Manisha Koirala to skip three releases

Manisha Koirala is travelling so extensively with golfer-boyfriend Chris that she won't be in Mumbai on July 11 when her long-delayed lavish musical "Mehbooba" releases.

The same day the Bengali and Hindi versions of Rituparno Ghosh's "Khela", featuring Manisha in the lead, are opening as well. Surprisingly, Manisha has not dubbed for either version of "Khela", not even in Hindi.

"She has been travelling extensively and we just couldn't wait any longer," Ghosh told IANS.

"Manisha is the most easygoing, obedient, disciplined and hassle-free actress I've worked with. Believe me, I've worked with the most temperamental Bengali actresses in the world. I had heard Manisha is difficult. Not true at all. She just surrendered to my vision.

"Ajay Devgan used to tell me Manisha is like a man on the sets. She gets ready for a shot in three minutes. I've worked with actresses who have failed to get ready even after three hours of makeup," Ghosh added.

Ghosh is, in fact, planning another film with Manisha.

"She's so lovely and I know exactly what I want to do with her in my next film. In 'Khela', she has a very interesting role as the neglected wife of a self-centred actor (played by Prosenjeet)."

"Khela" is Ritu's first film with a child at the centre of the story.

"It's about a film unit that wants a particular child for a role. When the parents refuse, the boy gets in touch with the film's hero and suggests they kidnap him because he wants to do the film. The hero (Prosenjeet) and the film's art director (Raima Sen) do just that."

"Khela" will be Ghosh's first Hindi-Bengali bilingual. But he has another one, "Sunglass", coming up very soon.

"That was like making two different films because the male lead in Hindi is R. Madhavan and in Bengali it is Tota Roy-Chowdhary."

Indo-Asian News Service