John Abraham will star in Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet

Now, reports say that John Abraham too will come onboard. But, the funny thing is that long back John Abraham had announced that he is part of Bombay Velvet along with Naseeruddin Shah and Kay Kay Menon. We had carried the report in March 2009.

Old hat, this.

In fact, I would take the news that Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan are part of Bombay Velvet with a huge pinch of salt, until the news in confirmed by Anurag Kashyap, Aamir Khan or Shahrukh Khan themselves.

Though, long back Anurag Kashyap has said in an interview that he wanted Aamir Khan to be part of Bombay Velvet.

Bombay Velvet is set in the 1960s and revolves around the crime scene in Mumbai then. Anurag Kashyap was quoted as saying that Bombay Velvet will be like the LA Confidential of India.

LA Confidential is a fantastic flick. It would be interesting to see if Kashyap can pull off a thriller on the same level.

Bombay Velvet, reportedly, will have three segments, with John Abraham, Aamir Khan, and Shahrukh, featured in each of them.

Anurag Kashap had said in an interview that he brought two writers on board, for Bombay Velvet, who criticised him most for No Smoking.

If Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan are indeed part of Bombay Velvet, then they probably have cameo roles in the movie.

It’s not clear what Danny Boyle’s role is in this production, but some reports say that Boyle will present the movie to further its chances in the international market.

These include Kabir Khan’s New York, Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein, Hook Ya Crook, Abbas Tyrewala’s 1-800-Love, and Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet.

John Abraham and Katrina Kaif in the forthcoming New York

New York, starring John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Katrina Kaif is the story of three friends, in the backdrop of international terrorism. The movie has been produced by Yash Raj Films and directed by Kabir Khan, who had directed John earlier in Kabul Express.

Photo: John Abraham with Sonal Sehgal in Aashayein

In Aashayein, John Abraham stars with Farida Jalal, Girish Karnad, Shreyas Talpade, and Sonal Sehgal. The movie is about a compulsive gambler (John) who finds out he has only 90 days to live. He elects to move to a sanatorium where his whole outlook on life changes profoundly.

Abbas Tyrewala’s 1-800-Love is a romantic comedy, which stars John Abraham with Abbas Tyrewala’s wife Pakhi. John will also co-produce 1-800-Love.

John Abraham with Genelia D'Souza in a Hook Ya Crook movie photo

Hook Ya Crook is directed by Rensil D’Silva, and is currently in production. The cast of the movie includes Amrita Rao, Kay Kay Menon, Genelia D’Souza, Shreyas Talpade, and, some uncomfirmed reports say, Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Some reports say that John will star in American Empire, directed by Andy Armstrong and written by Kevin D. Ward. Andy Armstrong, Tony Senzamici, and Kevin D. Ward are producing.

John Abraham will play a gangster in American Empire. He does look the part here, doesn't he?

John will play the pivotal role of Renni DeAngelis, a powerful gangster whose reaches far and wide.

The rest of the cast includes Genevieve Cortese, Ross Francis, Arjun Rampal, Megan Brown, and Jim Fitzpatrick.

Photo: John Abraham in No Smoking

John Abraham has also reunited with No Smoking director Anurag Kashyap. The two will come together for Anurag Kashyap’s next Bombay Velvet, which will also star Naseeruddin Shah and Kay Kay Menon.

The movie is set in the 1960s, with John playing a real life hero from the 1960s, Anurag has been quoted as saying.

John Abraham started out as a model. In 1999, he won the Gladrags contest and started appearing in ads.

He came into the movies with Jism, in 2003, in which he co-starred with girlfriend Bipasha Basu. Jism was followed by movies like Saaya, Aetbaar, Paap, Dhoom, Karam, Viruddh, Zinda, Taxi No 9211, and Garam Masala.

John Abraham was last seen in Dostana and in a cameo in the delightful Little Zizou.

Amitabh Bachchan will star in the title role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Chenab Gandhi

As is par for the course for most movies in production, Chenab Gandhi too is surrounded by rumors about changes in the cast and so on.

For a while, there was a buzz about Hurman Baweja replacing John Abraham in Chenab Gandhi.

Interestingly, while there have been rumors about Hurman Baweja being replaced by all kinds of actors in all his movies, this is the first time there is a rumor doing the rounds that he has replaced someone.

There is something to cheer about in that, for Hurman at least!

The rumor has been squashed squarely, though, by the filmmakers of Chenab Gandhi.

Apparently, John Abraham has been busy with shooting for Hook Ya Crook, which he will wrap up by April 20, 2009, and start shooting for Chenab Gandhi, from May 8, 2009.

Chenab Gandhi stars Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi, John Abraham, and Vidya Balan.

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan with Mahatma Gandhi

The movie will be directed by Vibha Puri and written by Bhavani Iyer, writer of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s acclaimed Black.

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was the leader of the independence movement in India’s Northwest Frontier. He dedicated his life to non-violence and was one of the staunchest supporters of Mahatma Gandhi.

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan is credited with forming the Khudai Khidmatgars in the 1920s that took on the British police with non-violent opposition (Satyagraha).

After partition, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was branded anti-Muslim and was arrested, imprisoned, and exiled on and off for nearly 52 years of his life.

In 2008, TC McLuhan wrote and directed a documentary The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has directed only four movies after his first movie Khamoshi released in 1996. The movie was a disaster at the box office, but I still believe it is Bhansali’s best and most pure work so far.

It’s a pity he went into the grand spectacle mode after Khamoshi, stripping his movies of its soul.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s last movie Saawariya met with a lot of criticism. I haven’t watched it, so I wouldn’t know how much the movie merited it.

The next movie he is working on is Guzarish starring the golden couple Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. The movie is in pre-production and will be released in 2010.

Tarun Mansukhani, writer and director of Dostana, is said to be working on a script for Dostana 2.

Priyanka Chopra in Dostana

If that is the case, then this time around there will be no Priyanka Chopra, considering she faded into the sunset with Bobby Deol.

Apparently, in Dostana 2, the Abhishek Bachchan-John Abraham duo go to Punjab from Miami, and have a hard time convincing people that, guess what, they are not gay.

Unfortunately, they land in situations that make it difficult for anyone to believe they are straight.

To me, its stretching a few laughs into a script that will inevitably be wafer-thin. As it is, Dostana was a stretched version of the Kantabai scenes with Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan from Kal Ho Na Ho.

John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan in Still from Dostana

Dostana, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions was one of 2008’s big hits. The movie, definitely, albeit loosely, inspired by I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, is about two men Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan and Kunal (John Abraham) who are desperately looking for a place to rent.

They zero in on an apartment but are turned down because the owner of the house is a young girl Neha (Priyanka Chopra) who does not want young men as tenants.

John Abraham in Dostana

Sameer and Kunal then pretend to be gay, so they can rent the apartment, but soon enough fall in love with Neha.

But, they cannot express their feelings because they are ostensibly in love with each other. Meanwhile, Neha is very attracted to her boss Abhimanyu (Bobby Deol) who is interested as well.

Feeling threatened, Sameer and Kunal set out to break the fledgling relationship between Neha and Abhimanyu.