Kareena Kapoor turned director for Ek Main...

MUMBAI: Every actor in the Kapoor clan seems to have a penchant for direction too. After cousin Ranbir, who directed a brief sequence in his last flick, Rockstar, it was time for Kareena to don the director’s hat. The actor recently directed a scene in her next, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu. The film’s director, Shakun Batra, wanted Bebo and her co-star Imran Khan to shoot a scene in Las Vegas, where they’d have to behave drunk on the streets.

Apparently, he wanted natural reactions from the public without anyone realising that they were being filmed.

“When Kareena and Imran were told about it, they seemed a little unsure. But later, she took charge of the entire shoot and after rehearsing it with Imran, they shot the sequence with ease. Kareena led the way and almost directed the entire sequence,” says a source.

Batra confirmed this saying “I wanted people to react naturally towards them. It was a fun sight. Bebo took the lead, and with Imran, behaved like they were actually drunk, lying down on escalators, making faces at others and giving strangers high fives. It has turned out to be a very natural sequence.”

However, when the makers got the scene right, they revealed to the public that they were making a film, and the people left laughing.

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I can’t park or reverse a car: Bipasha Basu

MUMBAI: Bipasha Basu is revving up to zoom into the theatres this Friday in Abbas-Mustan’s action-packed thriller, Players. The film is the official Indian version of The Italian Job (2003) and revolves around a gold heist and a motley bunch of experts. “We have a safe cracker, a computer hacker and an automobile expert, which is me,” says the actor. Quiz her on her knowledge about cars and the getaway whiz laughs, “I can barely drive one. Even today, I can’t park or reverse a car without banging it.”

She also admits that she’s quite a novice when it comes to video games. Players flagged off in Goa, before travelling to Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand.

Last June, Bipasha, along with the boys Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sikander Kher and Omi Vaidya took off to Russia where, besides pictureseque St Petersburg, they also canned some amazing action sequences in Murmansk, the largest city north of the Arctic Circle.

“I never thought I’d get a chance to go to the North Pole. It’s not your usual holiday destination because of the extreme weather. The temperature was below freezing point and in June we had 22-hour days with the sun setting after midnight and rising again a couple of hours later,” she reminisces.

She adds that there was snow all around and biting winds keeping them indoors unless work called.

“It was all work, some play and lots of talk, with us sharing details about each other’s lives,” says Bipasha, adding that the Players spent lots of time in the hotel’s arcade playing video games.

“Our favourite was a punching game. Bobby would win hands down while I was the worst. I may look strong but my punches lacked power,” she sighs then adds with a bright smile.

“But I have two big stunts in the movie that I pulled off convincingly.”

Having been a part of the action, Bipasha refused to groove to her item number from the film during its music launch, even though it was billed as a Solo act.

She reasons, “Players is about players. Why would I want to dance alone? It was more fun riding pillion on a motorbike and taking a 360 degree turn just before an explosion went off.”

Quiz her about an item number in Mallika Sherawat’s Kismat Love Paisa Dilli, and Bipasha laughs and says, “I have no idea how and when I entered this film and exited it. I’m doing only one special appearance in Race 2, another Abbas-Mustan directed thriller and that’s because I was in Part one and my role in the sequel is pivotal to the story.”

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Chitrangda says no to Kamal Haasan’s film

NEW DELHI: To accommodate dates for her mentor Sudhir Mishra’s new film, actor Chitrangda Singh, 35, has said no to South star Kamal Haasan’s Hindi-Tamil film, Vishwaroopam.

“It was a dream come true but it clashed with Sudhir’s film. So I had to say no,” she said, adding: “Sudhir was really disappointed that I had to say no to Kamal Haasan.”

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