15 January, 2004 - Invaders fail to take off!

Aishwarya Rai's US agents are upset with media reports that Aishwarya will play the Bond girl if a body double is used for the sex scenes. They have denied the news and said that she hadn't even met Brosnan at a party as was claimed. They are in negotiations now for Ash to star with Branden Fraser in 'Singularity' for director Roland Joffe of Warner bros. It may be recalled that Roland Joffe's 'Invaders' with Aishwarya and Vivek (Oberoi) had failed to take off. As of now, the only near-Hollywood project Aishwarya has is 'Chaos' with Meryl Streep in which the former plays a prostitute!

25 October, 2003 - Aish to star opposite Vivek in the Invaders

Aishwarya Rai has been chosen to be cast opposite Vivek Oberoi in Roland Joffe's Hollywood film titled The Invaders. The Hollywood director had recently signed on Vivek Oberoi for the film. The film will definitely put Aishwarya Rai into the big league making her a truly international star. Aishwarya meanwhile has also signed Gurinder Chadhdha's Bride and Prejudice, which is based on the novel Pride, and Prejudice. Along with these two really international films Aishwarya is currently considering a cameo in Ketan Mehta's film 1957 The Uprising which has Aamir Khan in the lead.

25 October, 2003 - Vivek Oberoi Crosses the Border

MUMBAI: Film sensation Vivek Oberoi is all set to star in a multi-lingual 40-million-dollar epic being directed by British film-maker Roland Joeff. The Oscar-winning Joeff, who hit the headlines with 'The Killing Fields' and 'The Mission', handpicked Oberoi as the lead character for 'The Invaders', an epic set against the backdrop of the first Anglo-Maratha war of the late 18th century, a war the British lost.

Oberoi plays Udaji, a fictional character portrayed as an unsung hero, and will be pitted against a yet-to-be-named Hollywood star. "For me it's more about the film, for me it's about working with a great crew, about working with people who have such an amazing vision and all the equipmet and the state-of-the-art assistance to create something magical. I feel lucky and privileged that I would be a small part of it," said Oberoi at a press conference held in Mumbai.

'The Invaders' is being produced by an Indian company and will be partially financed by the 20th Century Fox. It will be shot over a six-month period and will also have another major Bollywood heroine in the role of a valiant spy girl in the Indian camp. Incidentally, this not the first time that Joeff will be working in India. His touching tale of a New York surgeon's self-discovery while working in the slums of Kolkata in the critically acclaimed 'City of Joy', based on Dominique Lappier's famous book, had won him rave reviews.

Ajay Jhankar, who conceived the film, says film-making has crossed international boundaries with changing times. "These days, actually in the days of globalization, it (film- making) is not Indian and American and British. It is becoming an international activity, it is a global activity. If you see, even in this film, there are crew members that are coming from outside. They are not from one particular country, they are from Europe, from America, from Latin America and from India. So it's going to be a combined effort," he explained.

5 February, 2003 - Vivek Oberoi in 40m dollar project

Vivek Oberoi with Aajey Jhankar at the press conference last evening Before I met Roland Joffe for the first time I thought he would maintain a distance while talking to me,” said Vivek Oberoi last evening.

Oberoi continued, “but here was a man who opened the door, offered me a glass of water and started discussing cinema with me.

He had seen my work in Saathiya and Company and slowly deconstructed my work,” said the star at the press conference to announce the launch of the film The Invader at Hotel Lands’ End, Bandra.

Oberoi plays the character of Udaji, a brave Maratha warrior in Joffe’s film based on the Anglo-Indian war of 1779. The film has been produced by Aajey Jhankar, with screenplay and direction by Joffe.

Debu Deodhar is the associate producer while and Nitin Desai is the art director.

The production design of the film has been done by Eugenio Zanetti who has won an Academy Award for the film Restoration and has been nominated five times for different films for the Academy Awards.

The film will be shot at Orcha and Datia near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, the uninhabited terrain of Sahayadris in Maharashtra, parts of south Goa and, Film City, Mumbai.

The rest of the cast is in the process of finalisation, including the role of British captain James Stewart. The role of Tulaja, the valiant spy girl from the Indian camp, will be played by a major Bollywood star in this 40 million-dollar project.