Nuts over Dates

Nuts over Dates • Feuding Filmstars • The Price of Lechery

Karan Johar has a lot of patience, but he won’t forgive Ranveer Singh. Turns out KJo is still very upset with the Ram- Leela star for walking out of Shuddhi and choosing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani instead. He has told friends that Ranveer is persona non grata at Dharma Productions.

One source reveals that Karan’s anger at the young actor comes from the fact that Ranveer had personally visited the filmmaker’s Khar office and agreed to a price and committed his dates to Shuddhi before going back on his word only days later. It wasn’t some casual agreement, but a firm commitment between the two that Karan insists Ranveer backed out of.

But those in the actor’s corner insist that Ranveer had no intention to ditch Karan. And that his backing out of KJo’s troubled project shouldn’t be viewed as an act of betrayal at all. The actor’s friends say Ranveer committed to Shuddhi in good faith, and before Bhansali decided to cast him in Bajirao. When he did land Bhansali’s film, Ranveer immediately explained that he’d allocated his dates to Karan, and reportedly requested Bhansali to start Bajirao after he’d wrapped Shuddhi.

But the Devdas director, who has had a love-hate relationship with Karan for years, insisted he wanted the same batch of dates, and allegedly appealed to Ranveer’s conscience, insisting he couldn’t possibly choose Karan over him after Bhansali had given him his biggest hit yet in Ram-Leela. When it became clear that Bhansali wasn’t going to shift his dates—in fact, he even announced the same release date as Shuddhi’s—Ranveer, after consulting his mentor Aditya Chopra, made the dreaded call to Karan, bowing out of Shuddhi.

Now Ranveer’s grouse against Karan is that despite being fully aware of the turn of events, it’s unfair that the filmmaker should still be upset with him. The actor has been complaining that he’s been manipulated in a battle of egos between the two filmmakers, and has no place to run.

Feuding Filmstars

Salman Khan may put up a brave front and behave like he couldn’t care less that his ex-girlfriend Katrina Kaif has moved on happily with Ranbir Kapoor, but industry insiders say the superstar is no fan of RK, and misses no opportunity to take a dig at the Barfi star. Salman is cordial—friendly, even—with Katrina, with whom he continues to share a business manager. Kat too remains close to Salman’s sister Alvira Agnihotri. But Ranbir is not a name that comes up often in the Khan household.

Recently while filming an item song with Nargis Fakhri for his upcoming film Kick, Salman reportedly brought up the subject of her Rockstar leading man, and launched into a verbal attack on him. Apparently, Salman kept provoking Nargis to say uncomplimentary things about Ranbir, but when she didn’t have much to add to that conversation, Salman repeatedly alleged that success had gone to Ranbir’s head, and that the 31-year-old still needed to prove himself before acting like he is God’s favourite child.

It’s ironic that Salman first clashed with Ranbir before RK was even an actor— and without Salman even knowing who he was. The beefy star famously roughed up Ranbir in a drunken stupor at Olive Restaurant in Mumbai, only to be informed by his drinking partner, Sanjay Dutt, that the kid was in fact Rishi Kapoor’s son. The following day, Salman reportedly sent a pile of shirts to the star kid’s home, and an apology for misbehaving the previous night.

The Price of Lechery

Not one, but two prominent filmmakers are the subject of water cooler conversations in Bollywood for indulging in similar misdeeds. The first reportedly made a lewd pass at his leading lady, then appealed to his well-connected friends to ‘handle’ the situation when the actress went to the cops with photographic evidence of his disgusting behaviour.

The second, a senior director, was allegedly accused by an upcoming actress of exploiting her under the false pretext of giving her a starring role in his next multi-starrer. When the girl saw the rushes of the film (still in production), she realised she’d been taken for a ride, and threatened the film’s producer that she would take legal action.

In both cases, sources say the actresses—the first a prominent leading lady, the second an obscure starlet—were paid off to stay mum and squash the respective cases. In both cases, the settlement money is believed to have been deducted from the directors’ fees.

About The Author

Rajeev Masand

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