This is the second time that Manisha will work with Bhansali, after the 1996 Khamoshi – The Musical, that was the director’s debut movie. Khamoshi, one of my personal favorites, flopped at the box office.

My Friend Pinto, that will go on the floors in end-2009 or early 2010, is set for a 2011 release. The movie will be directed by Raghav Dar, assistant director of Guru and associate director of Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na.

Dar will also script the movie along with Arun Sukumar.

Manisha Koirala was last seen in the absolutely dated Mehbooba – the movie is said to have been in the cans for eight years – in 2008.

Photo: Manisha Koirala

The extremely talented actress has acted in flop after flop in the past 10 years, with the exception of the 2002 Company. Her only other hits have been her first Hindi film, Saudagar (1991), 1942: A Love Story (1994), Bombay (1995), and Dil Se (1998).

Some recent reports say that Manisha Koirala, who hails from the premier political Koirala family in Nepal, is considering joining politics. The actress is reported to have said that she will split her time between Kathmandu and Los Angeles.

Sanjay Leela  Bhansali is currently working on the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer Guzarish, that will be released in 2010, and Chenab Gandhi, starring Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Vidya Balan.

Photo: Zoa Morani

The movie will be co-produced by the Morani brothers.

The flick will be directed by successful radio and television host Roshan Abbas, reports desibollywood.in.

Always Kabhi Kabhi will be based on a play Roshan Abbas had written and directed in 1999.

The movie explores life in high school and the joys and angst youngsters go through in their most sensitive years.

The cast of Always Kabhi Kabhi has not been completely firmed up but Abbas has said that the movie will star Karim Morani’s daughter Zoa, Archan Puran Singh, Satish Shah and so on.

Zoa Morani, who was the assistant director of Om Shanti Om, will debut with Always Kabhi Kabhi.

Always Kabhi Kabhi will go on the floors in November 2009, and will be released sometime in 2010.

Shahrukh Khan’s last production was the 2009 Billu and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, both of which were reasonably successful but did not set the box office on fire.

Sharukh Khan will be next seen in My Name is Khan, produced and directed by Karan Johar, and co-starring Kajol. My Name is Khan will be released in December 2009.

The movie will bring back the central cast – Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, and Paresh Rawal – along with Katrina Kaif.

Hera Phera 4, produced by Firoz Nadiadwala, will be directed by Anees Bazmee. Hera Phera, and its sequel Phir Hera Pheri was directed by Priyadarshan and Neeraj Vohra, respectively.

Anees Bazmi is the director of hits like No Entry, Welcome and Singh Is Kinng.

Hera Pheri 4 will go into production in March 2010, reports say.

Photo: Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawas in De Dana Dan

Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Katrina Kaif will be next seen in Priyadarshan’s De Dana Dan, set for a November 27, 2009 release.

De Dana Dan has been produced by Vipul Shah.

Akshay Kumar has had an unexpectedly bad run at the box office, in 2009.

The actor who gave back-to-back hits in 2007-2008, gave back-to-back flops in 2009. All his movies released in 2009 so far – Chandni Chowk to China, 8×10 Tasveer, and Kambhakht Ishq-  have flopped.

The fate of his latest movie, Blue, made at a whopping cost of Rs 100 crore plus, is as yet undecided.

A lot rides on De Dana Dana for the superstar.

Photo: Robin Wright Penn will star in the The Conspirator

The Conspirator is set in the time after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Mary Surratt (Robin Wright Penn), is charged as a co-conspirator in President Lincoln’s assassination.

Surrat is charged because she owns the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (played by Tony Kebbell) and his accomplices had planned the attacks.

James McAvoy plays a not-quite-sympathetic defence lawyer, Fredrick Aiken, assigned to the case, who later comes to believe in Surratt’s innocence.

Photo: James McAvoy on the sets of The Conspirator; Photo Credit: The Playlist

Alexis Bledel plays Fredrick Aiken’s wife, Justin Long his best friend, and Rachel Wood plays Mary Surratt’s daughter.

Photo: Evan Rachel Wood on the sets of The Conspirator Photo credit: The Playlist

Kevin Kline is Abraham Lincoln’s War Secretary in the movie, while Tom Wilkinson will essay the rold of Reverdy Johnson, an U.S. senator and ex-attorney general who is sympathetic to Surratt.

