Rising star Imran cast opposite Katrina

After the success of Love Aaj Kal, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone have been signed for a movie to be made by Vishal Bhardwaj, the man who made blockbusters such as Omkara and Kaminey. The movie will be produced by Ekta Kapoor.

IMRAN Khan's career has taken off since the mega success of I Hate Luv Storys. Now the rising sensation has been signed for a movie opposite Katrina Kaif that will be produced by Yash Raj Pictures. Ali Zafar, who made his debut in the whacky Tere Bin Laden, has been roped in for a leading role.

• WITH Arjun Ramphal's exit from Don 2, filmmaker Farhan Akthar has signed Kunal Kapoor as his replacement. An obviously ecstatic Kapoor was last seen in Lamhaa.

THE mighty Sajid Nadiawala, who produced blockbusters such as Khambaqt Ishq and Houseful, has confirmed he has signed Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan for three different projects.

While the project with Ali Khan will be directed by Siddarth Anand of Salaam Namaste fame, Sajid Khan will make the sequel to Houseful with Akshay Kumar. There is still speculation about the director for the Salman Khan project Kick, but rumour is that Bollywood's bad boy will be cast opposite Sonakshi Sinha.

• AJITHKUMAR is currently hard at work on his 50th film, Mangatha. Directed by Venkat Prabhu, it is said to capitalise on Ajith's image while presenting him in a whole new light. Ajith has also confirmed that his 51st film will be Billa 2, which will be directed by Vishnu Vardhan.

AR MURUGADHAAS has launched a new production company which has partnered with Fox Star Studios to jointly produce three Tamil films. Fox Star is an amalgamation of 20th Century Fox and media company STAR. Murugadass will produce five Tamil films for the joint ventures, the first of which will be directed by his former assistant, Saravanan. Last year, Warner Brothers announced a partnership with Soundarya Rajnikanth's Ocher Studio but they pulled out of their planned first project, Goa, because of the numerous delays.

• THE star-studded wedding of Rajni- kanth's daughter, Soundarya, to Chennai-based realtor Ashwin Ramkumar has been one of the most memorable Indian weddings in a long time, attracting guests from across the social spectrum. The who's who of the film industry were present with iconic figures from the Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam film industries blessing the stunning couple. Among the guests from the film industry were Kamalhassan, Sri Devi, Surya, AR Rahman, Manirathinam and Shankar.

WHAT do Mutthiah Muralitharan, Makhaya Ntini, Aamir Khan and Peter Hayne have in common? They are all eagerly awaiting the release of Rajnikanth's Endhiran which will definitely be released this month. The biggest Indian movie of the year is scheduled to be released worldwide on 24 September in a record number of screens, including South Africa.

• ANOTHER Rajnikanth fan STR (aka Simbhu) has decided to resurrect his long-delayed project, Vaaliban. After ghost directing Manmadhan, he made his directoial debut in Vallavan but has since been concentrating on films by other directors. STR is in London to shoot scenes for his latest film, Poda Podi, after which he will leave for Chennai to film Vaanam. While in London, he will finish the script for Vaaliban, which deals with a man's second attempt at love after his first love fails.