/>Sanjay Leela Bhansali: My closest friend in Mumbai and also the most uproariously funny person I've ever met. Sanjay has taught me how to laugh out load from somewhere deep down inside my throat. His sense of the comic is so sharp and visually alive he can paint prolonged pictures featuring immense comic details.

A terrific racounteur with an unbeatable sense of satire, Sanjay, who according to me is the best filmmaker in the country, has yet to arrive at his forte in films. It's farce. One day he'll make a funny film. Trust me, people will have more tears rolling down their eyes than Khamoshi and Black put together.

Karan Johar: Everyone knows Karan is the most clued-in director in the industry. But how does he manage to know everything that goes in the industry???!!! If Karan was a journalist he'd put every scribe in the shade.

He can hold forth for hours on the exact activities of everyone, and and can even inform you about how to go about writing a review or framing a story. If he wasn't a filmmaker Karan would have been a journalist for sure.

Arshad Warsi: Terrific entertainer on screen. But did you know Arshad and his wife love to entertain guests in their home? The man who makes the world laugh also makes the best biryani in Bollywood. Friends swear by Arshad's culinary skills. But he isn't doing that much cooking any longer. Free time goes into changing recently-born son Zeke's nappies.

Hema Malini: She's stunningly beautiful and incredibly outspoken. But she's also very very lonely at heart. Although she doesn't show it, this woman of substance truly misses a man's presence in her life.

"Though I love Dharamji very much it's my misfortune that he hasn't been with me to watch our daughters grow up , and to give me a company. So yes I do miss a man by my side," Hema once told me in an unguarded moment.

"But then I've so much to keep me occupied. There's hardly ever any time to feel lonely," she cheered up the very next moment. But it's a sobering thought: the dream girl of millions getting nightmares about aging all alone.

Urmila Matondkar: I know it's hard to believe ...but the most svelte actress in Bollywood with a perfect hour-glass figure is a diehard foodie! Yup, Urmila just LOVES to eat. Her meals are elaborate. And she can go on and on eating without pausing for breath. Strangely none of it ever shows on her. Even more strangely Urmila claims she has never done a day's exercise!

This denial of the obvious has become a standing joke between us. "I know you don't believe me. But it's the truth. I don't exercise. I guess things just 'work out' for me , ha ha." Oh, did I tell, Urmila is the third best mimic in the film industry (after Simi Garewal and Rekha).

Her takeoff on Lataji and Ashaji would leave the two divas gasping for breath. It sure had that effect on me. Who else does Urmila impersonate? Ah , that would be telling!

Rekha: Doesn't feel the heat, nor the cold! That's right. Rekha doesn't use the air-conditioner. She believes heat and cold are a state of the mind. She has an inbuilt temperature control.

Shabana Azmi: If there was a prize for the most private person in Bollywood it'd have to go to Shabana Azmi. No one knows the real Shabana. The public face isn't a mask. It's the way this brilliant woman sees life. In all the years that I've 'known' her the only time I've seen Shabana drop her defences was when years ago, her niece Tabu had accused Jackie Shroff of making a pass at her.

"Sick sick sick!" the visibly upset and protective aunt had exclaimed. Whether she was making a comment on the moral underbelly of the specific incident or on the way sexual mores prevail in Bollywood, I never got to know.

With Shabana you never question, you just accept her persuasive words. For some domestic reasons Shabana always loved Tabu , though there was never much love lost between Tabu's elder sister Farah and Shabana.

Gulzar: You know him as a poet , author and filmmaker. But did you know Gulzar the tennis player? For as long as one can remember the poet has been getting up from sleep at 4.30 in the morning, getting into his tennis togs and leaving home for an invigorating 2-hour game of tennis.

Gulzar Saab's tennis habit remains unbroken, unless he's traveling out of Mumbai. " I think the secret of my good health is tennis," confesses this avid sports fan who also loves cricket, though only as a spectator.

Simi Garewal: A perfect hostess...One of the pleasures of visiting Mumbai is to have dinner with Simi and her lovely sister Amrita. They don't only make you feel special they also serve the most appetizing food.

As for Simi she's the best mimic in the world. Her takeoffs on....never mind...are so perfect even never-mind would be flummoxed. The Garewals don't only serve fabulous food... they also serve food for thought.

Lata Mangeshkar: She sings like an angel, right? You also know her second-favourite passion in life is photography. But did you know Lataji loves a good joke? During my first meeting with her many years ago she had me in splits by describing a colleague as an 'I Specialist'.

That reminds me of her most historic rendezvous with humour. Long ago when composer Shankar(of Jaikishan fame) was busy promoting the atonal Sharda as The Next Best Thing Lataji, had succinctly quipped, "We had heard love is blind. We had never heard love was deaf as well." Ear ear!