Salman Khan may have almost finished two decades in the film industry but he still keeps bettter with age. The handsome actor who has played a variety of characters in his films would now be doing something which he hasn't done before. He will be seen playing a sardar for the first time in his upcoming film Heroes directed by Sameer Karnik. Apart from Salman, the film in question, stars Sohail Khan, Vatsal Seth, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta, Amrita Arora, Riya Sen and Mithun Chakraborty. Sallu plays a military official in this road-trip film which is apparently inspired by the cult classic The Motorcycle Diaries. In fact, to make the look more authentic, Sallu even grew his own beard for three weeks and has really worked hard on getting the look right. One thing is for sure, when the film hits the box-office, die-hard Sallu fans will surely queue up to see their favorite hero in his brand new look.

Queen of Hearts, Aishwarya Rai, has seen it all. From winning the prestigious title of Miss World to even having a Tulip named after her in Amsterdam, Madame Rai has been there and done that. But wait there's more to her crowning glory. 72 year old painter Ratan Parimoo (actor Lalit Parimoo's uncle) had an exhibition of his paintings this week titled 'Iconography of a Nayika' at Mumbai's famous Jehangir art Gallery. The paintings depict the archetypal female across cross-cultural boundaries and needless to say Aishwarya Rai was the painter's muse as he showcased the actress' various moods and moments combining it with his own imagination. But probably the ultimate tribute to Madame Rai is this painting in which the former Miss World has been painted in a Mona Lisa like pose, thereby combining the beauty and grace of two really well known female characters from both European and Indian art history. The event had quite a few prominent tele and theatre personalities like Mukesh Khanna, Lalit Parimoo, Mauli Ganguly , Ananya Banerji , Amisha Mehta , Anil Dharker in attendance. As for Ash, she may not have been physically present but she was seen flashing her million-dollar smile from the paintings that adorned the walls of this gallery.

The popular Malayalam films director Rajasenan is making debut in Kannada film 'Sukumara' starring Karthik (brother of actress Sindhu Menon) and Gowri Munjal. The successful Malayalam films director has taken up his 33rd directorial venture in his career for Confident Entertainment India limited that is headed by Dr.C.J.Roy. The maiden film in Kannada by Rajasenan is a love story tucked with comedy in it. Two of Rajasenan's friend’s cinematographer Nambiadri and music director Jayachandran are also making debut in this film. The shooting for this film 'Sukumara' starts on February 15 and go on for 40 days in Srirangapatna near Mysore. Ramesh Bhat, Vinayaprakash, Bank Janardhan, Doddanna, Kashi, Shivani, Nandakishore and others are in the cast. The muhurut of Rajasenan's debut in Kannada film 'Sukumara' was held at Confident Cascade Resort situated on Banneraghatta Road on Monday evening. Confident Group that is producing the first Kannada film 'Sukumara' also signed superstar Dr.Vishnuvardhana, Puneeth Rajakumar and Malayalam actor Dileep in the forthcoming films.

Looks like Jackie Shroff might be bidding adieu to Bollywood and settle in our Telugu films. He is on signing spree in Tollywood. After acting as villain in Asthram and soon-to-be released Bank, he has signed another film, Black and White, and its shooting commenced from Friday, January 18, 2008. Newcomer Srikanth Vemulapalli handles the direction. After finishing Hyderabad schedule, the unit will move to Chennai and Mumbai to can key scenes. Vijya Kurakala is the music director while P.Uday Kiran produces it on UK Avenue banner.

It looks like Aishwarya Rai is the front runner to play heroine to Rajinikanth( superstar likes to be spelled in this way) in Shankar directed Robot! Last week Shankar who had worked with her in his Jeans, had met her in Mumbai and narrated the one-line story to her. Aishwarya heard the story but has not green signaled the project as her career in Bollywood is at a crucial juncture with her Hrithik Roshan film Jodhaa Akbar due for release on February 15. The box-office success of the film will determine her future moves in Bollywood, as she has only Ram Gopal Varma's "Sarkar-2" and two Hollywood projects "Pink Panther-2" and Ben Kingsley's "Taj Mahal" coming up for release. Shanker has never taken a pure south Indian actress in any of his films, as he thinks the skin tone of his heroine is important. And as far as Rajinikanth is concerned from Padayappa days he has not hidden his desire to act with the Ulaga Azhagi! Let us hope that Ash obliges these men, so that they will provide us with some great entertainment by the year 2010 with Robot.

Saranya (23), daughter of noted actor and director K.Bhagyaraj and Poornima was admitted to Malar hospital in Adyar, Chennai after she attempted suicide, on Tuesday morning. The buzz is that she had cut her left wrist and the reason is attributed to love failure. Saranya had made a memorable debut with Parijatham which was directed by her dad Bhagyaraj that was a moderate hit. But the dusky actress could not make it to the big league inspite of having the right connections in the industry. Sources close to Saranya, like her friends say that the chirpy girl was going through a bout of mental depression for the last few months during which she attempted suicide three times. When contacted, the Bhagyaraj family refused to make any comments. Her Dhik Dhik in Tamil is getting for release.