Sanjay Dutt was ‘extremely relieved’ after a Mumbai court Wednesday said his marriage with Manyata was legal and overruled a lower court’s order annulling it.

Hearing a case filed by Manyata, the Sessions Court said the order passed by the Bandra metropolitan magistrate was not valid as she had been legally divorced from her first husband Mehraj-ul-Rehman.

Mehraj Feb 15 petitioned the Bandra metropolitan magistrate that he married Manyata in 2003 and their marriage was still valid as he had not divorced her yet.

On appeal from Manyata, the Sessions Court upheld her contention that her marriage to Mehraj was dissolved as she had divorced him through ‘khula’.

Additional Sessions Judge S.N. Sardesai ruled that the divorce between Manyata and Mehraj was legal as per the Muslim Marriage Act and a woman was free to marry a person of her choice after getting divorced as per law.

The Bandra magistrate’s court had earlier said that as per the Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, the Muslim cleric (qazi) had no power to dissolve a marriage without the husband’s consent. It had termed as false Manyata’s claim that she and Mehraj were divorced on grounds that there was no substantial evidence to back it.

The Sessions Court also rejected as illegal the magistrate’s order asking Sanjay and Manyata to appear before it.

After the judgement, the actor said: ‘I’m extremely relieved by the court verdict.’

The couple had a court wedding in Goa Feb 7. Four days later, they married in Mumbai according to Hindu rituals.

Mehraj, currently behind bars in an extortion case, had claimed that Manyata’s marriage with the star was illegal since she had not yet divorced him.

Meanwhile, Dutt is expected to leave for US shortly to meet his daughter Trishala.

Priyanka Chopra fell in love with him during the shooting of Love Story 2050 .

Yup, Priyanka has a new love in her life and his name is Boo. But Harman Baweja needn’t worry coz this Boo is none other than a cute, robotic teddy bear that is Priyanka’s friend in one half of the futuristic love story.

The pink teddy was specially designed keeping Priyanka’s character in mind. Boo is her pet in the film and he does all kinds of petty chores and even runs errands for her.

Priyanka, who is a self-confessed gadget freak, became so fond of Boo during the shooting that she now wants to keep the pet with herself.

However, Harry Baweja , the film’s writer-director, wants to keep Boo with him until the movie’s release because any last minute changes in the film may require Boo’s presence.

The director says once the movie releases he would gladly present Boo to Priyanka. Well, now the actress has another reason to eagerly await the film’s release.

Courtesy : www.apunkachoice.com

‘Love Story 2050’ marks the debut of Harry’s son Harman.

It looks like after Ram Gopal Varma`s Sarkar Raj, the Bachchans (Amitabh, Aishwarya and Abhishek) can’t just do without each other. The Bachchans may team up together, yet again, in Taalismaan.

According to sources, both Abhishek and Big B were finalised in Ram Madhvani’s Taalismaan, and they certainly felt itchy when the Bachchan bahu wasn’t included in the cast. Sources further reveal that both Abhishek and Amitabh insisted on Aishwarya playing the role of princess Chandrakanta, and thought she would be a perfect fit for the role.

However, Vidhu Vinod Chopra isn’t much convinced about the casting. Perhaps Ash’s negative response to Vinod’s proposal twice has caused resentment in him. It is believed that the Bachchans requested Anil Ambani (who is co-producing Taalismaan with Vinod Chopra) to cast Ash in the film, but the Eklavya director was reluctantl.

He feels that Chandrakanta should be played by a `fresh` face. He also feels that Ash had played a princess in Jodhaa Akbar far too recently.

For a certain scene in Sunny Deol-directed The Man, Shilpa Shetty had to slap her co-star Sudhanshu Pandey. And if the latter is to be believed, the actress was very reluctant to do so.

“It was an emotional scene where I was supposed to console her and she was required to slap me in a fit of rage. But Shilpa was so reluctant and scared. She had to be literally convinced to slap me to get the shot right,” Sudhanshu, a singer, model and actor, told IANS.

Sudhanshu said that he had to ultimately hold her hand and make her slap him to be more comfortable with the shot. “It was funny as she still couldn’t do it. But since she had no option, she did it very lightly,” he quipped.

The actor, who featured in Sanjay Gupta’s film Dus Kahaniyaan, was in the capital to attend the launch of an All Sports Bar.

Year 2008 has proved to be lucky for Sudhanshu, who became a father for the second time earlier this month and also has some big banner films lined up for release.

Talking about his forthcoming projects, Sudhanshu said, “Alibaug, The Man and Singh is King are in the pipeline and I am really excited.”

Sudhanshu, a former member of the music group Band of Boys, has sung in Sanjay Gupta’s Alibaug, where he plays a business tycoon.

“Yes, I have sung in ‘Alibaug’. It was Sanjay (Gupta) who dragged me into it and the experience was fantastic,” he said, making it clear that he would never get associated with a music band, however.

The actor, who calls himself a “simple, focussed and a family man”, is looking for a name for his newborn son. “It has become difficult to decide on a good name.