B'wood's high five from Yash Raj camp

Mumbai: Yash Raj Films could easily be renamed as the Yash Raj Factory. Bollywood's most popular production house, known for its glamorous larger-than-life love stories, is planning to release five new films in 2007.

And it’s no surprise that the films will have some of the biggest stars in the industry including Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan and Saif Ali Khan and stage the comeback of the charismatic superstar Madhuri Dixit.

"We are very excited about our releases for 2007, not just because of the star casts, but because each film deals with a unique subject and has very promising young directors at the helm," said Chairman of Yash Raj Films (YRF), Yash Chopra.

The first release from the Yash Raj stable this year will be Siddharth Anand's second directorial venture (after Salaam Namaste), Ta Ra Rum Pum on April 27. The story revolves around a racer and has Saif and Rani in the lead.

Ta Ra Rum Pum will be followed by Shaad Ali's Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Scheduled for a June 15 release, Ali's third directorial venture has a stellar cast of Abhishek Bachchan, Preity, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, and Amitabh Bachchan in a special appearance.

YRF's third release Chak De India will showcase the talent of yet another young director, Shimit Amin, and stars Shah Rukh Khan in a pivotal role. It is slated to hit the screens on August 10.

The Chopras, who are known for releasing special films during the festival season, will not let their audiences down this year either. So you will get to see Pradeep Sarkar's Laaga Chunari Mein Daag on October 12, in a near Dussehra release.

With a mega star lineup, the film stars Jaya Bachchan, Rani, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kunal Kapoor and Abhishek.

November 30 will see the release of the last Yash Raj film for 2007. Aaja Nachle will be a directorial debut for noted cinematographer Anil Mehta. What's more important, it will be Madhuri Dixit's comeback film.

The production house plans to kick off 2008 in grand style with Tashan. Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, the screenplay and dialogue writer of mega hits Dhoom and Dhoom:2, it will star Akshay Kumar and Saif, Anil Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

This year will be memorable for YRF for yet another reason: The banner plans to move completely to the studio style of functioning - on a par with Fox, Warner Bros and Universal.