Mahesh Bhatt discusses his new film Raaz 3

The seasoned producer Mahesh Bhatt says stardom as a form of addiction is the premise of his new film, the romantic thriller Raaz 3. "Every artist, when he reaches stardom, he gets scared of losing it all. He wants to always be at that height. That's the film's theme," he said. "Because it has a horror element to it, the film may not seem realistic, but its story has been sourced out from the heart." Directed by Vikram Bhatt, the film is the third instalment in the Raaz series, which began in 2002. It stars Emraan Hashmi, Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta and is scheduled to be released in India on September 7. * IANS

Jism 2 song accused of plagiarism

Pooja Bhatt's film Jism 2 has been the talk of the web this week for all the wrong reasons - its title track Yeh Jism (currently ranked 13th on the Radio Mirchi charts; see right) is accused of being a copy of a Turkish song. The debutant music composer Arko Pravo Mukherjee denied the accusation, saying: "I don't care about these rumours. There is some similarity in the beginning of the songs but these things happen. It was not a conscious decision." Starring Sunny Leone, Arunoday Singh and Randeep Hooda, Jism 2 is scheduled to come out in India tomorrow. * IANS

Website invites feature film directors to create shorts

Large Short Films, an online festival of shorts, has invited the most popular film directors in India to create 10-minute films that can be viewed on the web, using either a computer or mobile phone. The Gangs of Wasseypur filmmaker Anurag Kashyap is one of the invited directors. "For me, short films are the purest form of filmmaking because you are making it just because you want to. You are not making it for it to be sold, you are not thinking of an audience," he said during the website's launch in Mumbai on Sunday. "Feature films can be driven by many factors - cinematography, music, talent, storytelling and actors. But short films are somehow to-the-point - they make one, solitary, larger impact." For more information, visit www.LargeShortFilms.com. * IANS

Kumar Taurani to produce son's debut film

The movie producer Kumar Taurani has announced he will launch his son Girish's Bollywood career via a musical film opposite the actress Shruti Haasan. "The film will be a musical love story and Prabhu Deva will direct it. We will start production preparations this month, though we have not finalised on the name of the film yet," said Taurani. "We will be shooting the film abroad as well as in Mumbai, Pune and some parts of Himachal Pradesh." Taurani confirmed the film is a remake of a southern movie and that they are looking at a March 2013 release date. * IANS