Thursday Gossip!

Today in gossip - updates on Emraan Hashmi: King of B movies; REALLY BIG IIFA NEWS; two new Delhi Belly song promos; and other assorted nonsense!

* Controversial painter MF Husain has passed away... sadly before he got a chance to paint Vidya Balan nude.

* Read a conversation with Siddique, the director of Salman's Bodyguard!

“The major difference is the far flung canvas which is extravagant and not time bound. There is a complete lack of budget constraints that gives you the freedom to go ahead without any reservations. It’s a different affair compared to vernacular films that get canned within a fixed time span.”

* Fox is joining with Vikram Bhatt to produce Raaz 3 and Informer. This could be interesting - I think Raaz 2 was actually quite an interesting film. Raaz 3 and Informer are both set to star, yes, you guessed it... Emraan Hashmi: King of B Movies.

* Speaking of... Yana Gupta's Murder 2 item song is being reshot for TV because it was too suggestive.

* Shankar (of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) talks about upcoming ZNMD and IIFA!

"We want to communicate to the students and the audience at large about the entire process of music creation in Bollywood as the process is quite different from that in the west," said the singer-composer, popular for songs like Breathless and Jhoom barabar jhoom.

The workshop, to be held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on the morning of 25th June, will open with a brief history of Hindi film music and will be followed by a discussion on the integral role it plays in Bollywood films. It will be an interactive session, which will also see the hit trio use inputs and recommendations from the audience to compose a song during the course of the day.

No word on how to get tickets...

* And Beth should hold onto her hat because Aish and Abhi are performing at IIFA!

* Raveena Tandon is doing an item song in Bbuddah! And Abhi gets questions on Buddah at the Dum Maro Dum DVD launch... no word on the Dum Maro Dum DVD.

* Bollywood goes digital...

And if one is inclined to believe that digital cinematography is the medium for budget filmmakers then that is really not the case, as Amol Gupta, DOP (Director of Photography) with Ram Gopal Verma, points out. “RGV loves to experiment with new mediums. I worked with him on Rakhtacharitra, which was completely shot on digital medium. It offers the freedom to play with light and also the surroundings. And even manipulate them according to the need of the shot, all the while not going overboard with the budget.”

* Ranbir and Kat are set for Ayan Mukerjee's next!

* Vikram is doing another MASALA FILM!

TWO new song promos for Delhi Belly... you guys, I had the oddest dream last night that Imran Khan died. I was actually kind of surprised to see this because it was so vivid!