Mumbai (PTI): Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan was the perfect host at the launch of his son Chirag in tinsel town on his 25th birthday.

"No politics today," pleaded Paswan to the media on wednesday evening, adding "it's the day for celebration and birthday of my son Chirag".

Chirag was launched here for an untitled Bollywood movie.

An elated Paswan was all praise for his son and said, "Chirag has chosen a path on his own and has taken up the challenge in a very new field."

It was Chirag's decision to choose the tinsel world and of course "if he is talented, definitely film makers will cast him in their movies," the Union Minister added.

MUMBAI: Yesteryears renowned film writer Ali Raza passed away early this morning due to a heart failure. He was admitted in Nanavati Hospital seven days back to be operated for artery blockage in the heart. He was 85 years old.

In his career spanning 47 years, Raza worked closely with Mehboob Khan. His last film as a writer was Pravin Nischol's English Babu Desi Mem in 1996.

Apart from this, he has also written films like Andaz, Anand, Aan, Mother India, Saraswatichandra, Reshma Aur Shera, Raja Jani, Dus Nambri, Sawan Badho. In 1968 he won the Filmfare award as best dialogue writer for Saraswatichandra.     

In 1974 he even directed a film with Sunil Dutt and Rekha titled Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye.

Magician is probably the right word for our Bollywood actors. With every film comes a new makeover, it may be a physical change or learning a new art, our Bollywood celebs seem to be doing it all and that to in the shortest time possible. But the question is how do they do it? With their crazy traveling schedules, film shoots in different locations across the world, shows and performances and a zillion other commitments. Is it the magical powers or perhaps their fast metabolic rates or is it just in their genes – we would never know. Take for instance John Abraham who had to reportedly smoke almost 90 cigarettes a day for his film No Smoking and that too when he is a non smoker! And on the other hand the actor had to loose oodles of weight for his upcoming film Aashayein where he plays a cancer patient, well if you thought this was too much the actor has gone a step further and got a perfectly toned body for his sport flick Goal .

To go through such physical changes can be quite harsh on an actor's body. Like actor Madhavan explains "For my film Guru I had to look like a lean and on-the-prowl journalist because that's what I was playing. But for my Tamil film Thambi just before Guru I had to put on a beefy action hero's girth. And after going luminously lean in Guru I got even leaner for my harassed middleclass commuter's role in the Tamil version of Nishikant Kamath's Dombivali Fast

"Now I have the heftier look in Aarya because I play a small town medical college student. It's now getting to be a problem. I've been playing this gain-and-lose game so frequently that it's getting alarming,"

Well it's not just Madhavan who is playing this dangerous game but most of our Bollywood actors today are juggling their lifestyle just to fit the part. Take for instance Bipasha Basu who survived on oranges for three days for a song where she had to wear a bikini in Dhoom 2 . Or Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai who had to put on quite a few calories for their film Guru.

Gaining and loosing weight is just a part of the drastic makeovers that the actors have to go through. Every time an actor does a new film he has to shed his earlier image and get into the next one. Take for example Anaitha Nair who wore long tresses in her film Chak De India and now for her upcoming film Aashayein , Anaitha has gone ahead and shaved her head for the role of a cancer patient. That definitely takes some guts! Or Kamal Hassan who is known for his detailing of character roles to perfection, may it be Hindustani where he played an old man or Chachi 420 where he was seen portraying an middle aged lady's role. Well all these makeovers require immense planning and hard work. But the real test comes when its time to get into the character. The garb definitely helps but when its time for action only the lines help.

Nowadays Bollywood actors are always trying to do something different. Either they are learning a new language, a new skill or a new stunt – all this sounds interesting but imagine you are only given a few days to master a skill you have never done before. Now that's tough. For example For Dhoom 2 Bipasha had to learn to swim for a surfing shot. Earlier she couldn't even get into the water. But eventually she never gave the shot as the sea was too rough but at least she learnt how to swim. For Aparna Sen's The Japanese Wife Raima Sen had to learn how to do domestic chores. It wasn't enough to just fake it as her character. She actually had to look like she does house work. So she did the actual cleaning and sweeping every day and yet make herself look graceful while doing it. Whew!

Well what we get to see is always the end product, we either criticize it or love it but we sometimes forget about all the hard work done for canning that one shot and making it possible. So the next time you go watch a film think twice...

Bollywood Film Premiere - Om Shanti Om, Wellington, 8 November 2007