Peepli Live, is a home production from actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan, and will be released worldwide through 600 screens in India and 100 screens abroad.

Aamir Khan says that the overwhelming response from the public to the trailers and promos of the film, prompted the company to scrap initial plans to open at 200 screens and go for a bigger debut. The promos have been character driven – in some instances using Aamir’s character from Lagaan for mileage. For the music release, there were performances by folk singers and also a glimpse of Aamir playing the drums with Indian music band Indian Ocean.

The film has been produced by Aamir Khan and is co-produced and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. The company has already recovered the Rs.10 crore it took to make the movie – having sold the satellite broadcasting rights to the Colors channel for Rs.10 crore and music rights to T-Series for Rs.4 crore.

The movie is satire about farmers’ suicides and the subsequent media and political response to the issue, set in a village called Peepli – a novel approach, since there are hundreds of villages scattered across India that have this name. Aamir Khan has reportedly received hundreds of letters and postcards from various Peeplis, expressing their thanks for making their village famous. Reports say that the actor was quite touched and overwhelmed to get so many postcards from so many different places that bore the same name. The Peepli in the film is set in Madhya Pradesh, but the name was chosen to represent all the Peeplis in the country. Letters have been pouring in from Peeplis in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan among others.

The film has been written and directed by Anusha Rizvi and is the first ever Indian movie to compete in the Sundance Film Festival. The UK release is scheduled for September 24.

The storyline is simple. The force and NYC idolize NYPD Detectives Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson). They’re the best cops the city’s ever seen – the stuff heroes are made of.

Photo: The Other guys movie poster

Somewhere in the background are Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg). Gamble is a forensic accountant more interested in paperwork than fieldwork. Hoitz has been stuck with Gamble since an embarrassing shooting episode. They are “the Other Guys” – the cops who aren’t doing much, the guys who’re often to be seen in background photos of Danson and Highsmith after the star cops have cracked a big case.

Will The Other Guys have their day? Gamble and Hoitz get their day in the sun and a chance to hit the big league when the star cops are indisposed. Gamble and Hoitz are given what seems to be an innocuous case, seemingly a suicide, but a case that no other detective wants to touch.

The buddy cops believe that the case could be the opportunity of their life, but will they be able to crack it? Given that they’re constantly being probed by their boss (Michael Keaton) and being shown down by a rival team of cops (Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr.).

Will The Other Guys earn Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg a spot among buddy cop comedy greats such as Will Smith  and Martin Lawrence, and Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker? The actors sure must be hoping so.

Will Ferrell, a member of Hollywood’s Frat Pack, a generation of comic actors to emerge in the late 1990s and the 2000s including Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, and brothers Owen and Luke Wilson, will in 2010 also be seen in MegaMind, an animated comedy film. DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind, slated for a November 5, 2010, release, is being directed by Tom McGrath. The voice cast, apart from Will Ferrell, features Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Tina Fey.

Photo: Megamind movie promo picture

Megamind pits Megamind (Will Ferrell), the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known, against caped superhero Metroman (Brad Pitt). After defeating Metroman, Megamind ultimately goes on to create a new opponent called “Titan” (Jonah Hill) out of an ordinary man who had an unreciprocated crush on reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). When Titan decides he wants to destroy the world, Megamind decides to stop him, setting out on a path to redemption in the process.

Mark Wahlberg, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his 2006 film The Departed, was in 2009 seen in director Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. A film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s award-winning 2002 novel of the same name, The Lovely Bones starred Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, and Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as her parents Jack and Abigail Salmon respectively.

In 2010, Mark Wahlberg will also be seen in director David O. Russell’s The Fighter along with Christian Bale. The Fighter, scheduled for a November 26, 2010, release, chronicles the life of professional boxer Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his older brother Dickie Eklund (Christian Bale). Amy Adams plays Wahlberg’s love interest.