The Conspirator has been written by James D. Solomon and produced by Brian Peter Folk, Robert Redford, Greg Shapiro, Robert Stone, and Webster Stone.

The movie will be released in 2010.

Photo: Chetan Bhagat's 2 States: The Story of My Marriage book cover

The book is already getting Bollywood offers. Bhagat’s previous three books have all been adapted for movie versions.

His first book, Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT (2004), is being adapted as Three Idiots by Rajkumar Hirani, starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

His second, One Night @ Call Center (2005) was adapted as Hello starring Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Gul Panag.

Chetan Bhagat’s third book, The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008), will be adapted by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment, and directed by Rock On director Abhishek Kapoor.

2 States: The Story of My Marriage is the author’s autobiographical take on inter-community love marriages.

The book revolves around Krish and Ananya who fall in love but face opposition from their parents because they belong to different communities. The situation is unique to Indian societies where the young lovers set about to convince their parents to bless the wedding.

‘Indian love marriages are not easy. It’s not just the boy and the girl who fall in love. Everyone – both their clans – have to fall in love. In the end, the boy and the girl start questioning whether there’s anything more left to it and even fight. But it’s important – at least for me – what parents think of your marriage,’ Bhagat was quoted as saying in an IANS report.

The book draws from Bhagat’s own marriage to a Tamil Brahmin. Chetan Bhagat has said that he had dedicated 2 States: The Story of My Marriage to his in-laws.

The book, published by Rupa, will be available in book stores for Rs.95.

If  2 States: The Story of My Marriage is adapted for a movie version who is most likely to pick it up? Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra? Better be Karan Johar, else the two states will turn out to be two villages in Punjab.

Photo: Riteish Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandez in Aladin

Secondly, Aladin is a fantasy movie from Bollywood with what looks like good production values. The last big-budget fantasy movie was Abhishek Bachchan’s superbomb Drona.

And, last but not the least, there is the beauteous Jacqueline Fernandez, ex-Miss Sri Lanka, who makes her acting debut with Aladin.

Photo: Jacqueline Fernandez

Aladin is a modern adaptation of the classic Aladin And the Magic Lamp.

The synopsis of Aladin on Eros international’s website describes the movie as the tale of a young orphan Aladin Chatterjee (Riteish Deshmukh), an orphan bullied since childhood by Kasim and his gang.

Photo: Amitabh Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh in Aladin

His life turns upside down when Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandez) gives him a magic lamp. The genie Genius (Amitabh Bachchan) that comes out of the lamp wants to give him his mandatory three wishes and be done with it. He wants to end his contract with the Magic Lamp.

Photo: Sanjay Dutt in Aladin

Adventure ensues when ex-genie Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt) turns up to wreak havoc on poor Aladin.

The movie stars Ratna Pathak Shah as Marjina and Sahil Khan as Kasim.

Genelia D'Souza

Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance was first titled Star. The name was then changed to Yahoo, before the makers settled on Pe Dance.

A feel-good flick, Chance Pe Dance is about a young actor Sameer (Shahid Kapoor) trying to get a break into the movies.

Unemployed and homeless, Sameer is forced to take up the job of teaching dance to a bunch of kids who hate dancing, while he hates children. A marriage made in heaven.

In comes choreographer Tina (Genelia D’Souza) who encourages him to pursue his dreams.

Shahid Kapoor

Sameer’s pupils win a inter-school dance competition while he goes on to win a reality talent hunt.

But what’s with the casting? Shahid is a brilliant dancer so he should be fine. But, Genelia cannot dance to save her life. To give her the role of a choreographer is too much of a stretch.

Even Kareena who is a reasonable good dancer paled in comparison to Shahid in the Mauja Hi Mauja number. There is no way Genelia can match him.

Chance Pe Dance will be produced by UTV movies. Shahid has starred in Ken Ghosh’s all of two films, the hit Ishq Vishq and the flop Fida.

Shahid was last seen in Kaminey, a bumper hit.

His next Dil Bole Hadippa! with co-star Rani Mukherjee will be released on September 11, 2009.

