Newspaper readers in India got a mild shock recently when they saw a full page photo of Saif Ali Khan, his hair completely coloured blonde and a gun in hand, looking at his weirdest.Emblazoned on that image was the title of the movie Go Goa Gone in which Saif plays a zombie hunter called Boris. This is a home production of his and so he is personally invested in it. But in fact, we still don’t know how large a part Saif has in the film, whether his name is only being highlighted for publicity purposes. Because, for a while, this movie was touted to be a present of sorts for his sister, Soha Ali Khan, and her boyfriend Kunal Khemu, who were the main characters in the film. Both are nowhere near successful in their respective careers and a zombie movie was supposed to be novel enough to make a splash. Now that the trailer has been put out it’s not long for the movie to hit the screens. There is only one problem though. It is not going to be the only zombie movie in the offing. There is also another zombie film called Rise of the Zombie expected to release before Go Goa Gone. Fortunately for Saif it has no famous faces acting in it and with his star power it should have been a walk over for Go Goa Gone. But what it will do is kill the concept of being India’s first zombie movie. Saif also ran into another peculiar problem. The movie poster shows him holding a cigar and now anti-tobacco activists are protesting against it. Meanwhile, there is also a third zombie movie starring Abhay Deol in the works but no one has heard about its status for some time. Too many zombie movies, as the proverbial saying goes, must have spoiled the broth.Remake jinx The jinx of the remake of Zanjeer, the 1973 movie which launched Amitabh Bachchan’s superstardom continues to pile up. It started with the original’s writers Salim and Javed Akhtar launching a campaign to assert their rights over the movie. At one point Salim demanded upwards of $1mn. That is an issue still fresh. Then there was the sentencing by the Supreme Court of Sanjay Dutt, who plays the character of Sher Khan essayed by Pran earlier. He has to go to prison soon and before that they are hurrying to finish his dubbing and whatever can be wound up about his role. The film is a bilingual of Hindi and Telugu. Overcoming all these hurdles, they finally got the Telugu trailer of the movie out to start its publicity and again they ran up against fate. A court has ruled that the trailer must be withdrawn until the question of its rights is settled between the sons of Prakash Jha, who made the original. The son who is shooting the remake is Amit Mehra. His two brothers are claiming that he is still to pay them the money promised to hand over their rights to him. After such a series of unfortunate incidents, what next?Villain turns heroIf you haven’t heard of Sadashiv Amrapurkar, then that is because he has been out of the limelight for a long time. But there was a time when he was the most menacing man on the film screen. He started his career in 1983 with an art film called Ardh Satya directed by Govind Nihalani.He played an underworld don who is getting into politics and the movie is about how he corrupts a cop played by Om Puri.Ardh Satya got critical acclaim and made the careers of both Puri and Amrapurkar. For almost two decades Amrapurkar was one of the best bad men in the business who was there in every second or third film. But in the beginning of the new millennium, villains began to vanish as a species with many heroes not shying from taking on negative roles. For example, even now Race 2 had John Abraham as the villain. Full time villains were no longer in vogue and Amrapurkar more or less disappeared. And then suddenly he was back with a bang in the public eye last week and for a strange reason. During the day of the festival of Holi he noticed a rain dance event happening in his neighbouring housing society in Mumbai at a time when Maharashtra state is reeling under a severe drought and civil society has been exhorting everyone to conserve water. Amrapurkar told the event organisers that they should be sensitive and not waste water. They didn’t listen to him. Amrapurkar then got a television channel to cover the revelry and shame them in public. At this point, things got heated up and, six to seven of them charged at Amrapurkar and beat him up. He has now become a hero overnight for his social concern. It’s an irony for someone who used to be a villain. Star in the makingThe history of Bollywood is replete with stories of actresses who got to act in big banners but then vanished because they just didn’t have that X-factor. On the other hand, with some actresses everyone knows instantly that they will thrive. Parineeti Chopra seems to be one of them. She is just a couple of movies old and they were not huge hits either. There was a side role in Ladies Versus Ricky Bahl which got her noticed. And then it was followed by Ishaqzaade which had her as the main heroine. It was an average hit but put Parineeti firmly among the actresses all filmmakers keep an eye out for. In the recently announced National Film Awards, Parineeti got a special Jury Mention for her role in Ishaqzaade and that has only added to her demand quotient. One of the bouquets that came to her house later was by Amitabh Bachchan. Parineeti incidentally is the cousin of Priyanka Chopra, but doesn’t relish being addressed by that tag. She keeps saying in interviews that she wants to be known on her own right. Send your feedback tobollywood.eye@gmail.com