The A to Z of Bollywood

C Chick Flicks: Sushmita Sen in Samay, Kareena Kapoor in Chameli, Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali and Sonali Bendre in Anahaat. Make way, boys.

D Desi Locales: Now movies carry the Made In India stamp with much pride. Main Madhuri Dixit…, Pinjar, Baghban have done quite well sans Switzerland. Coming up: Paap and Munnabhai MBBS.

E Ex Factor: The exclusive club headed by Aishwarya Rai. So, she won’t do Bajirao Mastani or the remake of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam if ex Salman Khan stars in them. Now we hear that even Amitabh Bachchan has reportedly refused to work with Kareena Kapoor after son Abhishek’s broken engagement with sis Karisma.

F Family Matters: Father-son pairs are hot. Hrithik and Rakesh Roshan in Koi… Mil Gaya, Feroz and Fardeen Khan in Janasheen, Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan in Ranveer and Sunil and Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS.

G Grim Govinda: After the disastrous Raja Bhaiya, our favourite comic actor wants to get serious.

H Hollywood Ahoy: Ash is Lalitha in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice, but she’s working next with Meryl Streep in Chaos. Farah Khan taught Reese Witherspoon and Saroj Khan gave Ashanti some moves. Vivek will soon play soldier in Roland Joffe’s The Invaders.

I Inspirations: The Sssshhh gang did a Scream, while Sanjay K Gupta’s Musafir will take a U-Turn. But Vikram Bhatt took a leaf out of Bollywood, with Inteha’s Ashmit Patel in a cold-blooded Shah Rukh turn from Baazigar.

J Johnny Lever: The unanimous leader of the Cameo Company, he’s added in a script even when not required.

K Khans: Nothing beats the power of the original trinity—Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan. We reckon, their best is still to come. Watch out for The Rising, Bajirao Mastani and Swades in that order.

L Love Child: Aamir Khan can explain best.

M Marriages: Now that Karisma’s switched from Kapoor to Kapur, will Raveena Tandon go next?

N NRIs: Subhash Ghai, Karan Johar, Sooraj Barjatya more or less admit that they target their films at the carrot heavy NRI market.

O Older, the Better: Amitabh Bachchan, Tanuja, Naseeruddin Shah, Rekha… just get better and better. Watch out, age is on their side.

P Police Beat: Ajay Devgan in Gangaajal. Big B and Akshay Kumar in Khakee. Shatrughan Sinha, Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty in Aan. Big B and Om Puri in Dev. Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan in Garv and Om Puri in Kagaar—Living On The Edge. Bollywood’s changing colour.

Q Queen Bee: On the surface too many—Ash, Kareena, Preity, Bipasha and Rani. On a closer inspection, really no one. Who is the heroine No. 1? Bet they are as confused as we are.

R Ramgopal Varma: The one man industry. Bollywood’s unofficial talent magnet and every struggling film-maker’s hope. Urmila, Antara, Vivek, Manoj, Sushant, Mohit… say a big thanks to Ramu.

S Sequels: Mahesh Manjrekar’s Hathyar started the trend. The Vaastav sequel though wasn’t a patch on the original. N Chandra’s Style part II titled Excuse Me followed and coming up—Varma Corporation’s Darna Zaroori Hai.

T Threesomes: Andaaz, Teen Deewarein, Boom, Kal Ho Naa Ho… three’s a crowd-puller always.

U UFOs: Hrithik Roshan’s lucky mascot which translated into box office jadoo. Nothing alien about it, we reckon sci fi will be the latest trend.

V Villains: Where are they? Urgently needed a devil dark villain. Leading men with negative shades and vintage comedians with comic mannerisms won’t do.

W Wannabes: After Antara Mali had her fill impersonating Madhuri Dixit, Manisha and Ashwini Kale will try a shot at Ash with Main Banna Chahti Hoon Aishwarya.

X Xtras: Another missing category. Come on guys, give us some reason to crane at the background too.

Y Youngsters Only: Films for the youth, of the youth and by the youth. Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Shaad Ali are the flag bearers.

Z Zeros (Increasing) in Star Salaries: Unbelievable! Is it really seven crore (Rs 7,00,00,000) Mister Aamir Khan for The Rising? Wow! Let’s zero in on the zero effect!