There are rumors that Shahid will also act in his father Pankaj Kapoor’s home production, which will go on the floors in the end of 2009.

Genelia D’souza’s first hit in Bollywood, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, was followed by Life Partner that bombed at the box office.

Her next two 2009 movies are It’s My Life with Harman Baweja, directed by Anees Bazmi, and Hook Ya Crook with John Abraham, directed by David Dhawan.

Chance Pe Dance will be released in end 2009.

Zeb and Haniya's album Chup's cover

The duo from Kohat, Pakistan, who sing in Urdu with snatches of Pashto and Persian, will perform in India.

The first album of Zebunnisa Bangash and Haniya Aslam is Chup, that was released in 2008.

Haniya Aslam said, “Our visas expire in November, So despite being down with flu, we decided to come to India. I’ve been to Mumbai in the past but it is Zeb’s first visit.”

It would be interesting to see how the two fare in India. This will be the first time Pakistan female pop singers will perform in India, after Nazia Hassan, who became very popular in India, courtesy albums like Disco Deewane and the 1980 hit  Aap Jaisa Koi from the movie Qurbani.

But that was before Pakistani artistes were discouraged from performing in India. Nazia Hassan and brother Zoheb Hassan were probably more popular and influential in India than in Pakistan.

Now even Indian pop singers are struggling to find a footing in the music scene in India.

Talking about Nazia Hassan, Haniya was quoted as saying,  “We’ve heard her songs in our childhood. She managed to create an avant garde kind of  music for her time. If we manage only one quarter of what she did, we’ll be happy.’’

Haniya Aslam and Zebunissa Bangash are cousins. The two started playing together since they were six years old, but decided to take the plunge professionally when they were in college in the US.

The duo have won the Best Live Act Award at MTV Music Awards in 2009.

Photo: Johny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean

hollywood-elsewhere.com has reported that the basic storyline of the fourth movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is in place.

In Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, and gang are on the trail for the fountain of youth.

The villain of the piece will be a Captain Nemo type character using advanced technology.

The Pirates of the Caribbean 4 will be made in the “steampunk” style, which should be very interesting.

There are also rumors that producer Jerry Bruckheimer will rope in a new director, and it is very likely to be Rob Marshall (Chicago).

In April 2009, the studio had announced that Gore Verbinski, director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movie would not be at the helm of the fourth movie in the franchise.

The first three movies in the franchise were Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s end.

There are also unconfirmed rumors that Keira Knightley will not be part of the Pirates of the Carribean 4.

The movie will be short in the first half of 2010 and will be released sometime in 2010.

Disney had also said that the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 will be part of a new trilogy. Disney Head of Production, Oren Aviv, had said that the first three movies had grown complicated and they want to scale in to down.

The news should make a lot of fans happy given the lukewarm response to the last Pirates movie.

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp is shooting for the much-awaited Alice in Wonderland that is being directed by Tim Burton. The movie should be out in March 2010.

Johnny Depp will also be seen in Jerry Bruckheimer’s The Lone Ranger, where he will play Tonto.

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

This is the only new information available about the movie. Like we had reported earlier, the contempory sci-fi movie, that will be produced by Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, has been described as being “set in the architecture of the mind.”

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

The Warner movie is currently being filmed and will be released on July 16, 2010.

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

Inception stars Leonardo DiCapro, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy.

A teaser of the movie will be tacked on to Inglourious Basterds that will be released on released on August 21, 2009.

Maybe the teaser will give us a clue about Inception.

Meanwhile, the debate is on whether Christopher Nolan will film Batman 3 or not. While, Nolan has neither denied nor confirmed whether a sequel to The Dark Knight is in the works, there are reports that the movie will go into production in 2010.

Apparently, actor Gary Oldman, who plays Commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, revealed in end-July 2009, that the next Batman film will hit the floors in 2010, and will be released in 2011.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s next film is Maretin Scorcese’s Shutter Island, also known as Ashcliffe, which will be released in October 2009.

DiCaprio’s last releases were the 2008 Revolutionary Road and Body of Lies.

The actor is also producing and acting in two other movies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and The Chancellor Manuscript, which will be released in 2011.