Katrina Kaif's some CooL news

Katrina Kaif, one of the most sought after actresses in Bollywood, debuted with a bang through "Boom", a movie about models getting caught up with the underworld. Though the movie bombed, people couldn't easily forget her angelic face and voluptuous figure. Not many have gained the fans and popularity as a new entrant as Katrina has done.

Katrina is half Indian and half British. Her father is an NRI and her mother is English, which makes her poor at Hindi. Initially critics were very harsh on her for her poor Hindi. But she has worked hard on it and started taking dancing lessons - both very essential to survive in the industry. Now she has started dubbing on her own. She has done few movies down south and is a popular face there already.

She has done two Telugu movies - Malliswari(2004) and Allari Pidugu(2005) and a Malayalam film (Balram vs. Taradas). In 2005 she starred in "Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya" opposite Salman Khan and Ram Gopal Varma's "Sarkar". "Hum Ko Deewana Kar Gaye" with Akshay Kumar followed.

Katrina was born on July 16, 1984, in Hong Kong, grew up in Hawaii and then moved to London. Even at the young age of 14, she got modeling offers and started out by modeling for a jewelry campaign. She was attracted to her father's native land and the moment she landed in India she was flooded with modeling assignments.

She started off with photographer Atul Kasbekar. Later she got offers from Lakme, LG, Cola, Fevicol, Pantene, Veet, Kodak, and L'Oreal. She was chosen as the face of the year for the Lakme India Fashion Week (2005). The Lakme commercial made her very popular. Soon Kaizad Gustad, the director of "Boom" noticed her and offered her a role in the film. Since it was the role of a model, she promptly agreed.

Although she wears bold outfits on films and ads, she is very particular about her clothes and she feels more comfortable in not-so-revealing clothes in personal life. And unlike others in her field she absolutely hates wearing make up.

Although she has been seeing Salman Khan for some time now, she still refuses to talk about him in the media. She has made it clear that her personal life is not meant to be known to all and that no one has a right to pass any kind of judgement on it.

She has lots of exciting projects lined up. One of them is "Partner" with boyfriend Salman Khan and Govinda. She is also doing "Apne" in which real life father and sons Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol all star together, for the first time. Then there is Anees Bazmee's "Welcome" with Akshay Kumar. Another film with Akshay Kumar "Namaste, London" is all set to release on March.

Neha Dhupia as Miss India

New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) Former Miss India Neha Dhupia, who has as many as five films lined up this year, says winning a beauty pageant is no guarantee of striking gold in Bollywood and that it's only hard work that finally counts.

'It's not easy to create a place for yourself in Bollywood even if you have a pageant behind you. No one in the industry was holding special carpets for me because I had won the Miss India contest. You have to work hard if you want to prove something. It's taken me a long time to carve a niche for myself, but I'm glad that finally I have done it,' Neha told IANS on phone from Goa.

The actress is set to appear in five movies this year - 'Paying Guest' with Mukta Arts, 'Pappu Can't Dance Saala' and 'Raat Gayi Baat Gayi' by actor-director Saurabh Shukla, 'Raftaar' co-starring Emraan Hashmi and Priyadarshan's 'De Dhana Dan'.

In 'Pappu Can't Dance Saala', her first release this year, Neha is acting along with funny man Vinay Pathak.

'In this comedy film I'm doing with Vinay Pathak, I play the role of a Maharashtrian back-up dancer. It was something very different for me because I'm not a Maharashtrian. I had to learn the mannerisms of the character, who is a complete brat and a bully, but Saurabh (Shukla) helped me a lot,' she explained.

Neha maintains that she has become more careful while choosing projects as she doesn't want to get typecast in a certain role.

'I'm holding myself back now and doing only interesting projects.'

After winning the Miss India crown in 2002, Neha stepped into Bollywood with 2003 'Qayamat: City Under Threat', which starred Ajay Devgan. She got noticed when she did the bold 'Julie' in 2004, but got typecast in a glamorous image.

She went on to do films like 'Kyaa Kool Hai Hum' and 'Shootout At Lokhandwala', but she tried to break her glam image with 'Chup Chup Ke', 'Mithya', 'Maharathi' and 'Dasvidaniya'.

'I feel in our industry you get typecast instantly. When I started off I was offered other roles as well, but I chose the ones I did and got stuck with one image, which was hard to break. That was a mistake and I've learnt from that. There was no guiding force for me when I entered Bollywood,' Neha said.

Like many others in Bollywood, Neha too admits she would love to work with Shah Rukh Khan and Mani Ratnam, but adds that she doesn't consider anyone her competition in the industry.

'I don't consider anyone my competition. Everyone is great and so talented. Why compete? I would rather be a collective part of the industry,' the actress said.