Gossip: Manisha's item number for 15 lacks!

The last time this girl was down south, she delivered hits like Bombay, Criminal and Indian, but Manisha Koirala now seems to be far from hot property. This Nepali beauty is now doing an item number in a Telugu film for just Rs 15 lakhs.

The actress will be seen in a song in forthcoming Telugu film Nagaram, which will have Jagapathi Babu, Srikanth and debutant model Kaveri Jha.

“Manisha is going to be paid 15 lakh and she accepted the offer without much hesitation. She was, in fact, the first choice for the song,” says a source from Hyderabad.

While Manisha doing an item number might not be a bad idea, the fact is people from the north have always charged astronomical amounts when they come down south.

When Rakhi Sawant came down to sing Nanna Style Bere Ne in Geleya, she was paid over Rs 30 lakh. Mallika Sherawat got paid the highest amount at that time for an item number in India, which was Rs 50 lakh. Mumait Khan, the Dekh Le girl from Munnabhai MBBS, has done a lot of numbers down south, and recently even did a raunchy shoot for the scribes in Hyderabad.

The trend of getting big names from up north to do item numbers for southern films can be attributed to Manirathnam. If you can recall, we had Sonu Walia dancing with Rajnikanth in Rakamma Kaiyye Thattu in Dalapathi. Anu Agarwal and Sonali Bendre were then seen in films like Thiruda Thiruda and Bombay.

Coming back to the main subject of concern, Manisha Koirala seriously seems to be having a rotten deal, when all her contemporaries like Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol are busy doing plum projects and planning their second innings in Bollywood. Let’s hope she finds her groove down south, at least!