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Prithviraj Chavan, the minister of state for Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), does not hide his excitement when he says that he had a “brush” with the film.

He was handling the sports ministry when the Indian Women Hockey Federation mooted the idea of making a film on the game.

“I was excited when Vidya Stokes, president of the federation, approached us with the idea,” said Chavan, who handled the sports ministry briefly after Sunil Dutt died in 2005.

He had then taken Stokes and others to the National Stadium - where parts of the movie was shot - and asked the authorities to extend all help to them.

“Frankly speaking I did not even believe them when they said that Shah Rukh Khan would be approached for the main role,” he said.

“I am so happy and thrilled at the positive reports about the movie. I must see them (actors) and I will also request the prime minister to watch it (movie),” Chavan said.

Manmohan Singh may not be a movie buff but he watched Sanjay Dutt-starrer “Lage Raho Munnabhai” at the new digital theatre in the prime minister’s official residence. He also watched “Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose - The Forgotten Hero”, a source said.

“I had to feel what it means to skip meals, go hungry for a large part of the day to feel like my character,” Madhavan told IANS.

“In ‘Guru’, Abhishek Bachchan put on oodles of weight to play the businessman. I think authenticity is catching on in our cinema,” he added.

While “Chak De! India” features a bevy of actual female hockey players as part of ‘coach’ Shah Rukh Khan’s team, Vivek Agnihotri’s “Goal”, which opens later this year, features footballers from Bangladesh playing alongside John Abraham and Arshad Warsi.

“It was tough,” said John. “Fortunately, I’ve played football at the national level. So I could cope,” he added.

Arshad feels now actors can’t fake anything.

He said: “The era of specialised acting is upon Bollywood. Gone is the time when actors could fake it. Now you really have to know what you’re doing. Otherwise audiences would boo and shoo you.”

Shabana Azmi spent months learning Carnatic singing before doing Mahesh Dattani’s “Morning Raga”.

Her devotion paid rich dividends. An accomplished composer-singer like Shankar Mahadevan thinks her level of authenticity in “Morning Raga” is extraordinary.

Even a relative newcomer like Sammir Dattani pulled out all stops to play the 17-year-old government informer in Mani Shankar’s “Mukhbiir”.

“First of all I’m 25, but had to play a 17-year-old. Then I played a guy who changes his identity completely, including a new religion. I had to adopt a new lingo and body language. Then there were more fun things to do like learning to shoot a gun,” said Sammir.

Sinha has quietly taken off for Italy to finalise the production nitty-gritty for his next action-fest “Chase”. The film will be shot entirely in Italy and will feature three Bollywood debutants who have been undergoing rigorous training under his hawk eyes.

Italian actress Caterina Munro plays the female lead. Another foreign element in the film is Enrico Vechi - Sinha is collaborating with the Spanish screenwriter for the script and all the action scenes will be handled by a German team.

“Right now I wouldn’t like to say much. After all people have to forget ‘Cash’ before they move on to my next,” said Sinha.