Amitabh Bachchan may face trouble in UP

Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan may face trouble in Uttar Pradesh with the change of government.

The Mayawati government Pradesh is set to expedite a probe into alleged irregularities in the land allotted to the Big B by the government. Bachchan was allotted some three and a half bighas (about 90, 000 sq feet) of land at a prime site in Barabanki, 35 km from the state capital of Lucknow.

Bachchan is a close friend of Amar Singh, the high-profile general secretary of the Samajwadi Party that lost to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the state assembly elections this month. Documentation put forth by Bachchan raised the suspicion that the allotment was done in a clandestine manner.

According to informed sources, Bachchan has mentioned his name only as "Amitabh" and dropped "Bachchan" also from his father Harvansh Rai Bachchan's name in an obvious bid to avoid identification.

"The objective behind the allotment was to not only get prime land for a song but also to entitle himself for acquisition of an agricultural plot of land in Maharashtra, where none other than a farmer could acquire agricultural land, " a source pointed out.

A complaint is pending before the Election Commission against Bachchan's wife, Jaya Bachchan , for having concealed the ownership of the Barabanki plot as a part of her family assets that were declared when she filed her nomination for Rajya Sabha as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

Will it be Kangana?

The resourceful Boney Kapoor is ready to start a re-make of the Telugu film Pokhiri directed by South India's rubberman Prabhu Deva. Salman Khan has been signed to play the role immortalized by Mahesh Babu in Telugu. But who will play Salman's leading lady?

Boney too build his project on the pristine premise. “We don't want any of the girls who have already worked with Salman. In the Pokhiri remake we want to create a fresh pair with Salman and a girl he has never worked with. I think audiences are tired of watching him with the established heroines,” said Boney before he left for a ten-day trip to London and LA.

“I've to take a decision very shortly,” he sighed. “Time is running out. And we need to start shooting in September." One possibility that was seriously considered was Asin, the Telugu actress who co-starred with Mahesh Babu in the original. But Asin has apparently signed an exclusive contract for the Hindi remake of another South Indian blockbuster Gajini opposite Aamir Khan.

Now Boney is looking at Kangana. “Both my wife Sridevi and I saw her work and in Gangster thought there was something really special about her. She isn't like the other girls in Bollywood. She has a very unique personality.”

Kangana is now in the reckoning for the role. Although she's half Salman's age she's as old as Katrina Kaif who has starred opposite Salman in Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya.

Ash's 'Singularity' on the move again

The long-in-gestation Aishwarya Bachchan film Singularity is finally set to get off the ground by early next year.

Oscar-winning director Roland Joffe, best known in India as the man who helmed City of Joy, will direct the $35 million historical drama. Large portions of the movie are scheduled to be shot at locations in India.

The revival of the delayed project, being produced and co-financed by Belgium's Corsan and India's Neelmudra Entertainment, is good news for Aishwarya fans, especially as her first genuine international film, Doug Lefler's The Last Legion, co-starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley, has gone straight to the home video circuit.

Joffe, whose credits include modern classic like The Killing Fields and The Mission, has roped in legendary Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro to shoot Singularity. The 66-year-old Storaro has won Oscars for his work in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Warren Beatty's Reds and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. According to Corsan World Sales, representing Singularity in Cannes, the film will be ready for release before the end of 2008.

Singularity is expected to feature Hollywood star Brendan Fraser opposite Aishwarya though no final word is available at the moment on the rest of the cast. Aishwarya has returned to India after a brief sojourn in Cannes, but as always, she continues to loom over the Croisette.

Her face stares down at passers-by from hoardings and advertising slides along the boulevard and her pictures adorn many a L'Oreal campaign. That apart, UTV Motion Pictures is promoting Aishwarya's upcoming release, Jodhaa Akbar, in Cannes even as director Mani Ratnam is here to present Guru starring the actress and her husband Abhishek Bachchan in the Tous les Cinemas du Monde section on Sunday.