A song and dance about special appearances

don't mind, but it's celluloid commerce at work when sunny deol dances around in the madhuri dixit-starrer yeh raaste hain pyaar ke. after all, sunny deol is the hottest property in tinsel town following the super-duper success of gadar: ek prem katha. he might have just a special appearance in yeh raaste hain pyaar ke, but sunny shares equal space with the main players in the promos of the film currently being aired on satellite channels.but then, deepak shivdasani is not the only director who is trying to cash in on sunny's presence in a film. remember iski topi uske sar? well, sunny was screaming out of the posters of the film. and not without reason. the film starred two new faces - samrat and manik bedi. so, the solitary dance number which sunny performed in the film was highlighted in a big way in the promos. then, albeit to a lesser extent, the saif ali khan and raveena tandon-starrer imtehaan was also billed as a sunny deol film. it's another matter altogether that the punjab da puttar had precious little to do in the film. "in cities such as delhi and mumbai, the gimmick of special appearances doesn't really work. in small towns, however, the audience is lured to the theatres by such stunts," offers a film distributor. "but you can't cheat the audience for too long. after the initial rush, such films are liable to fall flat if the star power is not strong enough to keep the audience interested." adds distributor sanjay mehta, "it pays not to cheat the audience by raising unnecessary expectations about the presence of a certain star in a film. kuch kuch hota hai had salman khan, dil to pagal hai had akshay kumar and mohabbatein had aishwarya rai. the special appearances of all these stars was underplayed and this, in turn, helped the films in question." incidentally, sunny is not the only bollywood biggie whose special appearance is being overhyped. govinda figures on the list too. dil ne phir yaad kiya might be ready, steady and raring to hit the big screen, but the film is yet to be released. the songs of the film show tabu and govinda dancing around. but don't be fooled about the star cast - dil ne phir yaad kiya is actually about the other hero in the film vinay anand who happens to be govinda's cousin. as far as sunny's fans go, it's best to wait for the real thing. come september, and indian will see sunny burning bright. now, that will be a really 'special' appearance.