The blind item below talks about this new movie project by a newbie director, who has worked only with his designated group of newcomers. For his upcoming film, he took five steps up the ladder by leaving behind his usual group of chosen actors. He is now getting to work with real stars, so why bother sticking with his old group. Naturally, they were all shocked at being dumped because they sort of took it for granted that he was going to keep casting them in his films.

The blind item below is from Rajeev Masand and it seems that he knows a lot of what’s going on behind the scenes when it comes to this director, his previous group of actors and his upcoming film. This is probably like the second or third blind item that has been released regarding this director and his upcoming release.

Now reading about it and going back to what Raymond said on Rajeev’s show, it seems this upcoming film is different from the director’s usual theme. So now we are skeptical about it and there’s a huge chance that this might just end up to be Bombay Velvet 2; bigger star cast, larger than life story and bigger budget. Still, it will be exciting to see how it all turns out.

The director is trying something new and the actor too is getting into something new. It was publicised in the local media that Raymond and a veteran casanova were chosen to be part of this director’s upcoming film. We thought that this was going to be a dirtier version of ‘Rascals’, but now it looks like it will be something else altogether. Rajeev is saying that the senior actor in the film will be playing daddy to Raymond. Quite perfect! He might even teach Raymond how to find his perfect doormat or turn the current one into the perfect doormat.

Honestly though, this senior actor is going the Sanjay Dutt way. He looks too old to be playing hero to heroines twice younger than him. In his own directed film, he had a kissing scene with a young Polish actress and it was really disgusting awkward to watch. It’s bad enough that he doesn’t have the hero looks, but since his own dirty past times have been made public, it’s hard to look at him and think that he is a good actor and that he is doing all this in the name of acting. It looks more like he is taking advantage of the situation.

The regional film that Rajeev mentions in the blind item, you should catch with Kamal Haasan in the lead. It’s been a long time since Kamal showed us his acting talent since he was so focused on showing off that he can play a million characters in his film. That film was released in three languages in three different Indian Film Industries. We didn’t watch the original one just to wait and see Kamal Haasan’s version of it. It was worth it. If only Tabu was in the Tamil version instead of the Hindi version, it would have been perfect.

Check out the blind item below by Rajeev Masand.

Bollywood Blind Item

That Awkward Age

This A-list action star, fast headed for 50, was reportedly so keen to work with a promising filmmaker that he agreed to star in a film that the director was producing with a first-time helmer on the tacit agreement that the director would find a good role for him in his own next project. As it turns out, that next project is a heartland-set drama with echoes of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool, and will headline a young heartthrob star.

Said heartthrob star has admitted he was chasing the director for some time to work with him, having become impressed with his staunchly chauvinistic comedies that have done big box-office numbers over the years and that have found a loyal audience. The new film is a departure from the director’s comfort zone, but the young star is sold on the script. As soon as he committed to the project, the director reportedly went back to the senior star, offering him the role of the younger actor’s father.

Insiders say the senior star wasn’t quite expecting to be approached for a ‘father role’. The actor, like so many of our middle-aged leading men, still prefers to play 30- something-year-olds. (He infamously made a key change in one of his recent thrillers—a remake of a successful regional film—when he asked that the character of his teenage daughter be altered to an ‘adopted’ teenage daughter, presumably so that it wasn’t implied that he was in his mid-forties).

However, the new film had just become ‘hotter’ with the involvement of the younger star, and the senior actor did not want to lose out on the coveted project. So he’s doing the film, and sources say it’s not your typical ‘father role’. It’s a solid part that does full justice to his talent. The father-son dynamic is an important part of the film, and there’s no fear that the two actors will be compared for their performances because the roles are so vastly different.

OSOP Guesses

Action Star: Ajay Devgan

Heartthrob Star: Ranbir Kapoor

Director: Luv Ranjan

Regional Film: Drishyam/Papanasam