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Dil De Chuke Sanam(HDDCS) and Saawariya were made memorable by her presence on the sets.Everything else will fade.

But my experience of working with Zohraji is timeless, just like the lady herself. And that reminds me ,though me there was a decade-long gap between HDDCS and Saawariya she had not aged one bit in those ten years.

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not a single extra winkle, not one extra grey hair!!! She is a miracle woman!At 94 when she worked with me in Saawariya Zohraji was still the sprightly gamine with dancing eyes. Her sheer zest for life and her understanding of the movie camera made all of us look like film students in front of her.

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.I remember when Ranbir Kapoor and I went to pick her at the airport when she arrived to shoot for Saawariya.

She looked at Ranbir and said, 'Do you know I've worked opposite your great-grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor and your grandfather Raj Kapoor? You're the third generation of Kapoors I'm working with.' I don't know how she missed out working with Randhir and Rishi Kapoor.

She had come laden to Mumbai with her pictures with Prithviraj Saab and Raj Saab to prove her point to Ranbir. From the first day she insisted on calling him ' Ranbir Raj.

' They were the two youngest people the sets. I swear I felt old watching Zohraji's energy on the sets of Saawariya.

All of us would be dead tired by evening. But at 6 pm Zohraji would grandly announce, 'Let's have a glass of wine before we got back to work.

' She loved her role because for the first time she played a Catholic character in Saawariya.She got a chance to wear her hair stylishly, put on Western clothes and she specially loved the crimson lipstick.

Once she had those in place she was in full form. Do you remember that scene where she insists on singing an English-language song for Ranbir? The song was her own.

It was something she remembered from the past. And what a memory she has! At 94 she remembered not just all her own dialogues, but every single dialogue of every character in Saawariya and earlier in HDDCS.

In fact I remember when I had picked her up from the airport for the first time she rattled off all her lines and then all the lines of all the other characters and warned me, 'Don't you dare change one line.' On the sets if anyone forgot his or her lines, guess who promptly piped in with the correct lines??!! .

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Zohraji's exuberance is infectious. The power and the magnetism in her eyes are still with me.

I wanted to work with her for the longest.She had started her career with Uday Shankar's dance troupe and had played a part in Udayji's dance ballet Kalpana.

I worship Uday Shankarji.So for me Zohraji was part of a legacy that I revere beyond the normal.

I wanted her to play Aishwarya Rai's blind old but jovial and zesty grandmother in HDDCS . When Zohraji agreed I was besides myself with joy.

She was 84 at that time. But she brought to the sets the energy level of a 19-year old.

I remember an incident where one of my assistants asked her to look toward the characters and react.She snarled back, 'How can I LOOK at someone when I'm blind?' She remained in character throughout.

That Bhavai song Suno suno that she sings with Aishwarya and the rest of the Gujju family in HDDCS? Zohraji managed it in one take. She's temperamental in a very positive way.

While some actors throw their weight around to feel important, she rages when she sees incompetence, mediocrity or compromise on the sets. At 84 she was such a strong woman that when in a scene she had to playfully pull Salman and Aishwarya's ears their ears went red.

They asked me in a whisper if I could ask Zohraji not to put so much strength into her ear-pulling. But I didn't have the guts to correct her.

No one tells Zohraji what to do.She is a free spirit.

I'd often see her with her grand daughter on the sets. But she didn't need any help.

She did everything on her own. Once she had some female relatives over from Pakistan.

She giggled and laughed and whooped it up like Sonam Kapoor would with her friends..

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My experience of working with Zohraji in the two films I did with her, would remain with me until I die. She is a miracle woman.

A legend beyond explanation. And look at her range! In HDDCS I put her in a Gujarati Ghagra-choli.

In Saawariya she wore a Catholic dress.She could create her own universe for each character without going into too much background detail.

Yes , I certainly hope to complete a hat-trick of films with Zohra Sehgal by doing one film with her. I suspect she will out-live us all.

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The event is scheduled to take place from June 22-24, 2012 and this year the Bal de l?Ete will have ?Princess of Rajasthan? as its theme. Posted in (less)

"When we thought of Parineeta , I immediately thought of a face like Aishwarya Rai. The character of the girl is like two men fall in love with her, so the heroine has to be bigger.