Photo: Ranbir Kapoor with Katrina Kaif in Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani

Ranbir Kapoor’s on a roll. After a rocking 2009 – he had the coming-of-age Wake Up, Sid, love caper Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahaani, and the acclaimed Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, the Kapoor scion is hoping to repeat the magic with his line-up this year. What’s on his list? Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, Siddharth Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani and Imitiaz Ali’s Rockstar.

Born into a family of film stars, stardom didn’t come very easy to Ranbir Kapoor. After a stint at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, Ranbir Kapoor returned to India and worked as an assistant to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the 2005 film Black. He made his debut in 2007 with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya opposite Sonam Kapoor. The film tanked, and for a long time, Ranbir – though appreciated by critics – found that the big roles weren’t coming his way. All that changed with his 2008 film, Siddharth Anand’s Bachna Ae Haseeno which cast him opposite Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Minissha Lamba as a playboy who falls in love.

Then came 2009 – his turn as spoiled, selfish and rich Mumbai brat Sid opposite Konkona Sen Sharma’s Aisha in Wake Up, Sid earned him rave reviews. His chemistry with Katrina Kaif in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani lit up the screens and the box office. In Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, as the truthful, caught-in-the-wrong-job salesman Harpreet, he shone through with a quiet, sensitive performance of the underdog who triumphs. His performances in Wake Up, Sid and Rocket Singh also earned him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance in 2009.

This year promises to set him on the road to stardom, big time. Coming up first is Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, a family drama that focuses on the politics that members of families play. One of the most awaited films of the year, Rajneeti features an impressive ensemble cast with actors such as Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, Arjun Rampal, Naseeruddin Shah and Ajay Devgn. Rajneeti, courting controversy because of a reported similarity between the character that Katrina Kaif plays and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is scheduled for a June 4, 2010, release.

Prakash Jha, who last directed Apharan in 2005 and Gangajal in 2003, says Rajneeti is his most complete film. “This is a film about politics and tries to cover most aspects involved in politics – personal, family, social, state, national. Basically, the film tries to showcase what happens in politics. And I would say this is my most complete film,” he has said.

Ranbir Kapoor, who plays a suave politico, seems quite kicked about his part and said he was not apprehensive in the least about the fact that he was working with actors who had for so long been part of realistic cinema. Rajneeti, he says, was a huge learning experience.

Slated for a Sept. 4, 2010, release is Siddharth Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani. Ranbir Kapoor is cast opposite Priyanka Chopra (who is currently also working on Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf) for the first time in this romcom. Siddharth Anand, who has films like Bachna Ae Haseeno and Salaam Namaste to his credit, was reportedly keen to cast Katrina Kaif, but chose Priyanka Chopra. Anjaana Anjaani, which also stars Zayed Khan, will be shot in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Anjaana Anjaani is being produced by Sajid Nadiadwala’s Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, and will have music by Vishal-Shekhar.

Late 2010 or early 2011 will see the release of Imitiaz Ali’s Rockstar. Shri Ashtavinayak Cine Vision and Eros International Media Ltd will jointly produce Rockstar. Imitiaz Ali, the director of Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal, looked at the possibility of casting Katrina Kaif, Sonam Kapoor and Anushka Sharma as a Kashmiri girl opposite Ranbir Kapoor, but has finally zeroed in on model Diana Penty (she has appeared in the Maybelline, Garnier and Virgin Mobile ads) as his female lead.

Photo: Ali Zafar

Set in Pakistan, Tere Bin Laden is the story of a reporter (Zafar) whose attempts to immigrate are thwarted as his visa is always rejected.

When he chances upon an Osama lookalike, he decides to create and plant fake videos of Osama bin Laden threatening to take over the world. His aim? To score airspace at Danka TV, the news channel he works at. That apparently will help him realize his American dream. However, things don’t go according to plan and the White House gets involved, putting a secret agent on the reporter’s trail.

Tere Bin Laden also stars a largely fresh cast – Chinmay Mandlekar, Chirag Vohra, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Pradhuman Singh, Rahul Singh, Sugandha Garg, along with Piyush Mishra, Seema Bhargava and Barry John.

