SRK-Farah-Deepika Come Together, Again...

The Om Shanti Om team - Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Farah Khan - will work together in a song for Priyadarshan’s forthcoming film Billoo Barber. Only this time, Farah will adorn the choreographer’s hat.

The idea was instigated by none other but Priyadarshan himself. “Although Farah started her career choreographing for me I never worked with her after Virasat. And now I want to bring her back from maternity leave and choreograph the SRK-Deepika number. Call it a lucky charm.

The Deepika-SRK song is special on many counts. It’s first song that Gulzarsaab has written for my cinema. I’ve been a lifelong fan of his work. My films are deeply influenced by him. To have him write one of my songs is a big honour for me,” said Priyan.

The song that Farah choreographed for Virasat (‘Dhol bajane laga’) has a strange history. As the lyrics for the song were not ready, Farah choreographed the number to another song from the same film. “This time, the lyrics and the tune are ready for Farah,” says Priyan.

If Farah’s smashing debut was courtesy Priyan, Deepika too was supposed to start her career with him in a film on music piracy. “But that never materialised. I’m glad Deepika debuted with Shah Rukh. Now I can use the hit pair to create some magic in Billoo Barbar.” The item song will be shot on September 14.

The race between Rajnikant and Shah Rukh Khan to reach the theatres first has been won by Rajnikant. Now the Bollywood trade circles fear that Rajnikant’s Tamil film Kuselan will be dubbed in Hindi and be released before Billoo Barber, which features Shah Rukh Khan.

But director Priyadarshan is quite confident about his film’s success and says, “We’re not in competition with anyone. Kuselan filmmakers are bound by contract and hence can’t dub the film into any other language.”

But will the Kuselan filmmakers not find loopholes in the contract to dub the film in Hindi? According to a source a dubbed Hindi version of Kuselan is being released during Diwali too.

The presence of a poisonous snake and heavy showers disrupted the shoot of Billoo Barber in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu recently. A snake entered Lara Dutta's room late in the night, but she managed to handle the situation and is safe.

Recounts her co-star Irrfan Khan, "Had the snake bitten Lara, it would've been disastrous. But Lara was sensible and brave enough to come out unharmed."

Apart from this episode, heavy showers have disrupted the shooting schedule too. Recalling the shoot, Irrfan says, "Shah Rukh simply had to leave for Mumbai and the rains just wouldn't stop.

And since Priyadarshan had to wrap up the shoot, we had no choice but to shoot in the rain, which was quite harrowing."

Subhash. K. Jha, Mumbai Mirror