“Oh Anil, you always ask me such strange questions!” Shilpa Shetty exclaimed last night when I met her in London. Shetty was in town to promote her stage ‘dancical’ Miss Bollywood which is currently on tour across the UK and comes to the capital on 12 December.

Shilpa plays Maya, an Indian choreographer who comes to London in order to establish her own dance studio and to put on her own show. Does Maya encounter any bullying and racism when she tries to do so? “She is bullied by a diva!” Shetty stated.

Was Shilpa referring to her former housemate Jade Goody by any chance?

“The last year has been surreal,” Shetty added, stating that she would love to support an anti-racism crime unit where such incidents can be reported and investigated.

What’s next for Shilpa? Her jasmine scented perfume S2 is repackaged into a Christmas Gift box set in December and it will now include the Shilpa body cream lotion.

John Abraham’s goal

“I am playing Sunny from Southall,” John Abraham tells me when I ask him about this Friday’s release, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. “It is about a bunch of British Asians who the world believes cannot play football.” The hunky star, last seen in the disastrous No Smoking, has no regrets. “It is a John Abraham film; it has to be different. My idea is to do work I really believe in,” the Tottenham Hotspur fan pointed out.

Does Goal have crossover potential? “It has potential but I feel that if we keep concentrating on showing the film in predominantly Asian theatres we are never going to reach out to the international audience.” Valid point, indeed.

Bipasha’s December blues

“I hate December!” Bipasha Basu giggled when I asked her what she thought of boyfriend John Abraham’s semi-nude pose from his 2007 calendar. Basu is the leading lady of the aforementioned Goal. “I play Roma, the team’s physiotherapist and the sister of the team’s captain,” Basu informed me. The dusky beauty, voted the sexiest woman by the UK’s leading Asian paper Eastern Eye, is proud of her looks. “I do not understand this obsession with fair skin. It is bizarre and shows a lack of intelligence. Something is wrong with people’s heads who believe fair is beautiful.”

When Ken met the Big B

Amitabh Bachchan joined London’s major Ken Livingstone in Mumbai today to witness the signing of a historic city-to-city agreement by Film London, London’s film and media agency and Bollywood. “I laud the excellent concept that you are envisioning towards India and London,” Bachchan stated. With over 40 films being shot in the UK’s capital in 2006, it looks like the beautiful friendship between the two cities is set to continue.

Dancing former queen

Madhuri Dixit is back and she wants to dance! The reigning diva of the 90s gave it all up for marriage and is now the mother of two kids. Her comeback vehicle Aaja Nachle (Let’s Dance) hits the screens on November 30th. This is a risky move for the actress as Bollywood can be harsh on older actresses trying to recreate the magic of their golden period. Remember Mumtaz’s disastrous non-return?

The Princess and the producer

Is Rani Mukherjee married to top producer Aditya Chopra? No one is saying for sure but the box-office princess has stopped signing films. Her cameo in the recently released Saawariya looks set to be one of her last screen appearances. If the talented beauty is indeed really hitched to the DDLJ director, it is indeed queer that in progressive modern India a married actress still has to keep this secret in the Bollywood closet.

Eating out

UK fans of the Italian-Indian hunk Dino Morea will get a chance to meet him at the Asian Style Awards on December 3 in London. Last seen in a cameo in Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om, Morea will be the chief guest at the Soho held party. Morea is not the only Bollywood star partying in London. Shah Rukh Khan devotees should head to the trendy Chinawhite restaurant on Saturday where the King Khan is expected to dine with five gorgeous ladies.

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