Pooja Shetty, who is producing Tere Bin Laden with her sister Aarti Shetty, said the film will be liked for its humor.

Director Abhishek Sharma said he got the concept for the film from something his wife said. He said one day, when he hadn’t shaved for months and his beard had gotten very long, his wife told him he looked like Osama.

That set Abhishek Sharma thinking about how to do a film with someone who mimics Osama on screen, he said, adding that the hunt for an Osama lookalike was tough. He finally chose Pradhuman Singh, a friend from Delhi, with whom he’d done theatre some few ago.

Tere Bin Laden is set in Pakistan. The director said the film could not have been shot in India as it is set in a Pakistani mileau. Pakistani writer Sayed Mohammed Ahmed was roped in to tutor the cast on diction and co-write the dialogues. Barry John worked as an acting coach.

Ali Zafar, a very popular figure in Pakistan, made his debut as a musician with Huqa Pani. His debut film is being eagerly awaited by fans in Pakistan. In Tere Bin Laden, Ali Zafar has also sung two songs – a solo song titled I Love Amreeka and a duet with Shankar Mahadevan titled Ullu Da Patha. His third album Jhoom is also awaiting release.

Photo: 50 Cent's shocking photo of weight loss for Things Fall Apart movie

50 Cent’s pictures were posted first on his official website ThisIs50.com and are also featured in the latest issue of Us Magazine. The artist says that he went down from his earlier weight of 214 pounds to160 pounds for the movie. 50 Cent’s weight-loss process consisted of jogging on the treadmill for three hours per day for a period of nine weeks accompanied by a diet that comprised of liquids only. His efforts were praised by his friends and fellow rap artists including rapper Tony Yayo who revealed that 50 Cent had stayed away from parties and alcohol as well for losing weight.

The 34-year-old rapper underwent the weight-loss process for his role in “Things Fall Apart” in which he acts as a football star who is diagnosed with cancer. The movie is directed by Mario “Chip” Van Peebles who also co-stars with 50 Cent in the movie. 50 Cent was also involved in co-writing the script for the film, which is being co-produced by his own production house, Cheetah Vision Films, in association with Randall Emmett. Shooting for Things Fall Apart had begun in Michigan and was set to release in 2011.

50 Cent, whose actual name is Curtis Jackson, has admitted that he starving during the period of shooting and that he had also had the tattoos in arms removed for the role. He also revealed that he was required to shed 65 kilos for role and that the photos were taken when he had lost 54 pounds. 50 Cent had lost weight earlier in 2008 for a role in a movie titled “Microwave Park”, although he had only reduced his weight to 185 pounds for that role.

50 Cent has however, started to regain weight in preparation for his latest music tour called “The Invitation”, which is scheduled to start in Cleveland on Friday. A South Carolina-based local newspaper carried a picture of the rapper after he gained a few ponds, when he visited Edgefield county as part of the research for an episode of VH1’s “Rock Docs” series called “50’s Roots”.

Other actors have also lost their weight drastically in the past for certain roles in films. Some of the most remarkable among them include Tom Hanks who lost weight for the movie “Cast Away” and Christian Bale who consumed only coffee and apples to reduce weight for his role in the film “The Machinist”.

Post-shooting of Things Fall Apart, 50 Cent is now putting on weight. He wrote and financed the movie himself.

Photo: Leonardo Dicaprio in Christopher Nolan's Inception

Written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan, the Inception movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao and Michael Caine. Inception will be released in both conventional and IMAX theaters. Related: Our older story about Christopher Nolan’s Inception

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard on the sets of Inception

Shot at a budget of US$160 million and shot in Morocco, France and four other countries, Inception is Christopher Nolan’s first foray into the realm of what can be called psychological fiction movies.

In Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a skilled thief and a specialist in a new kind of corporate espionage. Cobb works in “subconscious security,” breaking into the minds of tycoons when they are asleep and extracting valuable secrets. How does he carry out this perfect, impossible-to-track heist? He drugs the business moguls, attaches them to a sci-fi contraption and steals secrets from deep within their subconscious during the dream state.

