The New Year may bring news of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai becoming an ‘item’ say news reports. It is widely known that the Big B has a soft corner for Aishwarya Rai, not only because she is one of the world’s most beautiful women, but also because she has shown exemplary courage and done extremely hard work to create her international career. She is a woman of few words and her silences speak volumes. She never makes irresponsible remarks. She never takes on sleazy roles, which demand a big skin show.

Amitabh Bachchan will pair with Tabu in a love story directed by adman R. Balakrishnan. After going through a spectrum of roles with co-stars ranging from the 20-something Rani Mukherjee and the child Ayesha Kapoor in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black" to Baby Rucha in "Ek Ajnabee", Bachchan is now all set to co-star with Tabu in a mature love story. "It's a very powerful love story between a woman and an older man. Tabu and I will play the two roles,” said Bachchan.

Salman Khan, who is scorching the headlines for the blackbuck poaching case in which he is being tried in a Jodhpur court, is playing a love 'guru' doling out advice on courtship matters to Govinda in David Dhawan's "Partner".  David was jubilant and said: "Both Salman and Govinda are my buddies. And they are playing buddies in 'Partner'. Naturally there has to be great bonding between them. I am happy to say Salman and Govinda are like brothers. No ego hassles at all. They both arrived at Mehboob Studios in Bandra on the dot in the morning for the shoot. That's quite an achievement."

Everyone knows Juhi Chawla as that rare and precious entity called the comedienne. For instance, the mad ad for Kurkure in which she plays Tulsi from "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" with wicked wit. Now Juhi will have a whole film written to exploit her comic talents. To be produced by Sa Re Ga Ma, the film titled "Na Na Karte" will feature Juhi in a unique tailor-made role of the kind never done by a Hindi film heroine before. "Though the film will have two heroes and leading ladies, so far we have locked in only Juhi Chawla for the project. It is a role only she can do and a film that perhaps cannot be made without her," said Sa Re Ga Ma's chief executive (movie production) Harish Dayani .

It seems Saif Ali Khan's stars don't tally with women directors. First Aparna Sen's maiden Hindi film "Gulel" sank after Saif kept her on hold for months before finally saying no. Then it was Zoya Akhtar who had to scrap "Luck By Chance" when Saif couldn't make up his mind.Now a third female director, Sai Paranjpye, has reportedly been turned away. But Saif has no knowledge of Paranjpye's project.Shooting the last lap of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Eklavya" in Jaipur, Saif rebuts Sai's claim.

Bollywood star Manisha Koirala is in Nepal to campaign for the municipal polls Feb 8 even though her granduncle and former prime minister G.P. Koirala is at the forefront of opposition protests against the elections.The Nepali beauty, who has carved a niche for herself in India's film industry, plans to stay till the Feb 8 elections and take part in the election campaign.

Raveena who's currently busy arranging special shows of Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti which her husband Anil Thadani is distributing in Mumbai, is both amused and impressed."My mom's pomeranian made front-page news. I'm so shocked and yet so impressed. It just shows that the power of the press runs both ways. What appears like a trivial issue can bring immense relief and joy to someone. I was so amazed when my photograph appeared with Rambo (the dog) in the front page. It was a morning-time snap, no makeup photograph. And Rambo definitely looked fresher than I did…Jokes aside, I'd like to say we did nothing to get written about. In fact when my mom's dog went missing my dad approached the advertisement sections of the press to put in an ad for Rambo's retrieval. That's how the news leaked out."