — including handling our house and helping dad. I feel younger than him sometimes.

FUN THINGS WE DO
If you ask me about the most precious gift my two beloved brothers have given me, honestly it’s just the fact that they have grown up so well... They are just a year apart and I am four years older than them but now we never feel the age gap anymore. We do a lot of fun things together. On my last holiday to Phuket, I had taken them along. I was learning advanced scuba diving but I wanted them to learn sky diving and deep-sea diving. Our relationship with each other is so cool now. Earlier it would be ‘Didi, give me this now’ but now it’s more mature. They don’t feel scared of me and are very level-headed about me being a known face. In fact, because of my being an actress and being known, they get irritated sometimes as to why we can’t go the to mall together and shop for them as we used to? When fans stop and click pics, they tell me I am wasting their time (laughs).

REALITY CHECK
They are not bothered at all by my fame. Even now, they expect me to go to the chemist and get medicines. For me, it’s like a big reality check to have them around. They couldn’t be bothered to attend events with me. We go for IIFA together as we are travelling and holidaying. I enjoy their company so much! It’s great fun having them around! Sahaj and I have become very close. He is one guy who knows everything in my life and is one of my best friends. Shivang sometimes feels a bit left out because of that, but he’s still a little bit of a baby...