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

Cobb’s ability to catch dreams makes him a sought-after player for corporate espionage. No surprises then, that the spy games turn him into an international fugitive. Cobb has one shot at regaining his life – he needs to do his job in reverse: inception! Instead of a stealing an idea, Cobb and his team are hired to plant one. Can they do it? The world of dreams can be a dangerous and volatile one, they find.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are selling Inception as a Matrix meets Mission Impossible kind of movie. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime, says Inception’s tagline.

Inception promises a smorgasbord of special effects – think Matrix-style fly-fighting, Bond-style shooting, and a whole lot of chases.

The stylish Christopher Nolan has described Inception as being similar to films such as The Matrix, Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor, and his own Memento. The director rubbished the idea that Inception might make use of the “second-life” idea from movies like Avatar. He said writing Inception took him around 10 years and he relied on his experiences with lucid dreaming during moments between sleep and wakefulness.

Christopher Nolan plans to give 3D the go-by in favour of the combination of Imax footage and high-definition film – a combination he used successfully in The Dark Knight. Computer-generated imagery will also be used for a few sequences.

Altered states and untrusted perception are themes that persist in Christopher Nolan’s films. Memento (2000) was about an amnesia victim; Insomnia (2002) was the story of a corrupt cop addled by lack of sleep; The Prestige (2006) was about rival illusionists; and the two Batman films (Batman Begins in 2005 and The Dark Knight in 2008) dealt with mind tricks.

Leonardo DiCaprio feels Christopher Nolan is the perfect director to helm Inception.

Describing the story as complex and ambiguous, Leonardo DiCaprio says Christopher Nolan has been able to pull off the film, which has complex narratives that work on a multitude of different layers.

Ellen Page, who plays one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s team members, says Inception is like reading a Haruki Murakami novel – “it’s fantasy, but instead of feeling like some strange surreal world it feels very honest.” The storyline is complicated, she says, but not confusing.

Christopher Nolan, the man’s who redefining film noir, admits that he tends to be drawn to the analogy of a maze. He says he pictures the story as a maze – he doesn’t want to watch his characters make the wrong choices; he wants to be in the maze with them.

Photo: Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is based on the popular video game of the same name.  This is the story of adventurous Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), an urchin turned prince, who teams up with rival Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) to stop an angry ruler (Ben Kingsley) from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. On the way, Dastan gets his hands on the Dagger of Time, a powerful weapon that allows a person to travel backwards in time.

Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and scripted by Boaz Yakin and Jordan Mechner (the creator of the Prince of Persia video game), the Disney adventure will be released in the United States on May 28, 2010.

The Prince of Persia seems to be following in the footsteps of producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s wildly successful Pirates of the Caribbean series.

The predominantly British cast, foreign locales, the inclusion of a “wacky miscreant with a heart of gold”  (Alfred Molina’s Sheik Amar mirrors Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow) and the fact that the Prince of Persia will be just the fourth PG-13 film in Walt Disney Studios’ history (the first three were the Pirates movies) indicate that Disney is keen to create another franchise.

Jake Gyllenhaal, who won an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain (2005), and was seen in Zodiac and Rendition (2007) and Brothers (2009), seems to be shifting from indie films to franchise zone.

The 29-year-old actor, who is raving about The Prince of Persia’s dazzle and vintage-movie soul, shows off an amazingly buff bod in the film.

Jake Gyllenhaal said that he “over-prepared, wildly” for the sword-fighting, horse-riding, fist-fighting and rope-climbing and that filming for the film was a rollicking ride. Jake Gyllenhaal also trained in parkour (the sport of running, jumping and climbing over obstacles) to bulk up for the “physical role.”

“I actually jump out of a window and land on the back of my horse, just like in the old movie, Zorro-style,” he said, adding that it was fun to get paid to get tanned and in shape.

