By now it’s common knowledge that Priyanka Chopra plays 12 roles in Ashutosh Gowariker’s What’s Your Raashee?. And that each one has been styled differently. But the attention that Ashutosh Gowariker has paid to the hair styling for each of the 12 Priyankas takes our breath away.

Explains the diligent director, “You can tell a girl’s personality not only by her clothes and hair but also by the way the hair bounces.”

A different bounce had to be created by non-film stylist Asha Harirahan for every Priyanka. Priyanka has assumed a different skin tone, complexion and playback voices, each suited to the individual character in terms of personality and body/spoken language

Confirming this Ashutosh Gowariker says, “I knew Priyanka could pull off all 12 parts. I’ve seen how nuanced her performances are right from the time she made her debut in The Hero . When we decided to have the same actress playing all 12 parts we decided to give every character a totally different personally in terms of dress, skin tone and even hair style.”

Non-film hair stylist Asha Hariharan was brought in to do Priyanka Chopra ’s hair for the 12 characters.

Explains Ashutosh, “While Neeta Lulla has done all of Priyanka’s clothes for the 12 characters, Asha Hariharan was brought in because I didn’t only want only a different hair cut or style for all the 12 Priyankas I also wanted a different fall and bounce for every girl’s hair. For that I needed an expert beyond the expertise offered by the Bollywood names.”

Rajesh Patil was roped in to do Priyanka’s 12 skin tones. “They’re very subtle differences. But nonetheless the skin shades determine a major part of every girl’s personality.”

Priyanka being dusky in complexion had a particularly tough time playing the more gora avatars.

As for her voices Ashutosh sifted through innumerable voices with composer Sohail Sen before selecting the 11 voices (the 12th girl doesn’t sing). “It wasn’t like an audition. But yes, my music director Sohail Sen and I went through the voices to select the ones that suited Priyanka’s every avatar.”

Adds Ashutosh, “If I made the film 20 years ago, Lataji would sung for all the 12 Priyankas and she would’ve made sure each avatar had a distinct personality.”

Priyanka Chopra is perhaps the number one actress in Bollywood today. The success of her recent release Kaminey has further strengthened her position. So, do you think What’s Your Raashee?is releasing at the right time? Perhaps she has taken too much risk .

It’s risky in the sense the audience rejected Love Story 2050, where she acted with Hurman Baweja. It failed in spite of the talks of their alleged off screen romance. Adding more salt to the wounds, Hurman’s next film Victory also flopped. So, it’s a bit risky for an established actress, who is at the peak of her career, to work with a struggling actor.

Meanwhile, Priyanka seems to be very sure of herself. Ashutosh has cast her in 12 avatars, which would find her a place in the Genius Book of World Records. The award winning director also has shown faith in Hurman.

Will the pair strike off well this time around? Only time can tell this!

If one goes down the memory lane, one can comfortably say that with What's Your Raashee?, Priyanka Chopra may well be boasting of the biggest ever film written for a woman protagonist in the history of Indian cinema. After all, 80 years after legendary British actor Lupino Lane created a (yet unbroken) record for a male actor playing 24 roles in one single film, Only Me (1929), Priyanka Chopra is all set to emulate a similar feat when it comes to female actors. In What's Your Raashee? (2009), she plays 12 different roles and the film has already been referred to Guinness Book of World Records for further consideration.

While there have been quite a few double role performances by leading ladies in the past, there aren't many movies where a Bollywood actress has played even a triple role, let aside coming close to enacting a dozen odd characters in a single outing. As the film releases today, this correspondent gets conversing around the ego boost that she must have got once Ashutosh Gowariker approached her for the role. She also chats about the complexities involved in bringing the 12 characters alive on screen, her friendship with Harman Baweja as well as the contribution that he has made in her rise as a top Bollywood actor.

