Sajid Khan’s Housefull 2 will have Akshay Kumar paying tribute to the great lecherous Bollywood villains of the years gone by. It will have him eye the pretty young things with a mysterious look and mischievous grin a la Ranjeet of old. Director Sajid is said to be a big fan of the “reel-rapist” Ranjeet, and has even inserted his trademark line “Ayyieee” here. “When you see the film, you realise it’s never been done before in Bollywood. He could pull it off only because of his director’s conviction,” says a source, adding that he took inspiration from Sajid himself. “Sajid played a similar character on his TV show Ikke Pe Ikka and thought it would be a good reference point for Akshay,” he adds.

To Russia and back, for love One good thing about spy movies apart from the action, of course are the locations used. Considering they involve cross-country espionage, the movies are shot across different countries. Bollywood’s answer to the Bonds and the Bournes, Agent Vinod, is no different, and among the different exotic locations used was the dull, snow white panorama of Siberia. What’s more, the entire cast and crew flew over to St. Petersburg in Russia for all of one precious shot.

“The film has been shot all across the world. But the shortest schedule was in St. Petersburg, where the crew spent just two days. It could actually be the shortest trip ever taken by a Bollywood film crew,” says a source. But considering the kind of massive indoor sets and special effects at filmmakers’ disposal, why did they not avail of these? “We didn’t shoot these portions just to tell the audience that ‘Hey look, we went to all these places’,” says director Sriram Raghvan. “We couldn’t have shot these at any other part of the world, and Saif’s exit from the airport is part of a very important sequence, something we couldn’t have allowed to get tacky. When you watch it, you will realise why it was so necessary.”