Zoya and the Edit Problem

Zoya and the Edit Problem • Abandoned by Aditya Chopra • A Thing For Toy-Boys

Zoya Akhtar, writer-director of the excellent drama Luck By Chance, is currently putting the final touches on her new film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which stars Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. Shot extensively in Spain, the film will check into cinemas in July at a landing cost of approximately Rs 70 crore, making it an enormously expensive and risky enterprise for Eros International that will distribute the film worldwide.

There are rumours in the trade that the movie is currently going through a difficult editing process. Reliable sources confirm that as many as three editors have already worked on and prematurely exited the film due to clashes with the director. Right now, Zoya’s actor-director brother Farhan Akhtar is believed to have locked himself into the editing room with his close friend and long-time editor Anand Subaya to fix the edit.

Anand, who edited Farhan’s Lakshya and Don, and Zoya’s Luck By Chance, was brought in at the eleventh hour after three editors left the film midway. Veterans Deepa Bhatia and Chandan Arora and a third junior editor apparently signed up at various stages, but didn’t see the project through. The grapevine has it that Deepa (who has worked on Taare Zameen Par, Rock On!! and My Name Is Khan) bid the film adieu when she discovered Zoya and she couldn’t agree on just about anything. Chandan (who has edited Jungle, Company and Cheeni Kum) left shortly after he came on board, citing health problems, but it seems that he grew frustrated when the director insisted on changing all the work he was putting in daily.

Interestingly, each of the three editors, despite taking only a short stab at the job, has revealed that the film itself is looking very good. One of the three, in fact, lavishes particular praise on the climax, filmed around a thrilling bull chase sequence in Spain, describing it as “an editor’s wet-dream”.

Jugal Hansraj (remember him?), the child star of Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom, whose acting career as an adult never quite took off despite a few launches and re-launches, is now having just as much trouble finding his feet as a director. Although he’s close friends with producer-director Aditya Chopra—who gave him a significant role in his Mohabbatein, then gave him two directing gigs for Yash Raj Films—Jugal is reportedly knocking on every other producer’s door, urging them to take a look at his new script.

After delivering two mega turkeys for YRF, the animated feature Roadside Romeo and then the Priyanka Chopra and Uday Chopra-starrer Pyaar Impossible, it seems that Aditya Chopra is in no mood to honour the three-film contract he has with Jugal. Not one, but several script ideas Jugal came up with were allegedly shot down, and eventually he was told he was free to pursue producers outside the YRF fold. It appears that friends and acquaintances in Bollywood who once humoured him, because of his closeness to the Chopras, aren’t returning his calls anymore either.

A prominent producer’s son, who will make his acting debut shortly, seems to have got himself into a sticky situation. Rumour has it that he was caught ‘pleasuring’ the model wife of an actor-producer whose sister he was earlier dating. Apparently, the actor-producer husband found out about his wife’s indiscretion from his own sister, who herself  was shocked when she discovered what her ex was up to with her sis-in-law. It appears that the frothing husband took up the matter with his elder brother, a superstar actor, who had been mentoring the debutant lately.

Expectedly, there was complete mayhem in the family.

The elderly parents of the actor-producer have apparently got involved as well, and are said to be trying to save their son’s marriage. Meanwhile, the brothers are believed to have gotten into a heated argument that almost came to blows.

Not to mention the fact that nobody in the family can seem to forgive the model daughter-in-law for her irresponsible behaviour. Industrywalas, however, are sniggering that she should be grateful she wasn’t caught earlier. This young actor is hardly her first toy-boy, they insist. As for the debutant, he’s been told in no uncertain terms that he’s not welcome into the family house again, and won’t be easily spared if he attempts to reconnect either with the actor-producer’s sister or his wife.

About The Author

Rajeev Masand

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