Bips & Bhatts kiss and make up

Bipasha Basu who rose to fame with two Bhatt films--Jism and Raaz--had reportedly enraged the directors after she turned down the lead role in Mukesh Bhatt's last film Murder 2.

Citing date issues, the Bong bombshell had also backed out from performing an item number. However, it looks like all that is forgiven and forgotten.

On Thursday, Bipasha signed for the lead role in Raaz 3. The film will be directed by Raaz director Vikram Bhatt and will be made in 4D.

Mukesh Bhatt said, "It is a homecoming for both Bipasha and Vikram. Yes, we did have issues earlier but, in a family, there are always different point of views that arise till the members realise that amendments need to be made."

"This is where they started and this film brought recognition to both Vikram and Bipasha," he added.

When Mukesh was asked who made the first move, he said, "Being in the same business, we keep bumping into each other. Bipasha expressed a desire to work with us again and she loved the Raaz 3 script. It is a very challenging and powerful role for her."

Vikram, who will be directing the said, "Bipasha is a very important part of the team that created Raaz as a brand.I am happy to be working with her again and hope to create the same magic with the already heady pair of Emi (Emraan Hashmi) and Jackie (Jacqueline Fernandes)."

Confirming that she has signed on the dotted line, Bips said, "I have a long and fruitful relationship with Vishesh films. I am very fond of both Maheshji and Mukeshji.They have given me two of my best films of which, Raaz, my second movie, was a golden jubilee hit. It was only a matter of time before we worked together."

Talking about the film, she said, "My role in Raaz 3 seems to be a very challenging one and the director is not only very good at his craft, but has also been a friend for a long time. The thought of working with my own people gives me a high. It is a terrific combination," she added.

Bhatt to set Blood Money in Belgium

Bollywood filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt will shoot his next venture Blood Money in the Belgian port city of Antwerp, where a large Indian community is employed in the diamond industry.

It is the first time that an Indian movie will be shot in Antwerp, the centre of world diamond trade, the EuAsiaNews reported quoting the public broadcaster VRT Sunday.

The filming will get under way Aug 22 and is being given financial support from the Flemish Tourist Board.

Blood Money is the story of an Indian couple that moves to Antwerp for the husband's job. Once in Antwerp, things do not run smoothly for the couple and cracks soon begin to show in their relationship.

The Flemish Tourist Board invited Mukesh Bhatt to Antwerp to look for suitable locations to shoot the film.

The board's Lea Winkler told the VRT that "we have been in negotiations with the makers of the film since 2008 and have invested 143,000 Euros in the project."

Last year the number of Indian tourists visiting Flanders region located in northern Belgium rose by 16 percent. It is hoped that the film will encourage even more Indian tourists to visit the region, noted VRT.

Jacqueline is bolder than Mallika and Bips?

There's tremendous buzz around Vishesh Films' Murder 2 starring Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandez for obvious reasons.

The trade and the public who have now come to expect a staple erotic quotient from the Bhatt brothers (Mukesh and Mahesh) — Jism and Murder being the reference points — know that Murder 2 won't just push the envelope but tear it.

Mahesh Bhatt, the brain behind these films, admits that Jacqueline is bolder than Jism's Bipasha Basu and Murder's Mallika Sherawat (Murder). Says he, "We at Vishesh Films decided to make films with a high quotient of erotica to cater to the new consumer who is living a life radically different from the life I lived in my youth. "Bollywood cinema was slow to realise this but society had moved on. That is why when we made Jism and Murder and Raaz, the audience lapped it up. They had no problems with it. But the purists were outraged.

"For the first time in Indian cinema, Bipasha uttered the words, "the body doesn't know love, it only knows lust." Then we had Mallika in Murder who sleeps with another man and returns to her marriage only because her affair isn't working out. She has an intensely fulfilling sexual extra-marital relationship and feels no guilt. This is the post modern Indian woman.
"The India in which we were groomed, was shackled to certain beliefs. In the cinema made by our predecessors — Raj Kapoor and Raj Khosla — we were invariably shown that good people fell in love while bad people had sex.

"For me, the eye-opener came when I saw Jism in Delhi and found 70 per cent of the audience comprised of rich women. It was not just being viewed by sex-hungry frontbenchers but also by an evolved upmarket audience. "Raaz was simply the precursor. With Murder 2, women have gone one step further. Jacqueline is a different animal from Mallika and Bipasha. While they sinned with their eyes open but still yearned to conform towards the end; for Murder 2's Jackie, sex is even more casual. For her sex is like an expression. She does it as casually as she would inhale or exhale. That is what it is." The film releases worldwide on July 8.