by Subhash K Jha

It's a blue battle of the bulge this week. While Neal 'N' Nikki with its 'cool' posters and images of Yash Chopra's son Uday Chopra and Tanuja's daughter Tanisha peeping tantalizingly from under sheets, the Yashraj banner is all set to further multiply on its "bold" image acquired from their last release Salaam Namaste which dealt with a live-in relationship.

With its reputation of 21 kisses and other torrid happenings preceding Neal 'N Nikkie director Arjun Sablok seems quite alarmed.

"This isn't THAT kind of a film. And the comparisons with Kalyug which a section of the press is making is quite inappropriate. Maybe youngsters will get turned on by Kalyug and then come and watch my film."

Mahesh Bhatt is very sure of his 'blue' film, based on a true incident of a young honeymooning couple who were filmed by a secret video camera for the porno market.

Says Bhatt, "I think the entire crew has done a good job...sorry ...I'd like to go further and say they've done a brilliant job...As producer I feel like Javed Miandad facing the the last ball in the historic Sharjah match. If I hit bull's eye I'll create history."

"It's my protégé Kunal Khemu (who acted as a child in my films Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Zakham) versus the giants(Yash Chopra in Neal 'N' Nikkie and Amitabh Bachchan in Ek Ajnabee).

Fobbing off all comparisons with the other sizzler of the week Mahesh Bhatt says, "Comparing our Kalyug with Neal 'N' Nikkie is like comparing oranges and apples. Their film has an urban upmarket base. We've pitched out film at middleclass India. Our key characters are ordinary people. Let's see what happens."

But the dark horse of the week is second-time director Apoorva Lakhia's Ek Ajnabee which features the mightier-than-ever Amitabh Bachchan in the central role.

Does anything more need to be said?