How to Be Respectful to the Queen

Kangana Ranaut doesn’t want to bitch out anyone, but she’s not one to mince words either. When I asked her the other day why she reacted so curtly to Deepika Padukone dedicating her Best Actress win at an awards ceremony to Kangana and her performance in Queen, the famously frank actress explained her position clearly. You might remember that Kangana dismissed DP’s gesture saying: “I hope that someday she would tell me in person what she feels about my work. I would appreciate that a lot more.” That response, she now insists, wasn’t meant to come off as brusque. “I was only being honest,” she says. “I know Deepika. We’ve met often and we’re very cordial with each other. But she didn’t call me to tell me what she thought of my performance after the film released. So many others did… Aamir Khan did, Shah Rukh did, Salman did, Priyanka did, Mr Amitabh Bachchan did too.” Still, Kangana says she has no hard feelings towards Deepika. It’s the awards functions that she has a problem with. “I knew what awards I was winning, because they tell you in advance. But I’d decided that I wasn’t going to go. So then they don’t give it to you if you don’t show up. How can one respect such awards?” she asks.

The National Award she won recently—her second after Fashion—has more value for her, she admits: “I respect the previous recipients of the award, and I know that you’re being judged among your peers across the country.” It doesn’t hurt either that Kangana is now in the elite company of such heavyweights as Smita Patil, Shabana and Tabu, each of whom, like her, has two National Awards under her belt. But she’s achieved this at 28. Beat that, rivals!

Cold Feet, Colder Words

A slew of recent tweets from Arshad Warsi hint that the actor may be at loggerheads with one of his filmmakers. It all started a few weeks ago when Arshad took to social media to declare: ‘When work leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, it makes you rethink who you should trust with your hard- work…’ At the time, he was filming the comedy Welcome 2 Karachi with co-actor Jackky Bhagnani. Recently Arshad got tongues wagging again when he tweeted: ‘God must have made me out of reusable material coz I can actually remember the number of times I have been used & reused…’

Industry insiders are saying the ire may be directed at the actor’s producer Vashu Bhagnani, who cast his son Jackky in the film last year after Irrfan Khan, who was originally committed to star alongside Arshad, ditched the project at the eleventh hour. Irrfan reportedly conveyed his decision to drop out of the film just hours before he was meant to board a flight to London for the first schedule. According to the industry grapevine, Arshad got cold feet about the project after Irrfan’s departure, but stayed on. The same source reveals that Arshad is unhappy with some of the marketing decisions that Vashu has taken, including giving Jackky parallel billing in the film’s promotional material: “He’s done the honourable thing by completing the film when the producer was in a fix. But he’s feeling betrayed that his grace has not been reciprocated.”

The Obsessive Filmbreaker

There appears to be more trouble brewing on a currently under-production action film that will be helmed by a leading director from the south. The makers recently suffered a crippling blow when a key actress, roped in to play a strong supporting role, dropped out of the film over differences with the film’s director. Just days after that casualty comes the news that the studio producing the film can’t see eye to eye with the director. A source reveals that studio bosses are miffed with the helmer, whose priorities they have questioned after he allegedly became obsessed with installing soundproof windows in the flat that the studio provided him during an outstation shoot. When news reached the honchos that the director showed up only once on set during an outdoor schedule, their concern over the project’s future only increased.

Adding to their list of woes is the gossip that’s been going around the set that the director demanded that all meals he ordered to his flat be packed in special dabbas that he ensured were sent ahead to restaurants. He apparently refused to have his food sent to him in anything other than his own tiffin. Not that that should trouble the studio, but insiders say that learning about a new OCD he’s suffering from every other day is fast upsetting the already rankled studio.

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Rajeev Masand

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