Priyanka’s milking buffaloes!

What Priyanka Chopra gets paid to do on screen, she’s been doing gratis in an obscure village – Manawas, Rajasthan. She describes the experience in her tweets – that crossed the million followers mark over the weekend – “Just reached the village. This village hasn’t had electricity for 60 years. And now because of the greenathon, they have solar lanterns. It’s 45 degrees man! Killer. So I cooked a roti on a chulha in a hut and ate it with aloo sabzi that was made by the lady of the hut. And was my dinner yummy or what. And I milked a buffalo. Yikes! It’s hard dude. What if I hurt her. I was only scared of that. And I sat on a camel cart for a bumpy ride. So I gotta say my adventure has been fun so far.”

She couldn’t upload pictures from there presumably due to a technical snag. It would have been interesting to see what she was wearing sitting by the chulha making those rotis, and with how many layers of makeup!

John kaun? John Abraham’s presence on the Bollywood radar is felt more on television commercials or in the odd chat show. Given he hasn’t had a film release recently, it’s been a smart way to stay on the audiences’ minds, missing the snide, ‘John kaun?’ in the mercurial glamour business. John was spotted shooting for yet another advertisement inside the Diesel store in Juhu  recently. That is not to say he’s not been slaving off on the sets of Eros’ Desi Boyz and Vipul Shah’s Force, a remake of Tamil hit Kaakha Kaakha. Abbas Mastan’s Race 2, Sajid Khan’s Housefull 2, Karan Johar’s Dostana 2 and Rohan Sippy’s Happy Birthday will also see John in lead roles.

Garam Dharam and Esha’s screen time together Hema Malini has pulled off a casting coup in Tell Me O Khuda – which she is producing – starring daughter Esha Deol, Arjan Bajwa, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor. She’s got husband Dharmendra playing Esha’s screen father in the film. You would think it’s an easy all-in-the-family affair, but not quite. Dharmendra was averse to Esha joining films, and acting alongside her was simply out of the question; he’s fiercely protective of his girls. But Hema is leaving no stone unturned in the film as it is specially designed around Esha, to put her back on the Bollywood map.

Seeing senior Deol engage in histrionics on screen with Esha will be something special. He is going to be a rage with the younger audiences despite his advancing years, given his haute and happening persona. Of course, the kuttey-kaminey dialogues that Garam Dharam is synonymous with will be restricted to a bare minimum. It is a family film after all. The film is directed by Mayur Puri and will be out July this year.