Co-star Gemma Arterton, who was recently seen in the Clash of the Titans, thinks her Prince of Persia is a ”fit and funny” man. The British beauty said Jake Gyllenhaal is very serious when it comes to his work and is a perfectionist.

Director Mike Newell, said Jake Gyllenhaal was the perfect fit for the Prince of Persia because he has an aura of effortless charm and a boyish sense of wonder. Jake puts a human heart in the middle of a movie that will absolutely need one to connect with the audience, Mike Newell said.

Jake Gyllenhaal will appear in two offbeat comedies this year: David O. Russell’s Nailed and Edward Zwick’s Love and Other Drugs. Gemma Arterton will next be seen in Tamara Drewe, which is based on Posy Simmonds’ comic strip inspired by Far From The Madding Crowd, in 2011. Tamara Drewe is the story of a newspaper columnist who wakes up a small English village with her flirtatious ways.

After Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s turn on Broadway in 200y in the London revival of Peter Shaffer’s Tony award-winning play Equus, Rupert Grint is trying to step out of his Ron Weasley role. Related story: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park

The 21-year-old British actor, best known for his cheeky and comic portrayal of the red-headed wizard, stars in Cherrybomb, a gritty Irish drama in which he plays a troubled teenager who shoplifts, steals cars and tries drugs during a wild weekend. The film, directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, is set for an April 23 release in the United Kingdom.

Filming his grown-up role wasn’t very easy for Rupert Grint, who admits that his filming his first sex scene with Kimberley Nixon was agonizing and that he did not know where to put his hands.

The worst bit, Rupert Grint says, was watching the X-rated scene with his parents. He says film bosses gave him a preview DVD of Cherrybomb, which Nigel and Joanne Grint were quite keen to watch.

How did they react to the nude scene? Rupert’s mum and dad simply didn’t talk about it.

Speaking about the scene, Rupert Grint says he did not want his “bum up there on the screen” but agreed as the scene was not very graphic. For those who want to see him in the buff, we are sorry to disappoint you but no clips of the nude scene have been released yet.

Harry Potter fans who have followed Rupert Grint through six movies may be surprised by Cherrybomb. The film, also starring James Nesbitt, Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon – Rupert’s love interest, is far removed from the magical world created by J.K.Rowling.

Rupert Grint says he chose to do the film because of Malachy, the character he plays. Malachy is a complicated boy with a glut of teenage emotions and rebellion.

Rupert, like pal Daniel Radcliffe before him, knows he may come in from criticism from the public for his role in the wild teen weekend that goes wrong in Cherrybomb.

But, he says, doing adult roles as he gets older is the order of progression. With filming on the last-ever Harry Potter film on, Rupert Grint needs to experiment to ensure that he’s not remembered as only Harry Potter and Hermione Granger’s best friend.

Rupert Grint’s first non-Potter film was 2006’s Driving Lessons, another coming of age story about a shy teenager trying to escape the influence of his domineering mother.

Harry Potter cast members and –  surprise – Twilight heartthrob Jamie Campbell Bower turned up at the UK premiere of Cherrybomb.

No competition between the Harry Potter and the Twilight guys? Not at all, says Rupert Grint.

Meanwhile, bud Daniel Radcliffe is scheduled to return to Broadway in 2011, with a revival of a 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical.

The 20-year-old Daniel Radcliffe’s nude scene in Equus had sparked controversy. He will play J. Pierrepont Finch in a revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The play will be directed by Tony winner Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises).

Based on Sheperd Mead’s 1952 book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the play tells the story of J. Pierrepont Finch, a young window washer who rises through the ranks at a New York company until his attempts at coming up with a brilliant idea threaten his growth.

Daniel Radcliffe will go to Broadway after completing work on the final movie in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are currently working on the Deathly Hallows, which is to be released in two parts. The first instalment will be released on November 19, 2010.

The director is also reportedly in negotiations with Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) and Twilight star Kirsten Stewart for important roles in the film. Hrithik Roshan’s Kites movie is now nearing release.

