Sameera joins the cast of LoC

After making a lacklustre debut in Sohail Khan's Maine Dil Tujhko Diya, Sameera Reddy seemed to have disappeared. The young actress went to Goa for a break -- and returned hotter, sexier and beautifully tanned. She was immediately signed on for Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai, which releases this week.

An hour ago, Sameera was signed on for J P Dutta's war epic LoC, which boasts of a star-studded cast. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty, Akshaye Khanna, Manoj Bajpai, Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Raveena Tandon, Mahima Chaudhry, Esha Deol, Kareena Kapoor and Preeti Jhangiani.

Sameera is also working in Sanjay Gupta's Plan and Musafir.

Chokher Bali goes to Locarno

Four Indian films will be screened at Switzerland's prestigious Locarno film festival this year. The films include director Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali film Chokher Bali (starring Aishwarya Rai) and Satyajit Bhatkal's digital film Madness In The Desert, based on the making of Ashutosh Gowarikar's Lagaan (Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh). Interestingly, Aamir, who has just returned from Kargil after visiting Indian jawans posted there, was one of the judges at the festival last year.

The other films include theatre and stage actor Rajat Kapur's dark comedy Raghu Romeo (Vijay Raaz plays the title role) and Sejal Shah's documentary Jogini, based on the devdasi tradition under which women are married off to deities and exploited by temple officials.

Which Taj Mahal would you like to see?

After last year's fiasco of five films being made on Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, another subject has caught the eye of filmmakers now. Taj Mahal.

Three films are being made on the monument that Emperor Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. These include Robin Khosla's Taj Mahal -- A Monument Of Love, Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal -- An Eternal Love Story and Bharat Bala's IMAX Taj Mahal.

Khosla's film stars Moon Moon Sen, Khulbhushan Kharbanda, Shaabaz Khan and newcomers Purnima (sister of actress Bhagyashree) and Raghu Raaj. Khan's film has a cast comprising of Manisha Koirala, Arbaaz Khan, Pooja Batra, Zulfi Sayed, Sonya Jehan, Kabir Bedi and Kim Sharma. The IMAX film stars Aishwarya Rai as Mumtaz Mahal.

BILB gets full national release in the US

After an incredible 19-week run in the US that has beaten all industry expectations, Gurinder Chadha's hit soccer comedy Bend It Like Beckham will go into a full national release on August 1, entering more than twice as many theaters as it has played in thus far. Distributor Fox Searchlight, which has already grossed $25.9 million in North America from the low-budget film, announced the film will widen to about 1,200 theaters. Currently in 155 theaters, BILB reached its widest point of distribution on May 9, when it was screened in 555 locations.

Searchlight is making the unorthodox move of expanding the film this late into its release in an attempt to take advantage of changing market conditions. With most big-budget summer films having no staying power this season, and a plethora of similar films in the action genre due for release, the distributor believes moviegoers want something different, more character-driven and less reliant on special effects.

Besides, actress Keira Knightley, who plays the best friend of Parminder Nagra's character in BILB, has become a high-profile star with her turn opposite Johnny Depp in the blockbuster Pirates Of The Caribbean, which has grossed a towering $132.2 million within 12 days of its release.

Over the weekend, BILB grossed an estimated $300,000 for a $1,935 average per theater and has spent the last 17 weekends in the Top 20 peaking at number nine. Produced at a cost of about $5.5 million, the British-Indian comedy has grossed $70 million at theaters worldwide making it one of the most profitable films in recent years.

Chadha has already begun pre-production on her next film Bride And Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai and New Zealand actor Martin Henderson.