Kareena Kapoor in a bikini in Tashan

Ditto for Kidnap: Minissha Lamba in a bikini underwater was the USP of the movie. No wonder it tanked.

Minissha Lamb in a bikini in Kidnap

Dil Bole Haddipa starred a green bikini filled by Rani Mukherjee. Dostana boasted of a gold bikini with Priyanka Chopra in it.

What’s with the frickin’ fuss about the bikini anyway? Bollywood heroines have strutted their stuff in bikinis for ages now.

Sharmila Tagore is famous for her bikini photo in An Evening in Paris, in 1967, with nary a coy look.

Dimple Kapadia has worn bikinis with aplomb and so has Zeenat Aman. Even Rakhee Gulzar has worn a bikini.

Rakhee Gulzar bikini photo

Now, Blue, which releases on October 13, 2009, boasts of Lara Dutta in a bikini; no three bikinis, white, orange, and candy pink. We like to be precise.

Photo: Lara Dutta in a bikini in Blue

The movie, that stars Sunjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta, Kylie Minogue and Zayed Khan, is directed by Anthony D’Souza. The screenplay of Blue has been written by Bryan Sullivan.

Lara Dutta bikini photo from the movie Blue

Blue is said to be the most expensive Bollywood movie ever made so far, with a budget of Rs 100 crores.

Kylie Minogue has sung two numbers in the movie, a solo for a promotional
video and a duet, Chiggy Wiggy, with Sonu Nigam.

Dil Bole Hadippa! movie poster

She will be seen next in Yash Raj’s Dil Bole Hadippa! with Shahid Kapur. Will she break the jinx? The film producers are taking no chances. They are using the tried-and-tested bikini route to promote the film.

It worked for Minissha Lamba who “reinvented” herself as a bikini bomb,in Kidnap. Priyanka Chopra’s bikini did it for her in Dostana. Kareena Kapoor’s bikini was the talking point of Tashan, maybe because there was nothing else to talk about in the movie.

Rani Mukherjee bikini photo from Dil Bole Hadippa!

Even demure Amrita Rao is breaking the girl-next-door mould. So why should Rani Mukherjee not join the fray? She has fasted, not feasted, and worked out day and night for a super body.

Except that it hasn’t turned her into a bikini goddess. The girl never had nor will ever have what makes for a hot bikini babe.

Think bikini hotties and Megan Fox, Jessica Alba, Ursula Andress and our very own Zeenat Aman and Mallika Sherawat come to mind.

Rani Mukherjee bikini photo

Rani Mukherjee was sweet and cuddly and that was her best feature. Round laughing eyes and a wide wide smile. Alas, now the eyes are hard, the soft cuddliness is gone, and the smile has frozen.

The sexy and sensitive Tina from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai  is now a caricature of cookie-cutter starlets with plastic bodies and hard faces.

Here are some of Rani Mukherjee’s bikini photos in Dil Bole Hadippa!. She is wearing a bikini top that is very like the bikini the first Liril girl wore in the seventies, and what suspiciously looks like shorts!!!

Rani Mukherjee in Dil Bole Hadippa!

Dil Bole Hadippa! is helmed by first-time director Anurag Singh.

The movie also stars Anupam Kher, Tabu, Om Puri, Poonam Dhillon, Dalip Tahil, and Rakhi Sawant.

Dil Bole Hadippa! is about a young village girl who aspires to play for India. Of course, she wants to rub shoulders with Dhoni and not Anjum. So she pretends to be a man and makes it to a county cricket team captained by Shahid Kapur.

Dil Bole Hadippa! will be released on September 18, 2009.

Minissha Lamba bikini picture from Kidnap

a) Good girl Minissha Lamba, who has earlier shown no inclination to show skin, is going to wear a bikini in Kidnap and prance underwater.

Minissha Lamba says she worked very hard to make her body bikini fit, and is looking forward to play a glamorous role, which is rather refreshing, considering most actresses wouldn’t be caught dead saying they want to look glam. They all want to look like an ‘actor.’

When Minissha Lamba was approached the role and told about the bikini scenes, she said that at that point, she was hardly fit. She demanded, and got, time to get trim and toned enough to get proudly in a bikini.

The few bikini photos of Kidnap, already available on the Net are a big hit with Minissha Lamba fans.

But then Minissha Lamba does have some acting credentials to start with. She did a fab job in Yahaan, her debut flick, which bombed at the box office but won her considerable acclaim.

b) Good boy Imran Khan is going to play a out-and-out mean guy – at least I hope he is and the film-maker does not give us a sob story about a turned good guy, at then end of the film, which lets face it, happens to most “negative roles” in Hindi films.

Kidnap is Imran Khan’s second film, after the smash hit Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, where Imran plays a sweet young man, earnest and strong minded. Imran’s career trajectory looks uncannily like that of his famous uncle superstar Aamir Khan. Aamir’s first movie was Qayamat Se Qayamak Tak, a tale of starcrossed lovers.

Imran Khan in a still from the movie Kidnap

Aamir’s second flick, the little-known Raakh (1989) had Aamir play a very grim role – that of a vigilante set on avenging the rape of his girlfriend. Raakh, unsurprisingly – it was dark, gritty, had no songs, and minimal dialogue – tanked at the box office.

Minissha Lamba in a still from Kidnap

Will Imran Khan bite the dust too with Kidnap? Chances are he won’t, which has nothing to do with his unquestionable acting talent, but more to do with the box office drawing power of Dhoom director Sanjay Gadhvi. Dhoom 1 and 2 have been mega hits despite a terrible screenplay and the lack of a plot.

Minissha Lamba in Kidnap

What Sanjay Gadhvi can do and do it well is, well, gloss and tons of it.

So you can expect bare tanned chests – which is not a hardship if the chest belongs to Hrithik or Akshay Kumar, or even SRK, and even less of a hardship when it comes to mystery chests like that of Imran Khan.

Minissha Lamba in a still from Kidnap

And you can expect bikinis, long legs on surfboards, sparkling locations, hunky bikes, mean machines, and adventure sports somehow weaved into a plot (since there is no plot, one can safely say, crammed into what passes for a  plot.)

But then as long as I get to see Imran Khan’s chest debut, I don’t care!