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After doing back-to-back comedies last year, it looks like Akshay Kumar is hell-bent on making 2008 his year of action-based films. He plays a Hollywood stuntsman in producer Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kambakth Ishq which will be shot in Universal Studios.

Television actor Rohit Roy has pulled off a coup by bringing Sanjay Dutt and his wife, Manyata, to the small screen. Of course, Dutt and his Biwi won’t be seen together, but the two are appearing in an episode of a talk show which Roy is hosting. It has already been shot.

Roy knows that the curiosity element surrounding Dutt and his wife are high and that a talk show featuring them will arouse much viewer interest.

The Manyata-Dutt wedding has been the talk of the town right from the time the latter came out of jail. Though it was rumoured that the marriage took place in November 2006, Dutt and Manyata exchanged garlands officially only recently.

Roy could get both Dutt and Manyata in his show since he had become friends with the hunky actor while working with him in Apoorva Lakhia’s Shootout at Lokhandwala. Sources said that Dutt and his wife have not taken a single penny for the show.

However, Rohit refuses to reveal anything. “The talk show is definitely on but I would not like to say anything about Sanjay and Manyata having participated in the show,” he says. “I will reveal everything when the time is ripe.”

Sources say that Manyata apologised to Dutt on camera for being rude with him at times which made the macho man very emotional. She also talked about how they met and fell in love.

The TV actor had announced a few days ago that he will be hosting a show tentatively titled ‘Royzone’ where he will be interacting with celebrities. It will go on air in April.

And what better way to start than by hosting the hottest couple in town.

Apoorva Lakhia’s much spoken about venture Mission Istanbul is a hardcore action thriller. The director has been in the news ever since news broke that he has scrapped the promotional video of the film with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan making a special appearance in the song.  When contacted, Apoorva clarifies, “We never planned to have Ash. They are just rumours but yes we are planning to shoot a song but there’s still time. Nothing has been decided as yet. We have still to shoot two songs and four days of patchwork. I have five songs and two music videos in the film.”

Ever since the director began shooting the action thriller, the actors have met with a lot of mishaps. “It has been a hardcore, realistic and fast-paced movie where the action moves very fast. Shabbir Ahluwalia broke his leg, Zayed Khan’s hair got burnt and Suneil Shetty was hurt by shrapnel. It was full of calamities. The shoot was only stalled when Shweta Kumar was doing an action scene and her leg was busted by a log of wood. We had to undergo a lot of problems,” reveals Apoorva.

He goes on to add, “My stars were made to undergo a lot of training. Viveik had to go through Tai Chi training and lot of stretching and action training. There are scenes where they had to do a 110 storey building rappelling. There were high-density car chases and underwater shots too. We had to prepare our artistes for that and so they had to have these warm-up sessions every morning before the shoot. Shweta was also given driving lessons because there was one particular scene where she has to take a sharp 360 degree turn. We have shot action scenes with 45 people together on a set. All this has not been very easy. But yes, I can guarantee one thing, you will see action like you have never experienced on the Indian screen.”

Zayed, who plays a TV journalist in the film was asked to put on weight for the role. “Yes,” says Apoorva, “and we had a reason for it.  The film also has Nikitan Dheer in a pivotal role opposite Zayed and he’s six feet four inches tall and robust. Zayed looked small in comparison, so I asked him to put on some weight for the role. He took Nikitan’s picture and stuck it on his bathroom wall. But later told me that it was a bit too much getting up in the morning and watching Nikitan on the walls of his bathroom so he took it off”.

Katrina Kaif may have lost the chance to be one of Ranbir’s leading ladies Yash Raj Films’ Bachna Ae Haseenon. But she has now been signed to star opposite Neil Nitin Mukesh in Kabeer Khan’s untitled film, which also stars John Abraham in a pivotal role. Without giving away many details about the project, Neil says, “Kabeer made a very unusual film, Kabul Express for Yash Raj earlier. This time he’s going all-out to make a commercial film. I think Katrina and I will make a striking pair.”

All her earlier films are primarily with the 40-plus Salman Khan, Govinda and Akshay Kumar. Now she’s finally working with co-stars nearer to her own age. Laughs Neil, “I wouldn’t know about that. My bonding so far has been with John. I really get along with him. He’s so funny and entertaining. Somehow, he reminds me of Dharamji (Dharmendra) with whom I did my first film Johnny Gaddar. The same towering personality and physique and a heart of gold.”

Isn’t it a disadvantage for Neil to start his career with two arty films like Sriram Raghavan’s Johnny Gaddar and Sudhir Mishra’s Tera Kya Hoga Johnny? “I think the two Johnny films are very different. In mood. Tera Kya… is funny fun, episodic film where me, Soha Ali Khan, Kay Kay Menon and Karan Nath are four characters who meet this child, played by Sikandar. It’s masala of a different kind. It even has an item song by Chitrangada now.” Sure, we can see queues clamouring to get in to see Chitrangada wriggle on the dance floor. “But Freeze is out-and-out commercial, glamorous, glossy and sexy,” Neil brightens up. And no, he isn’t called Johnny in Freeze

Jodhaa Akbar has had a triumphant release in Telugu. “The film is doing really well in its Telugu version, not that well in the Tamil version. How do we explain that, since the Hindi version was released in both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu before the regional versions? Distributors say that the Hollywood period film 10,000 B.C. was released in Tamil Nadu alongside Jodhaa Akbar.”

Ashutosh seems unconvinced by that logic. But you can’t argue with the box office. And the box office has been utterly kind to Jodhaa Akbar. “I don’t know the facts and figures,” shrugs Gowariker. “The success of Jodhaa Akbar has given me the freedom to make my next film. That’s what matters for me.” After having pulled itself out of the clutches of the protesters, Jodhaa Akbar seems to be on the way to becoming a big success.

“Frankly it’s a relief. I first had to deal with the film’s uncontrollable length. It isn’t as if I set out to make long films. But Lagaan turned out to be three hours 42 minutes long. Jodhaa Akbar was comparatively shorter. Anyway the length issue has been resolved in the audiences’ mind. Maybe I should make a short and racy thriller next just to prove I can make shorter films. I’m yet to feel a sense of triumph that I should be feeling. But it’s been a long battle. And we’ve managed to get the film extricated in MP and UP. But Rajasthan remains a sore point. I feel the film belongs to Rajasthan. How can it not be released there?”  he says.