Danny Boyle ropes in SRK and Aamir for new film!

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Talk about an unbelievable casting coup - two of the biggest Bollywood honchos in existence would in all probability appear together on screen for Danny Boyle's new film!

In case you're Hollywood-challenged, Danny Boyle is the director of Slumdog Millionaire, which took home a busload of Oscars, including one for AR Rahaman. And it gets better - Boyle will act as producer for the new film, titled 'Bombay Velvet' which will be directed by maverick filmmaker Anurag Kashyap!

Boyle has already confirmed that Aamir is signed up for the film, he is now in talks with Shahrukh Khan for a lead role in Bombay Velvet. If all goes well, the film, with SRK and Aamir begins shooting in February 2010 and will hit screens in Q1 2011. Bombay Velvet is quite like Slumdog Millioanire, but is a period piece, set in the year 1940. The film is reportedly based on real incidents, but Boyle has taken creative liberties in the script to make it more interesting and entertaining.

Bombay Velvet has been written by Kashyap from a treatment by John Hodge who earlier wrote Boyle's 'Shallow Grave', 'Trainspotting' and 'A life less ordinary'. Bombay Velvet may well be an adaptation of the novel Maximum City by Suketu Mehta; back in March Boyle was attached to make film an adaptation of the book and had approached Aamir Khan for the lead role. Maximum City explores the lead character's return to Mumbai after a gap of two decades; he experiences the politics of today's Mumbai, meeting murderous gangsters as well as Bal Thackeray along the way. The book gives socio-political analysis of the history and people of Mumbai.

However, the book is set in modern times yet Bombay Velvet is set in the 1940s. Boyle wanted to cast SRK as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati in Slumdog Millioanire. SRK had turned down the role, an act which the star now regrets. Supposedly, Bombay Velvet will be split into three acts, and a different actor will play the lead in each act. Shahrukh will feature in the first, a new actor in the second while Aamir will snap up the third. The film marks the second collboration between Anurag Kashyap and Danny Boyle, the latter had given some creative inputs for Dev D.

Get Ready Once Again DHOOM-3

The Dhoom franchise just keeps getting bigger - the third installment of the Dhoom series, titled Dhoom 3 is already in pre production and is all set to swallow the box office in 2011.

We all know that bikes, cars, chases, bikinis and songs will make a return in Dhoom 3, so what's new about the film? Two things - Shahrukh Khan in the lead role and Aditya Chopra in the director's chair! That's right, the Bollywood badshah makes a return to negative roles after a gap of almost a decade. Although SRK will be as much as a villain as John Abraham and Hrithik Roshan were in the previous installments.

The original cast, including Hrithik Roshan as Aryan, Aishwarya Rai as Sunehri, Bipasha Basu as the Bose twins, and of course, Abhishek Bachchan as ACP Jai Dixit will return for Dhoom 3. Uday Chopra, whose lifeline seems to be only the Dhoom series will return in his role as the bumbling Ali Akbar. According to sources, the scriptwriters are trying to make way for John Abraham's Kabir Khan and Esha Deol's Sheena for cameos in Dhoom 3. With a cast like that, the film makers are more or less assured of a major hit.

Apart from Shahrukh's inclusion, the big difference is surely Adiya Chopra's shift to the director's chair. The Yash Raj honcho is known for directing epic, sweeping love stories like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Mohabbatein, and the recent romantic comedy Rab ne bana di jodi. Whether the director can dole up a solid action entertainer remains to be seen, especially since Dhoom and its sequel are known for over-the-top paisa vasool action scenes and stunts. While the original Dhoom lifted some of it's action sequences from Hollywood flicks like The Matrix Reloaded, Dhoom 2 had 100% original desi masala.

According to insiders, Yash Raj Films is trying to do an Ocean's Trilogy for Dhoom 3, by roping in a gargantuar cast and having an impossible heist as the plot. Granted, the first Dhoom had shades of Ocean's 11, but hey, its Bollywood, popcorn fun is all we want. And if Dhoom 3 delivers, its going to set some box office records when it releases in late 2011.

Shahrukh's return to a villainous role in an action film is a welcome change after a string of mega successful romantic flicks. We don't count his 'Don' as a negative role, and we would definitely like to see him return to shades of 'Baazigar, 'Anjaam' and especially 'Darr'.