SCOOPS: Alia Bhatt juggles shooting for Brahmastra and Kalank, Urvashi Rautela prays for Stan Lee and more...

Big films demanding big efforts could well be true for Alia Bhatt. The Raazi actress, who is presently busy with her next two films, Kalank and Brahmastra, will be working almost round the clock over the next few days. Interestingly, both the films are produced by Karan Johar and feature a big star cast. While Abhishek Varman-directed Kalank stars Varun Dhawan, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kunal Kemmu, Ayan Mukerji-helmed Brahmastra is toplined by Amitabh Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor. While both are being simultaneously shot in Mumbai, coincidentally, both require Alia’s participation over the next few days. 

Given that the actress is KJo’s protégée, her scenes in the two films have been scheduled in a way that she shoots a shift for each film. “Kalank will be shot during the day, while the night sequences for Brahmastra will be shot after dark,” says our source, adding that with this tight schedule, Alia will be working almost continuously for the coming few days. 

“Moreover, both the shoots are in different parts of Mumbai. While Abhishek is shooting on a set in Dahisar, Ayan is filming his next at a location towards the south of the city. So Alia will catch up on most of her rest while travelling between the two locations,” sums up our source. 

Remo D’Souza is known to encourage new talent — for his debut film ABCD, he had cast talented dancers from reality shows. And, now for his upcoming directorial starring Varun Dhawan and Katrina Kaif, Remo has offered Dharmesh Yelande, who was part of the ABCD films, a song to choreograph. It was on the sets of Dance Plus 4 that the ABCD director made this offer. 

A source says that a performance by Gang 13 from Dharmesh’s team impressed Remo so much that he spontaneously offered a song to the former. Dharmesh says, “I’m grateful to Remo sir for giving me this opportunity. But Varun being such a fabulous dancer, choreographing for him will be a cakewalk. I’m  excited and eagerly looking forward to the movie as the rehearsals will start soon too.” 

When asked about his equation with the Judwaa 2 actor, Dharmesh said, “Varun is a humble and down-to-earth person and we got along really well. We had a lot of fun shooting together for ABCD 2 in Vegas, too. He has even given my team a name called D-Unit.” In fact, in ABCD 2, Dharmesh had designed Varun’s steps for Sun Sathiya with another choreographer. 

Even though destination weddings are not uncommon in India, Italy has suddenly become an interesting venue for celebrity weddings. Last December, Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli tied the knot, away from the desi paparazzi at a village-restored resort in the European country’s Tuscany province. And last week, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone became man and wife after Konkani and Sindhi rituals at Lake Como. And in the interim, earlier this September, Lake Como also witnessed the destination engagement of Isha Ambani (Mukesh and Nita Ambani’s daughter) and Anand Piramal (son of Ajay and Swati Piramal).  

However, much before the Pari actress and her cricketer hubby thought of heading to Italy to take the saat pheras, her mentor had chosen the country of Michaelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and Galileo, for his shaadi. Apparently, Aditya Chopra and Rani Mukerji were the first B-Town folk to get away to Italy in April 2014 when they decided to become husband and wife. “So, in a way, Adi and Rani paved the way for Indian, particularly Bollywood celebs to explore Italy as they enter a new phase of their life,” says our source. 

Kriti Sanon, who is currently shooting for Housefull 4 with Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Bobby Deol, had to rush to Delhi for a day. Reason being that her best friend was getting married on Saturday and the actress had committed to be there for her big day. 

The actress, who shares a close bond with her friends and makes sure to be there for them in important times, had requested the film’s makers for a day off. Her khwaish granted, the movie’s team worked the schedule in such a way so as to shoot the scenes of the other principal actors on Saturday. Post her saheli’s shaadi celebrations that went on till the wee hours, the actress flew back to Mumbai and drove straight to HF4 set to resume her shoot. 

Aditya Roy Kapur has been signed on for Anurag Basu’s next, an anthology of four stories piled into one feature film. The main male leads for the film are locked — there’s Saif Ali Khan, Rajkummar Rao and Abhishek Bachchan along with Adi, but the female leads are yet to be cast. Only Fatima Sana Shaikh has been roped in to play Raj’s love interest. Although Taapsee Pannu was reportedly offered the role opposite Aditya, the schedules needed to be worked out. But now, with movies like Mission Mangal and Womaniya planned one after the other, Taapsee might not have dates to commit to Basu.” Guess the hunt for the new female lead is on again! 

Legendary American comic book writer-publisher Stan Lee left a void in the hearts of his fans after his demise on November 12. Urvashi Rautela, who claims to be the biggest fan of the co-creator of Spider-Man, IronMan, X-Men and other Marvel super-heroes, recently visited Mount Mary Church in Bandra to pay a tribute to him and prayed for his soul. 

Calling his passing ‘the biggest loss of the film fraternity also for all the comic fans’, the Hate Story IV actress said, “I was deeply hurt as soon I read the news. Stan Lee was a great writer and enlightening the word of comics to us, extracting the imaginative world. I was and always will be his fan. May his soul rest in peace.”

A filmmaker and the heroine of his next are apparently more than just good friends. Industry sources are gup-shupping about how the two are spending abundant time together after she broke up with her actor beau. More so, since she and her ex worked together in the filmmaker’s earlier project, during the making of which the two got into a relationship. However, our source says there’s nothing so serious between the heroine and the movie-maker, even though they have been spotted together a number of times. They’re just going around, with no strings attached.