Showbitz: Doing her bit for society

Vidya Balan with women in Mirzapur.

Doing her bit for society

Vidya Balan is ready to pay back to society. Whenever she signs a new brand, she invariably gets associated with a new social cause as well. This past week, the actor visited a village called Lusa in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, where she promoted women empowerment and children’s education as part of an oil brand’s social initiative.

At the end of the campaign, we hear that the village looked like an educational playground with placards of the alphabet and colourful numbers tied to banyan tree branches everywhere.

Worth the wait

Rashmi Nigam has waited for eight long years for a dream project in Bollywood to come her way. With Heroine, her wish might have just come true. The model-turned-actress, who was last seen in Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao (2004) and Mr White Mr Black (2008), has landed herself a meaty role in the Madhur Bhandarkar-film starring Kareena Kapoor.

Great believers!

Akshay Kumar’s next movie sees him playing a modern-day Lord Krishna who descends on Earth to show the protagonist Paresh Rawal the meaning of God. OMG- Oh My God! has the veteran film and theatre artist playing an atheist who takes godmen to court. The irony of all this is that both Paresh and Akshay (who are also the co-producers of the film along with TV bigwig, Ashwini Yardi) are great believers. Akshay, in fact, hopes to visit temples across the country seeking divine blessing, according to an insider.