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Happy days are here again!

Success and a couple of awards have sure changed Sanjay Dutt. And how! The man who never threw a single party in all his life, suddenly decided to have one. It coincided with his marriage anniversary and was also the day after he won the Filmfare Award. Wife Rhea was around playing hostess to the hilt while Sanju acted as the shy host. But this party proved who his close pals are and how popular he is. Most of the younger lot of heroines were there -- Karisma, Kareena, Urmila, Raveena, Preity, Mahima. Needless to say Sanjay hadn't invited some other heroines like Rekha, Madhuri, Juhi, Sridevi.

Wedding bells for Shilpa

The sexy Shilpa Shirodkar will not sizzle on the screen any longer. Instead, she will shine brightly now in London where she is going to live after she gets married to a merchant banker. Yes, the one-time sex symbol is all set to tie the knot in June/July this year. The groom, a financial whizkid of sorts, is said to be an extremely mature and sober man who has settled down in London. Shilpa, who has been whiling away her time teaching aerobics at the Khar gymkhana, is trying hard to further lose weight. She will complete all her incomplete assignments before she flies off.

Friends no longer?

Things are not hunky dory between well-known financier Bharat Shah and Shah Rukh Khan. At least that is what the weather-watchers have been saying. Apparently, Shah, a must on the Khan's party list till sometime back, was missing from the premiere and the ensuing bash for Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. As a result, the financier, who is known to have considerable clout with the Maharashtra government, has reportedly not done anything to help the star get tax exemption for his maiden home production.

Solo makes sense

Rajiv Rai's announcements are always awaited with bated breath. And this time when he announced his plans for a Sunil Shetty-Bobby Deol-Arjun Rampal starrer, everyone was surprised. And now, weeks after the announcement, comes the news that Bobby has opted out of the film. Rai himself confirms this and hastens to add that there is absolutely no rancour or ill-will of any sort between them. The problem was dates. The director wanted the star to give 90 days at a stretch which Bobby could not do. So they parted ways mutually. Now Aftab Shivdasani has stepped in. In the jugglery, Arjun would be playing Bobby's role while the role Arjun was to essay will now go to Aftab. Apparently, Bobby's well-wishers advised him against accepting the film since he would have had to share the limelight with Sunil. Plus, when Bobby initially said yes to Rai, he did not have an Indra Kumar in his kitty. The junior Deol must think it makes better sense to allot dates to the Indra Kumar solo-hero project rather than to a three-hero film, so what if it is with Rajiv Rai! Right, Bobby?

Long-distance music

When producer-director Kuku Kohli kept making frequent trips to London, one assumed that it was -- as he insisted -- to hunt for a new face for his next film. But now that he has gone ahead and announced a film with a bunch of newcomers, the truth is out. The music for his film will be done by none other than Nadeem-Shravan. Nadeem, who is based in London, will provide the tunes while Shravan will supervise the recordings in Bombay. And that is not all. Apparently, Nadeem gets briefed on the phone and he even directs the recording on the phone. This, according to the filmmaker, is wholehearted involvement. Kohli is confident that the public will welcome the duo's compositions for his film.

Going off-key

Sonu Nigam has gone hoarse issuing statements that he is opting out of Sa Re Ga Ma. But ask the producer-director of the show and you will get a different picture altogether. Apparently, it was the Gajendra Singh's decision to ask Sonu to leave because the host was hogging all the limelight. "It is almost asking the manager to resign than giving him the termination notice," sums up a spokesperson for Singh. And here everyone was under the impression that Sonu wanted to pursue his dream of joining films, which was why he was opting out. Now it remains to be seen how long whether Sonu manages to sustain his popularity.

-- The Insider