Starry nights - Shobha D

Aasha Rani, the ravishingly beautiful 'Sweetheart of Millions', makes one fatal career-move: she falls in love. Aasha Rani, the unrivalled number one of Bombay cinema, seems intent on ruining her career-and her life-blinded by a scorching passion that threatens to destroy everything she has attained. Aasha Rani's story is that of a vulnerable, small-town girl whose scheming mother pushes her via a never-ending orgy of blue films and PBI - Indiscriminate sex into the crass PBI - World of Bombay cinema, teeming with vicious, preening stars and near-stars and insecure, high-society celebrities: Akshay Arora, the reigning stud of 70mm and the object of Aasha Rani's desire; Sheth Amirchand, the Don of Bombay's underPBI - World, under whose hallowed sheets her career is sealed; Kishenbhai, the small-time distributor, who gives her her first break, and his heart; Sudha, her younger sister, whose envy and hate of her sister's success make her Aasha Rani's worst enemy.