/> This monsoon audiences are getting to see more stars on screen than the ones obfuscated in the sky by the clouds.

Indeed those whopping star-crammed multi-starrers that were the order of the Friday in the 1970s are back in action.

And leading the bright pack is Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara which stars—hold your breath—Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Viveik Oberoi, Bipasha Basu, Konkona Sen-Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah and Saif Ali Khan.

This has got to be the biggest multi-starrer since Ramesh Sippy's Sholay in 1975. "And let's hope my Omkara, releasing in July, is as big a hit as Sholay," chuckles Vishal. "The profusion of stars in my film was completely dictated by the script. Every actor justifies his or character."

But the fact remains, Vishal made his previous film Maqbool with no stars except Tabu. If Maqbool hadn't worked so wonderfully Vishal would have cast arthouse actors once again in Omkara. In fact Akshay Kumar had turned down Maqbool saying he didn't find the desi version of Macbeth heroic enough.

"That's very true. I still haven't forgotten. I guess my script justifies the stars only because I could get them," admits Vishal.

One director who has never had a problem getting stars in Karan Johar. And boy, does he cram them in! If his last film Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham reads like a who's who of the film industry, Karan's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna, due in August, has everyone from Amitabh to Abhishek Bachchan in its roomy frames.

"I don't deny that my film has the biggest stars in the industry. Not just the two biggest stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, but also Rani, Preity, Abhishek. The fact of the matter is, everyone goes to the cinema to see their favourite stars, the more the merrier. I guess I 'm lucky to have so many friends who are major stars."

Amusing as it may sound, Karan's former associate Nikhil Advani has even more stars in his new directorial undertaking Salaam-e-Ishq than Vishal's and Karan's film put together.

"See, my film weaves a large number of different love stories together in one package. For every love story I needed a different couple. Whether it's Salman and Priyanka, or John and Vidya... each pair is perfectly placed in the pastiche."

If Salaam-e-Ishq saloms star-power Sanjay Gadhvi's Dhoom 2 and Farhan Akhtar's Don do even better.

Dhoom 2 has Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai and the villain and the moll, besides Abhishek, Bipasha, etc. Farhan's Don features stars like Kareena and Arjun Rampal in roles that were originally played by character actors.

"There're no character actors any longer, only actors, and stars wanting to prove they can act. That's how we find a Tabu doing a peripheral part in Fanaa, or an Anil Kapoor in Humko Deewana Kar Gaye playing what looks like an offshoot of Amrish Puri's tyrannical husband's act from Koyla," explains Hansal Mehta who prefers to work with newcomers at this point of his career.

"I think the star system has had its day," says Hansal.

Not if you go by the films that are ready to be unleashed in the second half of 2006. They're so crammed with stars you'd need calculators to keep track of them in the credit titles.

Not that stars ensure success. If they did Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Zaroori Hai released last month would have been the biggest hit of the year and Anurag Basu's Gangster would've sunk without a trace.

"What stars do is to bring audiences in. After that it's up to the director to hold audiences' attention," says Vishal.

Star Studded Extravaganzas Coming Up This Year...

Omkara (Ajay, Kareena, Viviek, Bipasha, Saif)
Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna (Amitabh, Shah Rukh, Rani, Preity, Abhishek, Arjun Rampal)
Eklavya (Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan)
Umrao Jaan (Aishwarya, Abhishek, Shabana, Suniel Shetty)
KANK (Amitabh, Shah Rukh, Preity, Rani, Abhishek)
Salaam-E-Ishq (Salman, Priyanka, Govinda, Anil Kapoor, Juhi, John, Vidya Balan)
Jaan-e-Man (Akshay Kumar, Salman, Preity, Anupam)
Krishh (Hrithik, Priyanka, Rekha, Naseer)
Dhoom 2 (Abhishek, Bipasha, Aishwarya, Hrithik)
Lage Raho Munnabhai (Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan, Boman Irani)