But Pradeep Sarkar (director) told me about her (Vidya) I was like let me see what she can do," Chopra told reporters here, last night. "But then we tested and tried her (Vidya) and she cleared it," he said.

Parineeta was adapted from 1914 Bengali novella of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The film starred Vidya, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles.

Talking about other roles -- Shekar that was essayed by Saif Ali Khan and Girish, played by Sanjay Dutt, Chopra said, "I had called up Sanjay saying there is a role for you in my film and he agreed. We wanted the character of Girish (Sanjay) to be bigger than Shekar (Saif Ali Khan).

" Also, Rekha, a yesteryear actress had a cameo performance in a night club as a singer in this film. "For this cameo we went to who's-who of Bollywood but then we realised it has to be someone who is a classic diva and who better than her (Rekha).

"I had gone to meet her (Rekha) after Chopra had spoken to her about the appearance. It was fantastic meeting her.

She does her own styling, hair, make-up, photography. Even for the song she had valuable inputs to provide.

It was amazing and we had a wonderful time working with her," director Pradeep Sarkar said. Tweet (less)

"When we thought of Parineeta , I immediately thought of a face like Aishwarya Rai. The character of the girl is like two men fall in love with her, so the heroine has to be bigger.

But Pradeep Sarkar (director) told me about her (Vidya) I was like let me see what she can do," Chopra told reporters here, last night. "But then we tested and tried her (Vidya) and she cleared it," he said.

Parineeta was adapted from 1914 Bengali novella of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The film starred Vidya, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles.

Talking about other roles -- Shekar that was essayed by Saif Ali Khan and Girish, played by Sanjay Dutt, Chopra said, "I had called up Sanjay saying there is a role for you in my film and he agreed. We wanted the character of Girish (Sanjay) to be bigger than Shekar (Saif Ali Khan).

" Also, Rekha, a yesteryear actress had a cameo performance in a night club as a singer in this film. "For this cameo we went to who's-who of Bollywood but then we realised it has to be someone who is a classic diva and who better than her (Rekha).

"I had gone to meet her (Rekha) after Chopra had spoken to her about the appearance. It was fantastic meeting her.

She does her own styling, hair, make-up, photography. Even for the song she had valuable inputs to provide.

It was amazing and we had a wonderful time working with her," director Pradeep Sarkar said. Tweet (less)

Celina gave birth to twin boys in Dubai Saturday, and the mother and children are doing well healthwise, according to the actress' husband, hotelier Peter Haag. They have named their twins Winston and Viraaj.

Lara delivered a baby girl in January and she has been spending time with her bundle of joy, named Sara. However, she is already back to reading scripts.

"Back to hearing scripts and making decisions. Exciting things to look forward to! On another note, nothing smells better than a Johnson's Baby," Lara wrote on Twitter last month.

The actress-producer, married to tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, was extremely excited about her pregnancy; her face had a glow every time she stepped out confidently with her baby bump. Actress Aishwarya Rai, who chose to keep away from the shutterbugs during her pregnancy, is also busy doting upon her daughter, born in November 2011.

The four-month-old daughter, said to have been named Aaradhya, is keeping Aishwarya occupied and work has taken a backseat for the actress. The former beauty queen has visibly put on post-pregnancy weight and would have to shed it off before she gets back to the cameras.

Her husband, Abhishek Bachchan, says she is happy playing mom for now and would only return to work when she feels like it. "When she wants to come back is completely her decision.

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as and when she decides, when she sees a script she is inspired by - the decision is entirely hers. Currently she is very happy doing what she is doing," Abhishek said recently.

Other B-Town actresses who became moms recently include Sonali Kulkarni and Rituparna Sengupta. While Sonali is married to corporate figure Nachiket Pantvaidya, Bengali actress Rituparna who already had a son with childhood sweetheart Sanjay Chakrabarty gave birth to their daughter in July last year.

Shilpa Shetty, married to London-based Raj Kundra, is preparing for her D-day. She announced her pregnancy on Twitter in December 2011, calling it the "most beautiful phase" of her life.

While on one side, she is busy adhering to doctor's instructions, Shilpa is also looking forward to the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, starting April. She hopes to cheer for her team Rajasthan Royals, wearing an XXL size jersey of the team.

Actress Antara Mali, best remembered for films like Naach and Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hun , is also said to be expecting her first child. She is married to fashion editor Che Kurien.

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