Ash dreams

Once known to be one of the leading lights in parallel cinema and the man who has made some memorable movies right from Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika and Mandi, Shyam Benegal is grappling with the very idea of casting big stars in his movies. First he wanted to cast Urmila Matondkar in his desi version of Carmen with AR Rahman's music. But the film fizzled out as he had no takers for the cast. Priyanka Chopra was to step in to the said role with Sanjay Gupta backing the film. But Gupta backed out as well. And then it was to be Aishwarya Rai , but that plan too failed. But it does seem that the filmmaker now wants to revive the project with Ash. But after Ash has had three flops in a row barring the hit Robot, thanks only to Rajnikanth, we wonder whether any project with her too will get any buyers, more so for Shyambabu who is not known for making commercial hits. And if Ash still has her price in the Rs 5 crore range, that would even be a difficult proposition. But then we wish the twain do work together in a mutually beneficial manner to enable us see them rock again.