The moment Ashutosh Gowariker broke the news to you that you would be playing 12 characters in What's Your Raashee?, what was your first thought? Were you already thinking of a record?
Record? That thought just came and went. What was of paramount importance was the fact that I had to play 12 characters, all of whom belonged to the same age group. See, if an actor is required to play different roles but belonging to different age groups and social milieus, then I guess comparatively it is still manageable. You can make use of prosthetics, bring a difference in the way they talk and get a different cultural background. Yahan kya karte? After all each of the girls here was a Gujarati, lived in Mumbai and were all a marriage material.

Not really an easy place to get some differentiation running...
Not at all. Working in films is not as easy as you think from outside. You have to treat each of your assignment as an art and craft. You have to do a lot of things even if your film is a rom-com. Frankly, it was not an easy role to do as it may sound to you as an audience. For playing these 12 characters differently, I had to change my body language and personality practically every day of the shoot. What's Your Raashee?has indeed been the most challenging role of my career. We were all pretty clear that we couldn't take the film lightly. For this reason, we also did one and a half months of research to get the right personality traits as per different 'raashees'!

With so many complexities involved, did you just leave yourself in the able hands of Ashutosh Gowariker and follow his instructions?
See, when a director gives a script to an actor, lot of work is already etched on paper. Still, if you are an actor who wishes to contribute to the written material as well, you have to bring in a lot of your own self too. It is an amalgamation of vision of both the director and an actor. Just like a director cannot make a good film just on the basis of a script, similarly an actor too just can't rise above the script and rock the show on his/her own. Clichéd as it may sound but the fact remains that it is all a team work.

Ashutosh says that it is a 'smile through' film. How would you like to call it as? Candy floss?
Really, I don't understand the definition of candy floss! What I know for sure is that this film is entertaining, intelligent, funny, real, light hearted and quite humorous. And no, it doesn't turn slapstick at all. It is a film that you can go for with your family.

Coming to your co-star Hurman, since you have already done around 30 odd films while he has been seen in only two (which were unfortunately unsuccessful at the box office), did you play a mentor of sorts on the sets? Was it the case of you being a little protective about your co-star and hence came up with a shielding act?
Who am I to do that? No, I don't think I would have even thought of being responsible for his act in front of the camera. He is himself quite talented and on the contrary I have learnt a lot from Hurman.

Really?
That's right. He knows a lot more than me about cinema since he comes from a filmmaking background. I have known him before I started working on films. I used to take his help in my career as an actor. We have been friends for five years now. While I have learnt everything on the job after making mistakes, he is trained and is much better placed. Rahi baat hits ya flops ki toh jaisa kehte hain naa, samay se pehley aur bhagya se zyaada kisi ko nahi milta!

The worry factor must certainly have been there though once both Love Story 2050 and Victory didn't work at the box office, isn't it?
But then there have been some of my own films that haven't worked at the box office, so what can one say about that? It is all a part of the business. We do not have any actor in the history of filmmaking who hasn't given flops.

The final verdict is finally out. Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Raashee? has failed to please the reviewers. This is a matter of concern because the media has blasted the film. Bad review could affect its opening.

The reviewers are of the opinion that the 3.20 hours film turned out to be boring due to poor screenplay and script. They say that Ashutosh Gowariker has failed to convince the audience with the story. However, they have words of praise for lead actors Priyanka Chopra and Hurman Baweja. They feel that the duo has given justice to their roles.

Will What's Your Raashee? have a good opening in spite of the bad reviews? Only time can tell this!

After playing 12 roles of bride-to-be in What's Your Raashee?, actress Priyanka Chopra is finally playing the role of a bride, not to one man but seven different men. The actress is gearing up for yet another multiple role in Vishal Bhardwaj's next titled 7 Husbands.

A source reveals, "Vishal was very impressed with Priyanka while working with her in the movie Kaminey . He always referred to her as a dedicated and devoted actress. While scripting for 7 Husbands, without any second thought, he made up his mind to cast the actress in the movie. Vishal also had seen the rushes and promos of What's Your Raashee? with her 12 different avatars and thought she carried it off really well and could do justice to her film."

The source continues, "In 7 Husbands, Priyanka will again be seen in seven different avatars of wives to seven different men. She will have different get ups for each wife. The seven different actors for the role of husbands haven't been finalized as yet. They are in look out for serious actors who might not be A-listers."

