The Odd One Out

Social media stalkers have noticed that Daisy Shah (she of Jai Ho, Hate Story 3, and Race 3 shame…oops, fame) appears to have been left out of the Dabangg tour ‘girl gang’—which includes Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez and Sonakshi Sinha—that’s currently performing at stage shows across the US and Canada along with Salman Khan. It’s very clear from Instagram videos posted by the stars on tour that while Daisy is a part of the troupe, she hasn’t been embraced by the other three actresses who’ve formed a clique of sorts that has no place for the former backup dancer.

Proving rumours wrong that Katrina has a cold war going on with Jacqueline, her own social media posts reveal that they get along famously. Ditto for Sonakshi, who also appears to be part of the inner circle. The three have been posting videos revealing their shenanigans. But suspiciously, Daisy is missing. Neither Kat, nor Jacqueline, nor Sonakshi has so much as registered her presence in their many posts. Could it be that the other ladies don’t regard her as an A-lister like themselves? Or is there more to it? A little noseying may have yielded some results. A source in the troupe says Daisy has aligned herself with the boys. “She tends to hang out with the guys in the group, having struck up a friendship with [singer] Guru Randhawa and [TV funnyman] Manish Paul,” our source reveals, while not denying that relations between Daisy and the other girls are strained.

Not Quite a Money Spinner

At the recently held IIFA Awards weekend in Bangkok, producer Ramesh Taurani’s wife Varsha was heard joking to friends that she’s thrown out her back from bending so much this past year, signing cheques for Race 3 on which she was credited as a co-producer. She was making a point about how the film’s budget had ballooned during production, and the fact that it was the most expensive film her husband had bankrolled. Turns out that the Tauranis took home a respectable profit on the film, although the bulk of it went to leading man Salman Khan (also a producer), who made sure he’d structured his deal to get the largest slice of the pie. But industry insiders are saying the movie has lost money for its distributors. Despite big opening weekend numbers, the film’s collections dropped rapidly in the days after, clocking roughly Rs 165 crore at the end of three weeks. That’s not bad, but certainly not good for a film that cost only a little less to make. Trade pundits say it may not be a Tubelight– sized disappointment, but it’s not the money spinner that the industry has come to expect of Salman.

End of the Affair

This actor son of a moneybags film producer whose claim to fame is limited to the A-list stars he is able to draw to his home gymnasium, became obsessed with trying his luck in Hollywood recently. It might have something to do with his being taken none too seriously in Bollywood, where the only films he appears in are those bankrolled by his father. Hoping he might have better luck in the West, he reportedly reached out to an Asian-American casting agent who was working on a project in Mumbai. Not much came out of the endeavour, or his apparently mediocre audition—especially since the actor was too lazy to even respond to emails from the LA office. He apparently ignored emails and then claimed he hadn’t received any, but according to sources, he did get romantically involved with the agent. The lady tried hard to help him land a break in America, but found that he had neither the acting chops nor the commitment to what was needed to make an impression. The affair fizzled out, and the actor moved on to other women and interests after spilling the beans on his latest conquest to his friends.

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Rajeev Masand

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