Subhash K Jha

Namrata in Bride and Prejudice

Namrata Shirodkar will play one of the two female leads in Gurinder Chadha's Bride And Prejudice, an adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. Her costar Aishwarya Rai earlier starred in Kandukondain, based on Austen's Sense And Sensibility, directed by Rajiv Menon.

"This is a new experience for me," enthuses Namrata. The film, in English, will be shot in London, Los Angeles and Amritsar, later this year. Adds Namrata, "Ash and I play sisters. I know her from my modelling days, so it will be fun." Kareena Kapoor was offered the third sister's part, but she refused the role.

Boney Kapoor's Khushi and Tinnu Varma's Baaz are releasing the same day -- February 7. The films, starring the Kapoor sisters -- Kareena and Karisma respectively -- have both crossing their fingers.

Khushi, which was scheduled for a January 31 release, was postponed by a week. February 7 will also see the release of Madhur Bhandarkar's Satta, starring Raveena Tandon.

Contrary to rumours, Raj Kumar Santoshi is not making Mughal-e-Azam with Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan as Akbar and Salim.

"I wish he was!" sighed Abhishek. Santoshi confirms he has no such plans.

But the two are getting together for an action film, which will go on the floors when Santoshi's Khaki (starring Amitabh, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar) takes a break. "It will be my third action film this year after Rohit Shetty's Zameen and Boney Kapoor's Run (directed by K Sreeram) and I am looking forward to them. I have two romantic films too -- Sooraj Barjatya's Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon and Rohan Sippy's Kuch Na Kaho to balance."

His ambitious Bengali epic Chokher Bali is almost complete. Having shot the film at a long stretch in Varanasi, Rituparno Ghosh is busy with the mixing and background score.

"Aishwarya has given me exactly what I wanted," he raves. In the first schedule, there were some adjustment issues. "But the second schedule went well."

In the film, Rai's husband is played by Biswajeet's son Prasanjeet. Moon Moon Sen's daughter Raima plays a friend who steals Rai's husband. "Raima reminds me of her grandmother Suchitra Sen," says Ghosh.

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