"The movie is still in the scripting process. The movie will go on floors next year after Priyanka's dates are available and the seven actors are finalized," adds the source.

Priyanka Chopra remained unavailable for the comment.

A Gujarati downmarket wannabe bride dragged out of her traditional habitat into tight skirts tops and a 7-star hotel by her parents to meet the eligible bachelor from Chicago. The girl's longing to go West, leaps out at you even when he politely rejects her.

"It must be snowing in Chicago," she says with a warm wistfulness that melts your heart.

Elsewhere, almost at the end of Yogesh's long and exhausting bride-hunt, an under-age 15-year old is passed off by her desperate parents as a purported bride. When our hero politely asks her which college the girl attends, the school girl burst into wracking sobs.

There are enough heart-melting moments in this lengthy treatise on 'How NOT To Go Bride-Hunting For Money's Sake', to make Ashutosh Gowariker's reputation as a filmmaker, who constantly ventures into areas of filmmaking that seem at first, commonplace but actually secrete the most valuable truths of life.

We saw him make a resplendent virtue of simplicity in the storytelling in Swades where Gowariker said, go back home to the NRI.

It tugged at our heartstrings because the message maneuvered the movie's vision into places that are the opposite of artifice.

A lack of pretension and a thorough affinity to simplicity and grace in the narration imbue WYR with shades of life done in the quirky satirical tones that completely reject obscure images and symbols.

What's Your Raashee?relates the episodic story of the NRI's search for a groom in the easygoing rhythms of a folk tale set to a contemporary but unobtrusive beat. The director's eye for detail is unmatchable. When a postman huffs and puffs up that dusty village-road to deliver a much-awaited birthday card to a rich Nanajee from his favourite grandson in Chicago, the postman's shirt is sweat-stained. When the first of Yogesh's wannabe brides (arguably the best of Priyanka Chopra's 12 spectacular turns) walks in, her shoes seem to have been bought hours ago.

Ashutosh Gowariker pitches the elemental tale at a satirical level. Some of the supporting characters (too broadly parochial to match the narrative's mellow mood) needed to be toned down, and the whole subplot about the marriage broker (Darshan Zariwala's) excellent extra-marital affair and a bumbling detective on his trail, needed to be edited out.

Some of the music in the otherwise-interesting mix of acoustics and sporadic melody by debutant Sohail Sen is also a burden on the narrative.

But, Yogesh's bride-hunt never gets tedious, thanks to the unadorned interiors of the simple plot. The bride-encounters move from the poignant (the girl who frankly tells Yogesh she had sex with her neighbour) to the satirical (the self-crowned 'yogini' who gets horny on the flustered Yogesh) to the unabashedly idealistic (a barefoot doctor who invites Yogesh to move from Chicago to the gaon) to the satirical (a theatre actress who spews venom at the NRIs)…each character brings her own little universe of flickering emotions and ideologies.

What's Your Raashee? is the consummate post-date film. It tells us about what happens to the nice decent Gujarati boy (played with heartwarming niceness and decency by Harman Baweja, more of that later) when he meets 12 prospective brides.

By now, we all know Priyanka Chopra plays all the 12 brides. What we don't know is how beautifully she balances every characters' inner life in the swarming but serene paradigm of the plot creating for each of the 12 intended brides an inner life and an outer glow within a restricted time-span.

It's an amazing achievement. Priyanka gives soul to all the 12 characters she plays. In the climactic song, she brings all of them together, quirks and mannerisms all on display in one unified flow of feelings and body-language. The actress achieves individuality for all her characters while giving the plot a homogenous flow.

As for Hurman Baweja, this film is his actual debut. His equation with Priyanka is similar to Shahid's vis-à-vis Kareena in Jab We Met. Harman is warm and sincere and ever- articulate before the camera. What a nice guy he has made out of Yogi!

And what a lovely uncluttered unassuming and transparent film you have made, Mr. Gowariker!

