ADAMENT: Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut have both been denying that they are in a relationship.

Who is the hottest unmarried man in town? That would be Hrithik Roshan, who after his divorce a year ago from his wife, gets speculated about for all the fun he is having.
In recent times, more and more one name seems to be cropping up linked to him and that is Kangana Ranaut. It is in the nature of such rumours that they always get denied by the parties concerned but that is neither here nor there. If it was true, in Bollywood it never gets confirmed unless they get really serious and are always spotted together. Like, say, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, or Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. And if the news is not true then the denials don’t get believed because everyone thinks the couple is lying.
This applies in separations too. Hrithik, for instance, kept telling the media for a long time that there was nothing wrong with his marriage until he couldn’t any longer. And so what is left is the unending gossip mill. In May, Kangana was rumoured to be going to the Maldives to have a tryst with Hrithik but it turned out to be untrue. Recently, both have been making public appearances.
Kangana is promoting her movie Katti Batti, which releases next week while Hrithik was back in the limelight for an appearance in a music video along with Sonam Kapoor.
And predictably, both were asked about their relationship status. Hrithik’s reply was a “Oh my God. What should I say about it?” That was actually worse than a flat out denial because suddenly there were headlines that he was dodging the question.
But he did try to make things clearer at that same interaction when, asked who he would dedicate the song to, said that there is no one in his life to whom he could do so at the moment.
Kangana, too, at a media interaction, on being asked whether she was in a relationship, said that she was single and gave a complicated explanation on how she didn’t have any time for it in the middle of so much work. And that relationships take a lot of effort to nurture and with a 24-hour working schedule it wouldn’t work out for her. That’s actually quite a silly argument given that numerous Bollywood superstars who were busier than her have easily managed to have time for love and marriage.

Hero hour

The remake of the Hero, the superhit 1983 movie that got Jackie Shroff his big start in Bollywood, is going to be released this week.
Jackie’s role is being played by Sooraj Pancholi, son of Aditya Pancholi. The movie is produced by Salman Khan and the heroine is Athiya Shetty, daughter of Suniel Shetty.
Usually star kids have it easy when it comes to getting their first break into Bollywood but in Sooraj’s case it has not been an easy journey. That is because of the tragic suicide of his ex-girlfriend Jiah Khan two years ago. She blamed Sooraj for her decision and he even had to spend a month in police custody.
But he managed to get out of the controversy relatively unscathed and much is riding on this movie clicking. If it flops then he will have a tough time getting a footing again.
He was questioned about that difficult time by the media but didn’t reply in any detail beyond saying that it remains deep inside his heart. Usually people become film stars before getting into court cases, Sooraj seems to have been slightly precocious on that front!

Rani expecting

Rani Mukherjee was last seen in Mardaani in 2014. It was a decent movie and critics didn’t really complain. But it didn’t make any money at the box office.
Not that it matters to Rani. Many of her movies, including Mardaani, are produced by her husband Aditya Chopra’s production house Yashraj Films.
They have long history of suffering flops featuring Rani. Critical acclaim is therefore enough to keep Rani going. But she has been missing for some time from Bollywood’s field of consciousness and it is only now that the reason has become known.
As it turns out, Rani is pregnant. The baby is slated for delivery in January next year. There was also news that she had done a religious ceremony in her husband’s office for good tidings for the future.
Once the baby comes, she will probably return to screen. She has in interviews earlier spoken of continuing to work for a long time.

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What’s in a name? Fine!
The ghost of Sholay continues to haunt Ram Gopal Varma. It was in 2007 that his remake of the blockbuster was released and sank without a whimper. His troubles with the movie had started long before the release. He had called it Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay to get out of the copyright trap, but the producer of the original sued him nevertheless when they heard that he was using the name Sholay and he had to change it to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.
But the bizarre name wasn’t his only problem. He had by then decided that star cast was not very essential and so had Nisha Kothari and Prashant Raj playing some of the most iconic characters that Bollywood had ever produced.
These nobodies, who weren’t really any good as actors either, didn’t do anything to prop a movie that was a debacle from the start because of Varma’s complete self-indulgence.
And if you look at his career, it is from around this time that it starts sliding irreversibly. Lately he has been having bigger troubles with a never-ending string of flops and creditors chasing him. And now comes another drop in the overflowing cup of woe. A court has ordered Varma to pay a fine to the original makers of Sholay.
It said that he had infringed on their copyright by borrowing characters from the movie. Varma is now trying to make a footing in the Telugu film industry with Bollywood not giving him much work. Hope he earns enough from there to pay up his fine.