Hrithik Roshan’s wife Suzanne recently tweeted that her husband had been signed on for Paani. “H has signed Paani…” she wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Paani is reported to be a modern take on Romeo and Juliet.

Speaking about what led to Paani, Shekhar Kapur, who has won international acclaim for Bandit Queen, Elizabeth, Elizabeth: the Golden Age and New York, I Love You, said he was in a tony Mumbai neighborhood when he was struck by an irony – his friend showered for half an hour in his swanky apartment on the 30th floor while the slums just below his apartment building had no water.

The inequity in the distribution of the natural resource most necessary for human survival set the director thinking and led to the development of the story.

After romancing Barbara Mori in Kites (scheduled to release May 21), this will be Hrithik Roshan’s second film with a foreign actress.

Hrithik Roshan will play the part of a poor person living in the seedier parts of Mumbai sometime in the future. He will meet the wealthy Kirsten Stewart in the tony section of the megacity and they’ll fall in love.

Reports said Shekhar Kapur had his eyes on someone fair, delicate and pretty to play the new-age Juliet, and that Kirsten Stewart fit the bill perfectly.

Shekhar Kapur has been cautious about revealing casting details. He said he had been accused of talking about projects that never happen. But, he said, Paani is a film that I’m definitely making, and in 2010.

He dismissed reports that Kristin Stewart was already on board for Paani. He said he and the Twilight star had had just one conversation. “She still needs to read the script. People are jumping to conclusions,” Shekhar Kapur posted on his Twitter page.

A spokesperson for Kirsten Stewart has also denied the actress’ association with Paani.

Reprising her role of Bella Stewart, Kirsten Stewart will be seen with heart-throb Robert Pattinson in Eclipse, the third instalment of the Twilight series in June 2010.

This year, Shekhar Kapur is also teaming up Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts to direct a film on famed English explorer George Mallory. The director will helm Mallory, which will be produced by Julia Roberts’ Red Om Films and Kevin Townsend’s Science+Fiction.

George Mallory – remembered for having said “Because it’s there” when asked “Why do you want to climb Mt Everest? – embarked on the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s. On his third expedition, George Mallory disappeared with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine in 1924 when they were 800 feet from the summit before the clouds closed in.

Mallory, set in post-World War I England, chronicles Mallory’s attempts to scale Mount Everest and the toll the obsession for the mountain takes on his marriage.

No decisions on casting have been taken yet, but Shekhar Kapur said he is very excited to be working on this “fantastic story.”

Poster of Raavan movie, that's Abhishek Bachchan. Ten heads not visible.

Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus – a modern take on the Ramayana – also stars Tamil actor Vikram and Govinda. The soundtrack for the film – also being made in Tamil – is composed by Academy Award-winner A.R.Rahman.

As the movie is being made in two languages, there is a bit of a problem when we write about it. The Hindi version’s name is spelt Raavan according to the trailer, but in some of the posters which were leaked, the name was spelt as Ravan.  The Tamil version is spelt Raavana in English.

Photo: Aishwarya Rai in Raavan - or is it Ravan, as you see in this poster?

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan  have done quite a few movies together – Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, Kuch Naa Kaho, Umrao Jaan, Dhoom 2 (in which they were not paired) and Mani Ratnam’s Guru. Of these, only Dhoom 2 and Guru were successes. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan hasn’t had a very good couple of years. Her only releases were The Pink Panther 2 (ho-hum) in 2009 and Sarkar Raaj (hmm) and Jodhaa Akbar (hit) in 2008. Abhishek Bachchan had Sarkar Raaj (hmmm), Drona (big miss) and Dostana (hit) in 2008, following them up with Paa and Delhi-6 (both critically acclaimed, but not very big box office successes)

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan must be hoping that Mani Ratnam’s upcoming movie Ravaana will turn the tide in their favour. The director’s earlier film, Guru, was lucky for Abhiash on the personal front – they announced their engagement after the film was premiered in Toronto.