So what is cooking between Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra? They were branded as couple when Love Story 2050 was in progress. The attention shifted to Priyanka and Shahid Kapoor after the film flopped. Once again Harman-Priyanka are in the news. They seem to have grown closer than ever before with What's Your Raashee?.

However, Harman said that he wants to keep things private and ignore rumours. He added that he doesn't want to say either yes or no on his alleged affair with Priyanka. But why? Because if something happens in the future, he doesn't want people to say that he had denied the relationship earlier. He went on to say that every woman has a special quality in her and that man has to see it.

Well, Harman has taken the safe route by neither confirming nor denying affair with Priyanka. May be he sees his future with her!

The Election Commission wants everybody to vote and wants celebrities to lead the people in exercising their rights. Life a dutiful citizen Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra had gone to the polling booth along with her brother on polling day in Mumbai. But the What's Your Raashee? actress was left clueless when the authorities could not find her name in the list.

Priyanka Chopra who is a household name in the country dutifully waited for more than an hour in the queue to cast her vote. When her turn came the actress was told by the Election officials that her name was missing from the list. That's not all when her secretary Chand Mishra was arrested when he forcefully entered the booth in an attempt to get the actress a faster access.

Elections officials had kept Piggy Chops waiting for nearly another 45 minutes before she was allowed to cast her vote. Confirming the incident Priyanka said that the Election officials found her name after a long search and let her vote. Piggy Chops didn't seem too upset with the incident and later in the day tweeted "Me and my brother!!! We just voted!! Exercise ur right!!"

Priyanka Chopra left her 'just friends' Shahid Kapoor in the dark by celebrating Diwali with Harman Baweja. Interestingly, she has been linked with both Shahid and Harman.

It maybe recalled that Priyanka was rumoured to be dating Harman but they severed all ties following the debacle of Love Story 2050. Then they got closer during the making of Madhur Bhandarkar's What's Your Raashee? This film also failed at the box-office but the lead pair continued to bond.

It is said that Harman invited Priyanka to Diwali celebrations on behalf of his father Harry Baweja and mother Pammi Baweja. The actress obliged to the invitation and joined the Baweja family at mid-night. She spent a few hours with them.

Harman and Priyanka have denied having any affair but sources said that they are more than just friends. Well, there can't be smoke without fire. What do you day!

Vishal Bhardwaj roped in the make-up team of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for his next film starring Priyanka Chopra opposite seven guys. But it wasn’t as simple as they thought. The make-up team was detained by the Indian airport authorities for carrying a large amount of chemicals.

They were questioned for a few hours and released but their luggage was given to them only after two days because of which the look test on Priyanka got delayed. However, after getting their make-up and cosmetics back, the look test was done on Priyanka. The test took five hours, but Vishal is pleased with the results.

The news of the make-up team getting held up has been confirmed by Vishal’s spokesperson.

Priyanka Chopra is spreading awareness about leprosy. She recently shot a documentary for an organization, Alert India. According to Veera Rao, the director of the organization, the documentary will be presented at a charity dinner.

The documentary was supposed to be in English only, but Priyanka asked them to do a Hindi version too because it would appeal to the rural masses and rid their false notions about the disease.

The actress will be leading the charity dinner, The Beauty at the Feast. When asked how she manages to take time out for such things despite her busy schedule, she stated that 'if you really want to do something, you will always find the time for it.'

The on and off relationship between Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra has come to an end. Shahid has taken the final call after realising Priyanka wasn't his type of girl. The two stars has met in the sets of Kaminey last year and had fallen in love. Sources close to Priyanka have said that the actress who hasn't been keeping well in the recent past is devastated by Shahid's decision. Priyanka is looking for peace and visited Ajmer Sharif last week with her friends who are rallying behind her.

