By Subhash K. Jha, IANS

Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma's 'Sholay' gets more colourful with Abhishek Bachchan joining its already exuberant oeuvre of casting coups.

Abhishek will dance and lip-sync Ganesh Hedge's version of R.D. Burman's 'Mehbooba o mehbooba' while Urmila Matondkar will groove to the funky tune. Amitabh Bachchan, playing Gabbar, will watch the flamboyant razzmatazz.

In the original 'Sholay' Helen danced, Jalal Agha crooned and Amjad Khan looked on. Abhishek will therefore play Jalal Agha's part.

'Abhishek is delighted to step into the cameo. If you remember he was originally cast as Veeru. But he had to beg off due to date problems. When Abhishek heard Ganesh Hegde's track he immediately offered to perform in the song with Urmila. He's really excited about it. He himself volunteered to do it,' Varma told IANS.

Urmila, who played Abhishek's sister-in-law in Anupam Kher's 'Om Jai Jagdish', is very excited about having both the Bachchans together for her dance.

'The primary difference between the other Amitabh-Abhishek songs like 'Kajra re' ('Bunty Aur Babli') and 'Rock 'n' roll soniye' ('Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna') is that the father and son have been highly interactive in these songs. In my film they might not even look at one another.'

The film has Ajay Devgan as Veeru, Mohit Ahlawat as Jai, while Mohanlal will be seen in the role of Thakur.

For the female leads, Varma has roped in Sushmita Sen to play the widow and Nisha Kothari as Basanti.