As of now, the star couple isn’t staying in the shadows. Abhishek Bachchan and wife Aishwarya Rai are busy on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Aishwarya, in fact, seems to have taken it upon herself to convince mom-in-law Jaya to join Twitter.

“A big hello from maa, I am insisting her 2 join Twitter,” Aishwarya Rai Bachchan posted on her Twitter account recently. The Big B prefers to remain busy with his blog.

Back to Raavan. The film will reportedly be premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France this year. Mani Ratnam was thinking of premiering the bilingual film at IIFA in Seoul later this year, but seems to have decided on Cannes now – Raavan (the Hindi version) will be premiered at the festival on May 14. Raavan was originally set for release in 2009.

Believed to be an adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, there’s a twist in the Raavana tale. Do not expect a full, modern version of the Ramayana here. From what we here, there are some similarities, but there is enough room for Mani Ratnam to claim innocence if anyone accuses him of denigrating Ramayana. The main female character played by Aishwarya Rai is abducted by Abhishek Bachchan (who is the ‘Raavan’ in the Hindi version of the movie. When Vikram, her husband, questions her chastity, she feels sympathetic towards the ‘Raavan’.

Is Mani Ratnam deliberately courting trouble?  Just consider the recent controversies over My Name is Khan starring Shahrukh Khan, or the anger in Mumbai over the use of the name Bombay in the movie Wake Up Sid are examples. Let’s hope Mani Ratnam knows what he is doing!

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are the lead pair in the Hindi version of Raavana. Abhishek is Raavana, Aishwarya plays Sita, Vikram is Rama and Govinda plays a character inspired by Hanuman. In the Tamil version of the movie titled Raavana, Vikram plays Raavana opposite Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Suhasini, Mani Ratnam’s wife, also makes her Bollywood debut with Raavana. Ravi Kissen plays Abhishek’s trusted aide whereas Nikhil Dwivedi plays a cop.

The movie has been produced by Mani Ratnam’s sister Sharda under Ratnam’s banner Madras Talkies. According to unofficial sources, composer A R Rahman has reused two songs he composed earlier – one for Aamir Khan’s shelved film Lajjo and a qawwali composed for Jodhaa Akbar.

Recent media reports suggested that Abhishek Bachchan’s character in Raavan is also based on Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy’s character. Sources said Mani Ratnam was keen to have a strong element of contemporary history in his film – something that’s been seen in earlier films like Roja (terrorism in Kashmir), Bombay (the communal riots in Mumbai), Yuva (college politics) and Guru (a biopic on Dhirubhai Ambani’s life).

However, Abhishek Bachchan has rubbished those reports. “Another piece of great reportage by our ever dependable media. My character in Raavana is NOT based on any Maoist,” he Tweeted recently.
Director Mani Ratnam is reportedly unsure about how to end his film. He is said to have shot four options in Malshej, but no one knows which one will be final. In the first alternative (which could be controversial), Raavan wins over Sita; in the second, she treads the conventional path and returns to Rama; in the third alternative, Raavan dies; and in the fourth, Rama dies.

Even unit members are not aware of which climax will finally make it to the silver screen. Will the Hindi Raavan and the Tamil version Raavana have the same climax? No one’s sure of that either.

Shooting schedules for the film were rigorous and the three principal actors suffered injuries and viral illnesses. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan proved to be the toughest among the three. Co-star Vikram said he had never seen any actress do the kind of stunts Aishwarya has done in Raavana. He added that he had never seen any actress look so beautiful in such difficult circumstances.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also won over the production crew by dubbing her own lines in Tamil for the film. A Tamil tutor coached the actress during the shooting of Raavana, and she reportedly got the accent and tone pat.  Aishwarya will also be dubbing her own lines for another Tamil movie , Shankar’s Endhiran, co-starring Rajnikanth.

The recent Swami Nithyananda sex scandal has also brushed Raavana. Tamil film star Ranjitha, who was allegedly filmed in a compromising position with Swami Nithyananda, plays the role of Raavana’s sister-in-law in the Tamil version of the film.