Shahid's decision to part ways is being attributed to inherent differences in their nature. While Shahid is a introvert and reserved, Priyanka is extrovert and loves to party. Shahid also had problems with her fondness for alcohol. The couple never publicly admitted to being together although they were too close to be just friends. Shahid has been finding it hard to be in a strong relationship ever since Kareena Kapoor dumped more than two years ago

Shortly after their break-up, Chopra and Kapoor find themselves sharing the same hotel in Bangkok. Time heals. Also space. Recently separated couple Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra would've liked distance between them to get over the initial awkward period right after the break-up. When Shahid Kapoor went away to shoot for Yash Raj's untitled next in Bangkok, it seemed like a perfect plan. But that wasn't to be.

Priyanka knew she was to go to Bangkok too, a week later but to her horror, she found herself at the same hotel as her ex-boyfriend. And to make matters more complicated, Shahid is shooting with Anushka Sharma, who he is now being linked with. While Shahid has been shooting in Bangkok for over a week, Priyanka and Ranbir left for the city last night.

Shahid is shooting for Parmeet Sethi's directorial debut for Yash Raj Films while PC is shooting for Sajid Nadiadwala's Anjaana Anjani with Ranbir Kapoor, who has recently ended his relationship with Deepika Padukone. Too many broken (and now single) hearts together under one roof. They are staying at the Grand Sukhumvit Hotel (previously known as Sofitel) in central Bangkok.

Incidentally, while PC and Ranbir are nursing broken hearts Sajid Nadiadwala will be celebrating his 9th wedding anniversary with his wife Wardha by throwing a grand party in the evening where his cast and crew will be invited in the evening. The mahurat of Anjaana Anjani (directed by Siddharth Anand) will also take place in Bangkok on Sajid's wedding anniversary.

Beam Global Spirits & Wine, the 4th largest spirits company in the world recently held the 9th Annual Teacher's Achievement Awards. Priyanka Chopra won the award in Entertainment category, Shahid Kapoor was bestowed with the People Achiever Award, while veteran lyricist Gulzar was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Other winners included Iqbal Mohammed for Communication (Photography) and Saina Nehwal for Sports.

Over the last few years Teacher's Achievement Awards has bestowed as honour and recognition to individuals for their achievements in fields of Business, Communication, Entertainment and Sports. Saluting & Celebrating achievement at the highest level is a platform that Teachers have invested in for many years and the Teacher's Achievement Awards have been a manifestation of the same for past 9 years.

Speaking on the occasion, Matt Shattock, President & CEO, Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. said, "At the onset, I congratulate the winners of the Teacher's Achievement Award 2009 and extend my sincere appreciation to all the nominees as well, who are worthy winners in their own right. We are extremely proud of our association with the Teacher's Achievement Awards since it is a significant demonstration of the value we attach to success, triumph and achievement in whatever we do."

This year's award ceremony was hosted by the father-daughter duo Kabir & Pooja Bedi. The awards witnessed a melange of scintillating entertainment acts, beginning with a brilliant performance by a group of dancers, followed by a chat show hosted by the versatile actor Boman Irani. It was an interesting discussion with the women achievers on stage giving their opinion on Achievement.

The awards night was attended by eminent personalities such as Lara Dutta, Arshad Warsi and Maria Gorretti, Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan, Boman Irani, Ishita Arun, Ramesh Sippy and Kiran Juneja, Prasoon Joshi, Mandira Bedi, Vikram Phadnis, Vinita Bali, Amaan and Ayaan Ai Khan, Bikram Saluja and Schauna Chauhan and Suneeta Menon and members of the Beam Global Spirits & Wine - Senior Management Team from around the globe.

Imagine you are on a boat, sailing in the middle of the sea from where you can only see the serene beauty of the deep blue ocean with the gushing cold breezes caressing your face... Apparently, the unit of the film Anjaana Anjaani is basking in the delight of this heavenly pleasure in the middle of work!

The lead actress of Anjaana Anjaani, Priyanka Chopra has been constantly expressing the delight of her shoots in the ocean. “I'm currently shooting on a boat for Anjaana Anjaani in the middle of the ocean pretty much the whole day.”

Anjaana Anjaani is a forthcoming Bollywood film directed by Salaam Namaste and Bachna Ae Haseeno famed Siddharth Anand, which stars Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in lead.