Bollywood's most awaited multistarrers in 2010

It's been an interesting start to 2010. Already we have two young filmmakers setting the bar way, way high with films like Ishqiya and Love Sex Aur Dhokha, and Karan Johar's shown he's in box office form as well with Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan.

Still, the year hasn't yet shown its big releases, the ones that rely on several names to draw in the crowds, the ones with the big posters.

Ladies and gents, here are the multistarrers to expect in 2010:

Housefull

Sajid Khan's optimistically titled release stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Jiah Khan, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal and Ritesh Deshmukh, with Malaika Arora and Jacqueline Fernandes.

The Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy soundtrack is already making waves. We haven't heard which Hollywood blockbuster this one's 'inspired by' just yet, but its heartening to see Sajid sticking to conventional spelling this time around.

Prakash Jha takes his usual gang -- Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai -- and adds star value with Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor to tell what looks like an all-encompassing tale of heartland politics.

The trailer looks great and there is much buzz to see Kaif play an iconic figurehead and Kapoor take on his first bad guy role.

Mani Ratnam's clearly impressed with Abhishek Bachchan.

After casting him in Yuva and Guru, the master director gives him the title role in his heavily-guarded mythological megastarrer.

The film also stars Govinda, Bipasha Basu, Nikhil Dwivedi, Manisha Koirala and Bachchan's wife, Aishwarya Rai.

Phew! Talk about hype, this one's going to drive the news channels crazy.

Vipul Shah's film isn't technically a multistarrer in terms of the number of stars it has, but it does see the director bring together his favourite actor Akshay Kumar alongside Aishwarya Rai, the daughter-in-law of his other muse, Amitabh Bachchan.

Randhir Kapoor -- yes, Lolo and Bebo's dad -- also stars, however, as does Neha Dhupia.

Milan Luthria's new film has an atypical cast, with Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut, Randeep Hooda and Prachi Desai.

It's supposed to be another gangster ride through the city's dirtier streets -- which could be any of its streets, really.

But Devgan versus Hashmi should be an interesting, unlikely combination.

Speaking of Devgan, the man's all set to ride the farcical bandwagon yet again with this Rohit Shetty film.

This time Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade and the inevitable Tushhar Kapoor are back, but new entrants include Kunal Khemu, Johnny Lever, Ratna Pathak Shah and big daddy Mithun Chakraborty.

Quite the lineup.

Akshay Kumar's backed this Nikhil Advani project even after Chandni Chowk To China, and this new film stars him alongside Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi's Anushka Sharma.

The fun may just lie, however, in seeing the old guard. Vintage Bollywood features heavily in the film, with Prem Chopra, Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor all starring.

Debutant director Abhinav Kashyap got producer Salman Khan to believe in his script, and the result is a slew of names.

Arbaaz Khan, Mahie Gill, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar, Dimple Kapadia all star, as does new girl Sonakshi Sinha in the lead.

Coming under the banner of Arbaaz Khan productions, the film is evidently going to be one to watch out for.