Akshay, John team up again after four years

His maiden underwater thriller “Blue” is yet to be out, but director Anthony D’Souza has already convinced his producer Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd. to produce his next that will star Akshay Kumar and John Abraham.

“Akshay was on board for the next project from the word go. After ‘Blue’, I can’t dream of making a film without him. ‘Blue’ couldn’t have been made without Akshay. As for John, it’s strange that with his physique and body language he has never done a full-on action film,” D’Souza said.

Akshay and John have so far only been seen in Priyadarshan’s comedy “Garam Masala” (2005), but D’Souza sees the two not in the comic mould but in the slick stunt space.

“If I was a member of the audience, I’d want to see the two together in the kind of stunts never seen before.”

The film to start early next year will have never-before action. After going underwater in “Blue”, the director will indulge in a lot of aerial stunts in his next.

A.R. Rahman has also said yes to score music for D’Souza’s next film.

Govinda becomes a John Abraham fan!

John Abraham has found a new die-hard fan from Bollywood in Govinda. Though Govinda hasn’t worked with the hunky John yet, it is learnt that he is looking forward to working with him soon.

A source reveals, “Recently, when Govinda met up with his favorite director David Dhawan, he was surprised to hear Dhawan singing huge praises of John. Dhawan is working with John in his upcoming flick, Hook Ya Crook. David appeared very impressed with John and his spontaneity, and couldn’t stop gushing about him to Govinda. That’s when Govinda got curious about John’s work in the movie. He wanted to see for himself why Dhawan was so impressed with John. Then David called Govinda to his studio the next day and showed him a few rushes of their forthcoming film. The actor was pleasantly surprised to see John’s energy on the screen and the innocence he brought to the character. He felt that John’s acting skills made Dhawan’s humor work perfectly for the film. Since then, even Govinda can’t stop gushing about John and has expressed his desire to work with him to Dhawan.”

Udita back with a bang, signs on five films

She debuted opposite John Abraham in a film written by Mahesh Bhatt but failed to live up to expectations after that. Model-turned-actress Udita Goswami is now set to make a comeback and has five films lined up — two opposite Akshay Kumar, two with Sunny Deol and then a supernatural thriller.

“My time is coming, you see,” Udita told IANS. “Just imagine, from one film in a year, I am rolling as many as five. It’s good to be occupied and be doing some nice work,” she said.

Udita is looking forward to the two films with Sunny Deol as they enable her to do something different from her earlier work.

“Yes, I’m working in ‘Fox’ and ‘The Man’, both of which are action films with Sunny Deol in the lead. Both films give me a chance to do something that I haven’t done before,” she said.

Apart from these two films, she will also be seen in “Chase” and “Hello India” — both opposite Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.

Udita had a good beginning in 2004 with “Paap”, which was directed by Pooja Bhatt. But the film didn’t do as well as expected. And since then she has featured in a few movies like “Zeher”, “Aksar”, “Aggar” and “Kisse Pyaar Karoon”. So why did she sign on such few films after “Paap”?

“Well, I had a certain thought process around signing only those films that had me in a central role. But this didn’t quite work because how many women-centric films are actually made today? Guess I had to have a change in mindset and thankfully now I have revisited my priorities. Yes, I have become flexible in my choice of roles but am still particular about the banners I sign and people I work with,” the actress explained.

She is now attempting a different genre with her latest film “Rokk” — a supernatural thriller that is set to go on floors by August.

” ‘Rokk’ will be extremely different from anything that I have done so far. It was important that I work on diverse genres. After giving myself a break to ponder over what I really wanted to do, I decided to work on ‘Rokk’,” said Udita.

“Rokk” is about two sisters and former Miss India Tanushree Dutta plays Udita’s sister. According to Udita, the film has no heroes and the narrative is primarily character-driven.

“The film is directed by this new guy called Rajesh Ranshinge,” she said. “He is new to films but has been making some good supernatural thrillers for years on television. He has seen it and done it all in TV serials like ‘Shh…Koi Hai’, ‘Aahat’ and ‘CID’. He is a great guy…someone who is very clear and focussed,” Udita added.

On Akshay and John’s mutual admiration society

Guess who have turned the latest buddies in Bollywood? None other than Akshay Kumar and John Abraham. Elated with the success of their films “Kambakkht Ishq” and “New York” respectively they can’t help singing praises for each other.

The two films, which saw Kareena Kapoor opposite Akshay and Katrina Kaif paired with John, have been responsible for getting the industry out of a slump it had got into since the beginning of 2009.

Akshay Kumar, who is delighted with his “Kambakkht Ishq”, told : “I am extremely happy for ‘New York’ and especially John. The film brought an end to the bad run that Bollywood was facing for such a long time. I’m glad that Kabir (Khan) came up with a well-made film that brought audiences back to theatres.”

Akshay and John had worked together in the 2005 laugh riot “Garam Masala”. Audiences liked the two together and it went on to become a hit at the box office.

John too was effusive in his praise for Akshay.

“I love Akshay. When he is happy, I’m also happy. I’m so glad that ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ is performing so well. He deserved it. He is not just my senior but also a very good man,” John said.

Considering the fact that an exceptional opening for director Sabbir Khan’s “Kambakkht Ishq” meant a dent in the collections of “New York”, doesn’t it worry John a little?

“See, we had a fantastic opening and we have been stable ever since,” John said of “New York”.

“On a slightly reduced number of shows, we have still been doing quite well.

Our percentage occupancy in the screens where ‘New York’ is running is still quite good. In this way we are still getting good enough patronage from our target audience,” he added.

“People do ask me how I could be singing praises for my peer especially since our films have been released back to back. My answer to them is that you need to have a certain camaraderie to understand something like that. Akshay has been a great friend and he will always be,” John said.

He is particularly happy about the appreciation coming from Akshay, who took out time to watch “New York”.

“After such a busy promotional tour for his own ‘Kambakkht Ishq’, he came back to town and saw ‘New York’. He was quite vocal about his appreciation for the film and me. It was quite genuine and touching to the heart,” the actor said.

Akshay is all praise not just for “New York” but says he wants all forthcoming films to succeed.

“Films like ‘New York’ should be made. It deserves all the success. Now I want upcoming biggies like ‘Love Aaj Kal’ and ‘Kaminey’ amongst others to do well too. We should all be happy in each other’s success. Only then will the industry grow. We should allow each other to perform well so that we also continue to do well. Industry needs continuous inflow of money,” Akshay reasoned.

Before 2009 comes to a close, Akshay would be seen in “De Dana Dhan” and “Blue”. On the other hand John’s “Hook Ya Crook” is currently slated for a December release while the other film he is set to begin shooting for is Abbas Tyrewala’s “1:800 Love”.