IF A MAN CAN AFFORD ME, I WILL MARRY HIM

Sushmita Sen is or else content with her life.

She's been linked to a string of men in the past including Randeep Hooda and Mudassar Aziz, but 33-year-old actress Sushmita Sen says she has no plans to settle down until a man can "afford" her.

"If a man can afford me, I'll definitely do that," Sushmita told IANS.

The former beauty queen, who will be seen on screen after a long time in Big Pictures' and Vashu Bhagnani's co-production "Do Knot Disturb", is or else content with her life.

"My life has been very good and exciting. I am making sure that I do only commercial films as I don't want to waste time doing anything else other than what is saleable and what can give my audiences great to see after such a long wait of not seeing me as an actor," she said.

Also starring funny man Govinda, Riteish Deshmukh and Lara Dutta, "Do Knot Disturb" is set to release on Oct 2.

LARA MAINTAINS HER WEIGHT AT 58 KG

David Dhawan is grand impressed!

Director David Dhawan just can't stop gibbering about beauty queen-turned-actress Lara Dutta for maintaining a weight of 58 kg since her debut in Bollywood with the 2003 movie "Andaaz".

The director is so impressed that he calls her "Miss Perfect 58".

"David calls Lara Perfect Miss 58 and is completely amazed how the actress has maintained 58 kilos for last six years. Lara has one of the best figures in the showbiz and is also an amazing actress," said a source close to the unit.

Dhawan is extremely fond of Lara's acting and comic timing. He was so impressed by her work in his 2007 hit "Partner" that he decided to cast her again for his forthcoming film "Do Knot Disturb".

LARA AND SUSH IN A CLASSY CATFIGHT

When you have two sexy former beauty queens in one film, you must be really naïve if you expect them to get along.

When two model turned actresses (Bipasha and Mugdha in All the Best) and two actresses (Udita and Sagarika, Bipasha and Kareena) don’t get along, there is no chance that two smart, well-spoken former beauty queens will. We are talking about Lara and Sushmita in David Dhawan’s Do Knot Disturb. They have stopped talking to each other altogether.

A source from the sets told us, “Sushmita and Lara are beautiful and smart. Two intelligent actresses cannot get along. Sushmita feels Lara has been given a more prominent role. She feels it is unfair because she was asked to gain and lose weight for the role for which she earned a lot of flak. And she needs a hit more desperately than Lara. She hardly has any films except the much delayed Dulha Mil Gaya. Lara had Billu and Do Knot Disturb and the highly anticipated Blue are her next films. She also has Housefull. Sush feels shortchanged.”

Meanwhile Lara has also find reasons to complain. Earlier she wasn’t too pleased with Katrina’s presence in Blue. Our source tells us, “Lara feels Sush has been given more prominence in the posters and promotion of the film. This is hardly true because so far, Bebo is the only song from the movie that is doing well and it features Riteish and her. The posters are group ones and individual ones. It isn’t that Sush is going all to promote her film. Lara is busy with Blue and she is also shooting for Housefull.”

He added that everyone is trying to help them become friends again. It’s not that they are pulling each other’s hair out as both ladies are too polished to do that. They just don’t share warm vibes and maintain safe distance from each other.

Sushmita was unavailable for comment while Lara said nothing like this happened. Produces Vashu Bhagnani did not wish to comment.

The saga continues…two actresses cannot be friends. We can’t wait for stories from the unit of Housefull. Deepika, Jiah and Lara are the ladies on set and three’s a crowd.

LARA AND KATRINA REJECTS GOVINDA

Akshay and Katrina are such good friends that Katrina decided to be his arm candy in De Dana Dan. Though, she doesn’t share the same equation with her Partner co-star Govinda.

Govinda has had two flop films, Chal Chala Chal and Money Hain Toh Honey Hain. His last hit was Partner in 2007.

Apparently, he has high prospect from Life Partner which is produced by Abbas Mustan and directed by Rumi Jaffrey. He is the only senior member in the cast that consist of Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza and Prachi Desai. All these actors don’t have star power as such. So for a promotional song, Govinda tried to his power and contacts to rope in Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif but they both refused. The two actresses appeared on Koffee with Karan together and were last seen with Chi Chi in Partner. Also, Govinda is a good friend of Salman. He thought Katrina would agree because of the Salman connection but she refused citing date issues. Over the past month, she was busy with New York promotions, post production for Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani, a few support events and then she left for Europe to celebrate her birthday. Katrina has never done item songs, anyway. She wants to be seen as a stern actress so why would she do item songs?

Lara Dutta who has also done the upcoming Do Knot Disturb and Banda yeh Bindaas Hai with Chi Chi refused citing date problems. She is presently in London shooting for Sajid Khan’s Housefull. The last item song Lara did was Aisa Jadoo Daala Re in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khakee in 2004. It was a big hit. She was also part of Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi as no smart person would refuse SRK and YRF. The song is quite admired.

Since these ladies refused the song, they had to rope in wannabe hottie Amrita Rao of Shortkut (fame?) to do the item number. The music of Life Partner is not a rage at all.

What can we say, Govinda’s career is on the downslide and no one wants to work with a fallen star. And everybody isn’t as lucky and powerful as Shah Rukh Khan to get three stars for three different item songs as he did with Kareena, Priyanka and Deepika in Billu. Our advice to Chi Chi would be to do more films with David Dhawan and Salman Khan and lose some weight to get his career back on track.

Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi dating each other

The much wedded tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi is unexpectedly in the news for his presentation off court to a certain extent than on. Just weeks after he was all in excess of Raima Sen at a night club, buzz is that he is now seeing Lara Dutta.

As for the Lara-Dino association, nobody actually knows why the two bankrupt up. Lara, of course, wasted no time and has moved on to Mahesh Bhupathi. While we're on the subject, Dino is unconscious of the new man in Lara's life and has accepted that his association with the actress is over.

A basis said, “Lara and Dino, who were dating for a year, called off their relationship almost three months ago. That's when Lara met Mahesh from end to end a common friend and the two instantaneously liked each other and started dating. Mahesh's matrimony to Shwetha Jaishankar has been on the rocks for quite for a moment now. The tennis star and Lara have been going strong ever given that they met. Lara and Mahesh are making sure not to make any public appearances together as their association is hush hush right now.”