It’s Not All Song and Dance

Rohit Shetty is not thrilled that tabloids are reporting Farah Khan was brought in to direct some portions of Dilwale. It’s true the film’s star and producer Shah Rukh Khan had his Happy New Year director Farah come in and choreograph the film’s songs, but Rohit’s camp insists that her involvement in the film ended there. Perhaps it was Farah’s presence at Hyderabad’s Ramoji Rao Studios—where much of the film’s most recent schedule was completed—that triggered the loose talk. Either way, the insinuation that she was brought in to ‘help’ shoot the film did not go down well with the Golmaal helmer.

Farah, apparently, reached out to the erring tabloids and websites and rubbished their story. It’s no secret that she’s currently fleshing out the script of her next film with her writers, holed up in Goa, when she isn’t choreographing Dilwale’s musical numbers in Hyderabad. Her next project will likely be a two-heroine drama, for which Farah is circling Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra. Expect many to draw comparisons to Thelma & Louise when the film is officially announced, but insiders say it’s a light-hearted entertainer with a message of empowerment subtly woven in.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Reports coming in from Scotland, where Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif were recently filming a marathon schedule of debutant director Nitya Mehra’s time-travel romance Baar Baar Dekho, suggest that the two actors got along very well and that the shoot went off without any major hiccups. But a little snooping reveals that there was a brief period—a fleeting moment at best—when Katrina may have lost her patience with Sidharth.

It’s really a funny story, come to think of it. The pair was expected to participate in rehearsals for Nitya’s film in the weeks leading up to the shoot. This was around the same time Sidharth was also promoting his last film Brothers. Every day, Sidharth’s managers would hand over the actor’s availability schedule for the following day’s rehearsals, and it usually included a few hours in the afternoon, then late evening, or very early in the morning… Katrina reportedly adjusted her schedule to match Sidharth’s the first few days, but then got impatient when the hours became increasingly inconvenient. She is believed to have snapped at her manager, asking why Sidharth was being so difficult, so early in his career: “Why can’t he just stick to a normal schedule for the whole week?”

The answer she received felt all too familiar… Turns out Sidharth was himself traumatised trying to match his Brothers co-star Akshay Kumar’s intense schedule during promotions. Akshay, famously a morning person, insisted on kicking off media interactions as early as 7 am, and finishing his day by 4 pm. This meant that Sidharth, who, like most people in Bollywood is not a morning person, had to be up and ready to head out to radio stations and TV channel offices by 6 am. He could only squeeze in rehearsals with Katrina after Akshay and he were done for the day. Suddenly it all made sense to Katrina, who’s shot a dozen-odd movies with Akshay, and survived his “ridiculous early morning routine”. Her heart went out to poor Sidharth, and she immediately agreed to match his availability for rehearsals.

Grand Debacle

The colossal failure of a recent film starring two young heartthrob stars may have come as a shock to fans and industry walas, given the popularity of its two leads. But, turns out that everyone involved with making the film was well aware for months that they had a turkey on their hands. According to insiders, the finished film looked nothing like the script that the financiers and the actors had committed to. The producers made no bones about the fact that were disappointed with what the director had delivered, after watching an unfinished work-in-progress cut of the film roughly three months ago. Reshoots were ordered, and the crew immediately went into damage control mode, but it was too late to salvage the mess. Apparently, both stars have been in low spirits about the film. The actress made teary phone calls to close friends last weekend when the verdict was out—that frankly no one was connecting with the film.

The film’s failure has proved to be a big blow to practically everyone that had a stake in it. The director and his stars were riding a high before this debacle. It has also prompted catty industry folk to wonder how much credit the filmmaker really deserves for his last hit, an instant crowd-pleaser that put its leading lady on the map.

About The Author

Rajeev Masand

•