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5Rediff P4C Classifieds
February 01, 2007 14:48 IST
Would it be the movie star-turned-politician Vinod Khanna or the fabled
composer, impresario
and producer Andrew Webber Lloyd? Shilpa Shetty will have to decide soon if she
is going for
the saffron flag or the sexy outfit and get drenched while lip-syncing to the
song Shakalaka
Baby.
It would be a choice between politics, following Khanna's invitation for her to
contest
elections as a BJP candidate, or accept a role in the London revival of the
revamped musical
hit Bombay Dreams.
It could even be the lead role of an idealistic film director who falls for a
new movie star
who is hiding a secret from her and the public.
The Evening Standard ran a piece two days ago saying Webber has offered Shilpa
a plum role in
the musical. The Big Brother winner has become a celebrity across the United
Kingdom partly due
to the controversies involving a rival candidate in the show.
Bombay Dreams with A R Rahman's music and featuring newcomers Priya Kalidas and
Raza Jaffrey
ran over 18 months in London after premiering in 2002 at the prestigious Apollo
Victoria
Theatre with more than 2,000 seats.
The London tabloid also added that Webber had offered Shilpa a role in a TV
series he intends
producing following the success of his talent-search program, How Do You Solve
a Problem Like
Maria?
Shilpa's spokesman Max Clifford has confirmed that Webber had been in touch
with her directly
to discuss an offer.
Shilpa is expected to spend many days this month in London on negotiating
endorsement deals for
a raft of products ranging from perfumes to jewellery. British publications
have also said that
she has offers to write her memoir focusing on her experience of being bullied
and insulted on
the Big Brother.
But the most important thing on her mind would be offer from Webber.
Clifford told Evening Standard that the 31-year-old actress was keen on a
theatre career.
"She's had 15 years of Bollywood now and it would be tremendous for her as an
actress to look
for new challenges," he said.
Webber wanted to have a celebrity attached to the show when it opened on
Broadway, and his
associates in New York had tried to woo the Grammy winner Norah Jones, the
daughter of sitarist
Ravi Shankar. But she declined the offer saying she was preoccupied with her
recording and a
couple of film projects.
Webber, whose hits include The Phantom of Opera, wanted Jones to play Priya,
the lead.
Sources in London said yesterday that Webber would want to make sure Shilpa
could sing well for
the musical. If she cannot, he would offer her the role of Rani, the aging film
actress who is
quite a seductress. The role was made famous at London's West End and New
York's Broadway by
Ayesha Dharker. Rani gets to sing two songs, one of them being Shakalaka Baby.
Since the latter
number is also a commentary on the lip-syncing in Bollywood movies, the voice
of another artist
(Priya Kalidas) was used. If that practice were repeated in the revival, Shilpa
would not have
to worry about getting drenched and singing at the same time!
Both Rahman and Webber will have to decide about Shilpa's singing abilities.
It is possible the stage offer may fetch her the same role be in the moderately
budgeted (about
$10 million) screen version of Bombay Dreams that Webber wants Farah Khan to
direct. She
co-choreographed the London and New York version of the musical, getting a Tony
nomination, a
first for an Indian.
http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2007/feb/01bd.htm
