Heroine Wars

Heroine Wars • Thank You, Mr Devgn • Played by Her Managers

Chitrangda Singh and Deepika Padukone, who star as the love interests of Akshay Kumar and John Abraham, respectively, in Desi Boyz, have refused to make public appearances together, or joint photo sessions, to promote the film. Although the film shoot went off without any hiccups, it appears that the two leading ladies aren’t thrilled about having to share the spotlight with each other.

Deepika considers herself the bigger star of the two, and Chitrangada believes she’s the better actress. Neither thinks she deserves to be perceived as being in the same league as the other, and hence won’t do joint appearances, much to the frustration of the filmmakers, who are reportedly tearing their hair out trying to assemble an attractive enough campaign featuring both ladies.

Imran Khan, who’s been signed on to play the lead in Vishal Bhardwaj’s next, a rural satire titled Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, ought to send out a note of thanks to Ajay Devgn for walking out of the film at pretty much the eleventh hour. Devgn, who worked with Bhardwaj in Omkara and has had a close association with the director for some years, left the film abruptly when he was reportedly offered Rs 25 crore to star in a Viacom18 project titled Son of Sardar.

Bhardwaj was apparently upset with Devgn for his sudden change of heart, but quickly offered the film to Imran, who is currently riding high on the success of two back-to-back films in Delhi Belly and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.

Imran, who hadn’t signed a new film in over a year, is believed to have jumped at the opportunity to work with Bhardwaj. He has requested the shooting schedule to be pushed slightly so that he has enough time to wrap Ek Main Aur Ek Tu (his long-delayed film with Kareena Kapoor), and squeeze in a few weeks of workshops with Bhardwaj before filming begins.

The movie will see Imran share screen space with such solid actors as Pankaj Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, and will be shot entirely in north India. Bhardwaj is keen to film in winter, to give the movie a misty look.

A popular young actress, who showed up at an awards ceremony hosted by a men’s magazine recently, might have been there to stand by her industrialist boyfriend, who was being feted. But what she’s not aware of is the fact that the organisers were keen to honour her with an award too that evening. Turns out the artiste management agency she’s signed up with—owned and run by a popular fashion photographer—might not entirely be working for her best interests.

The awards ceremony organisers had reportedly got in touch with the actress’ managers a good two months before the event to check if she’d be willing to show up on the big night to collect her trophy. Her people are believed to have dilly-dallied and never offered a firm response. At one point, her managers are also believed to have blatantly tried to strike a deal—the actress would be made available to attend the awards show if the magazine agreed to feature the agency’s upcoming models in subsequent issues. The organisers of the show are believed to have made it clear that no barter would be offered: either the actress would show up or not. Her managers then offered their apologies that she’d be unavailable to attend.

All this drama took place behind the actress’ back, who was completely unaware that she was up for an award. Closer to the date of the show, when asked by her boyfriend to be his date to the ceremony, she agreed. The organisers were informed by her industrialist boyfriend that the actress would be attending the show with him. By then, it was too late to offer her the award, as another actress had been picked in her place and had confirmed her attendance. The organisers did get her on stage to present an award, but felt she’d been more or less ‘wasted’ as a presenter when she could have easily been walking home with an award in her hand.

There have been other complaints from brands too that the actress’ managers are unprofessional and that they routinely use her as a bargaining chip to strike their own deals. The unsuspecting heroine, however, seems blissfully unaware of the fact that she’s being played by the very people she unconditionally trusts.

Chitrangda SinghDeepika PadukoneImran Khan