Business Or Pleasure? Ashok Amritraj.  PIC/ NARENDRA DANGIYA

Tennis player-turned-Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj is shooting in Bangkok for his next production, Street Fighter, based on the  Japanese video game.

In close proximity

B-Town is buzzing about his proximity to former Miss Afghanistan and wannabe actress Vida Samadzai. Vida, who is often spotted on the city’s party circuit, featured in Subhash Ghai’s Black & White and was also seen last year in English play Psy-Clone.

It is learnt that Amritraj asked a unit member to make arrangements for Vida’s travel to Bangkok  though she is not part of the project.

Says a source, “Ashok Amritraj asked his unit hand to chart out  Vida’s travel plans and described her as a journalist travelling from Mumbai.”

Adds the source, “As the crew and cast of Street Fighter are from the US; they were clueless about Vida. They assumed she was arriving to write about the film’s shoot!”

Me No Journo: Vida Samadzai. PIC/Shadab Khan

Vida, who was Miss Afghanistan in 2003, had created a furore in her home country for wearing a bikini in the Miss Earth 2003 pageant. She will soon be seen in two more Hindi films Shashi Ranjan’s Dhoom Dhadaka and Sunit Tiwari’s Runaway.

Vida admits that a trip to Bangkok is on the cards but denies that it is at Amritraj’s invitation. “I have been approached as a model for the Jealous jeans ad that will be shot in Bangkok. But they have to  get back to me about the details.”

Model behaviour

The actress maintains that she knows Amritraj and his brothers (Vijay and Anand) from her days in Los Angeles, “I used to model and knew Ashok as he is in the entertainment business. I was a special guest at a tennis tournament  the Chennai Open 2007 and interacted with them there as well.”

She adds that she is aware of the buzz about her and Amritraj after they were spotted together at a city hotel last month. “I admit that we had dinner together but I had a fashion-related meeting there and as he was also in the hotel, we decided to meet over a meal. I don’t know why people are reading so much into this.”

Amritraj’s spokesperson Dale Bhagwagar quips, “Your insinuation is amusing. If Amritraj was a rockstar, Vida could have been his muse. Sadly, Amritraj is just a suave indefatigable Hollywood filmmaker.”

Action specialist Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) is directing Street Fighter. Produced by Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom the Japanese publisher of Street Fighter, the film stars Kristin Kreuk, Michael Clarke Duncan and Chris Klein.