Ash forgotten

Bipasha Basu, the husky dusky sexy bombshell of bollywood who oozes oomph with every twist and turn, has been selected to play the character of Abhishek Bachchan’s wife in upcoming mega- budget flick ‘Raavana’

Bipasha Basu will play the part of Mandodari, who was ‘Raavana’s most loved queen and had the authority to advise him on any state matter without inviting wrath of the demon king. Sources close to director Mani Rathnam say that Bipasha will play a full-fledged role in the flick, and she is going to start shooting in right earnest from the middle of September. The highlight of Bipasha Basu’s character in ‘Raavana’ will be a sizzling hot item number, which is likely to be in the same genre as that of ‘Omkara’s ‘Bidi jalai le….’

In all, Bipasha will have around forty minutes of footage in Mani Rathnam’s magnum opus, which is likely to take around twenty days of her shooting time. Aishwarya Rai plays the part of Sita (not Abhi’s wife as was the case in Mani’s earlier flick ‘Guru’), while Vikram essays the part of Rama in the flick.

Sources close to Bipasha Basu say that Mani Rathnam had approached the sizzling hot bollywood diva for the role opposite Abhishek Bachchan around a month ago. Bipasha seized the opportunity and immediately said yes to the project. However, Mani had prevented her at that time from disclosing about it to anyone else, and so she kept mum till now.

But now when Bipasha Basu’s costumes are ready, she just can not hide her excitement about the project. Her look as Mandodari, ‘Raavana’s chief queen, is gorgeous, and sultry beauty has been waiting with bated breath to join the unit of ‘Raavana’ to shoot her sequences.

The buzz doing the rounds in the industry is that Mani Rathnam chose Bipasha Basu to play the part of Mandodari as she can project the right balance of oomph and intelligence in the scenes, which was a must for the character of Mandodari to come alive on the screen.

In fact, Mandodari was not only Raavan’s queen but is also credited with the invention of chess, which is purely a mind game. It is for this reason that whenever Mandodari would reprimand Raavana for abducting Sita, he would just laugh it off without being angry. In fact, Raavana had a deep respect for her intelligence and righteousness.

However, the grapevine has it that Bipasha Basu was not the first choice for Mandodari’s character and got the part only after Sushmita Sen rejected the offer. Insiders reveal that Sushmita Sen did not have any objection to the role, and in fact, wanted to enact the character but Aishwarya factor finally led her to opt out of the project.

It may be recalled that Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai have been bitter rivals from their initial days of Miss Universe and Miss World respectively. They never liked each other and have always tried to avoid as much as possible. So, there was no possibility of Sush forgetting all that for Mani Rathnam’s ‘Raavana’.

Good news for Ash.

According to cyberspace search item poll, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been voted the most dangerous Indian celebrity thereby knocking down Katrina Kaif. Last year, it was Katrina who ruled the cyber world. Among Indian cricketers Yuvraj Singh topped.

McAfee research showed that among Indian actresses, Aishwarya Rai’s wallpapers, Aishwarya Rai screen savers and Aishwarya Rai videos are downloaded maximum that lands Website’s online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware. Similar is the case for Yuvraj Singh.

‘Cricket and Bollywood are two subjects about which every Indian is passionate about. It is no surprise that cybercriminals capitalize on celebrities from the world of sports and cinema to lure innocent fans to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise’, said Kartik Shahani, Regional Director - India, McAfee, Inc.

'Its very common for malware authors to take advantage of current hot topics luring consumers to malicious websites they created. Users need to be cautious and should keep their antivirus/ security software updated with the latest versions’, Shahani said.

While, ‘Kaminey’s stars photos have also been downloaded to

The best on screen couple

Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai have not made a film together this decade. After the fallout of their relationship and subsequently the Vivek Oberoi saga, Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai have never patched things up. In a recent interview, Salman Khan talked about his past relationship with Aishwarya Rai and it felt like someone had just cut open a healing wound.

Aishwarya Rai on the other hand have been very quiet about their past relationship. The now Mrs. Bachchan have worked with a lot of stars of the Bollywood industry, however, it is the pairing with Salman Khan in "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" that struck a perfect romantic chord with her fans. It's not that Aishwarya Rai have not given successfull films without Salman Khan or vice versa, its just that they are such huge stars and have such a massive fan following that I can only wonder what could have been had the continued to star opposite each other.

According to several polls over the past few years, the verdict of the fans is clear. That they want Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai to get back together and make a masterpiece again. Hope they can bury their differences and get back to creating magic again.