Mervin Silva's act as a ''Devil'' ?!??

Preity Zinta turns into a producer

After dishing out some hit flicks, Preity Zinta confidently shifted from being a Bollywood actress to a successful businesswoman as an owner of IPL team Kings XI Punjab. Now, she is back into some action in the tinsel town though not as an actress but as a producer. She has launched her own production banner, PZNZ Media.

Her first flick will be a romantic comedy under the direction of Prem Soni. When asked why she chose Soni as her director when his last flick ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ bombed at the box office, Preity clarifies, “I’d rather work with someone who’s fallen down hard than someone who’s at the top because he’s driven to go out there and prove a point to the world. Even Imtiaz Ali’s first film, Socha Na Tha, wasn’t a blockbuster but today everyone wants to work with him.”

The actress has set a mediocre budget for the movie and is yet to finalize the cast of the film which will mostly be shot abroad. Preity is thoroughly happy and confident about her move and says, “It’s an instinct for choosing the right movie that’d got me where I am today,” she points out. Of course, after that I took a course at the Harvard Business School, asked a million questions and gave two years to the game. Film is my core competence and it should be easier focusing on it.”

“Suddenly, the sky is bluer, the birds are singing and life is so cool,” Chirps the chirpy actress!!

Katrina Kaif voted the FHM’s sexiest woman for the third time

The world’s largest men’s lifestyle magazine conducted the FHM 100 Sexiest Women Poll and Katrina Kaif topped it on the basis of online polls and SMS with over 35,000 entries being cast this year. This is the third time Kats wins this title by FHM after the same in 2008 and 2009.

“Katrina’s average is higher than Sachin Tendulkar’s and she replaces Deepika Padukone who won the crown in 2010,” says Kabeer Sharma, executive director, FHM, India, adding, ‘We’d love to say 2011 was a close contest…only ‘Sheila’ made sure it was far from- A feat that becomes even more significant because no woman in the world across all 28 editions of FHM has ever won the sexiest woman in the World title three times in the last 17 years that we’ve been making the list.’

However, Katrina takes all this in stride and says, “If somebody is graciously giving me something why should I refuse it. When I grow old, I would like to tell my grand children about the titles I won.”

Well, we are sure here that keeping a track of all the titles and honors the beautiful lady accumulates by then would be a Herculean task!!

Asin to give a miss to the world premiere of ‘Ready’ in London

The industry is keeping its fingers crossed for the release of Salman Khan’s ‘Ready’ which happens to be the first big release after IPL fever gets over. However, as the production house gears up for the dazzling world premiere of the flick in Dubai, the leading lady of the film, Asin Thottumkal, will be conspicuous by her absence in the scene.

Before you predict the reason for her absence to be some sort of conflict with the makers, let us clear it out here that Asin will not be able to attend the premiere because of her passport problems.

Asin has been signed on as one of the 18 actors in Nadiadwala’s Housefull 2 and had applied for UK visa as she is supposed to shoot some sequences of the film in London. She had given her passport to Nadiadwala Grandsons, the production house for ‘Housefull 2’, but her passport seems to be stuck for some reasons.

Asin confirmed the news saying, “I was looking forward to the world premiere of Ready happening in Dubai. Both Salman and I were supposed to go but now I am stuck.

I have not given up hope though and I am ready to fly even at the last minute. I am just praying that I get my passport. I have even packed my bags. Let’s hope that the passport comes at the last minute and I get to attend.”

Well, we guess ‘Ready’ will have to celebrate its world premiere without its beautiful heroine!!

When Shahid Kapoor saved Sonam Kapoor

Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor are working together in Pankaj Kapoor’s forthcoming ‘Mausam’ and reports have it that all the Kapoors are getting along very well together on the sets. In fact, Shahid saved Sonam from a fatal fire accident which occurred on the sets when the two were shooting for their climax scene together.

During the scene, Sonam’s dupatta was to catch fire which Shahid was to stomp it out with his foot. However, the wind made the fire spread faster than what was expected and the fire even reached up to Sonam’s body before she could realize. However, Shahid sensed the danger and jumped in. He did stomp out the fire with such force that it completely ripped the dupatta.

Both Shahid and Sonam kept their cool after the incident and even urged to complete the shoot (with a new dupatta of course). Well, we can see two co-stars turn into great friends, if not anything more!!

Meanwhile, you check out gorgeous Sonam on the cover of Marie Claire Magazine’s Indian Edition for the month of June 2011 on its 5th Anniversary Issue…….