The week that wasn’t in B town

It may have been a poor faring at the box-office for the film fraternity with ‘Rang Rasiya’, ‘The Shaukeens’ and now ‘Garam Hawa’ and ‘Kill Dil’ joining the league. There has been plenty of action, some sad news, some scary news and some happy news that called for big celebrations this past week

Ravi Chopra son of legendary filmmaker BR Chopra and director of films like ‘Burning Train’, ‘Baghban’ and ‘Babul’ passed away after a prolonged illness that lasted five years. Writer director Sanjay Chel lost his father Paresh Chel a prominent name on Gujarati theatre.

In show business there is nothing like never till the person is no more and experience has taught me that actors may fade away but will resurface anytime. Parveen Babi did after disappearing for many years and now, starlet of the 90s Mamta Kulkarni heroine of Salman Khan in ‘Karan Arjun’ is in the headlines after being nabbed for drug trafficking in Nairobi.

A top news channel traced the actor to her hotel and featured her in a telephonic interview on the news where in Mamta’s answers to all questions were mysterious. She categorically denied being involved in drug trafficking, denied being married to the underworld don who has been arrested and called the scandal a conspiracy by their rivals to defame her and her partner.

There were stories in the past that Mamta has gone into spirituality and Mamta confirmed this, added that she spent most of the waking hours in a day in meditation and the only time she took a break from ‘Dhyan’ was when she needed to eat food or sleep. She denied wanting to marry her live-in partner “excessive meditation leaves me with no desire for worldly pleasures”. She admitted to being worried for her friend in the custody of police.

Mamta denied any connection with the underworld, denied any attraction for films and said she was not in touch with anybody from the film fraternity or even from the city of Mumbai. Mamta Kulkarni story was not the only news from the underworld this week. Mumbai crime branch revealed to the media that the underworld had a full-fledged plan to kill veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on November 15.

But on the nick of time Mumbai police bust their plans because they managed to arrest the 13 gangsters assigned for the task! One of them who is a student engineer had managed to join the team working on construction job inside Mahesh Bhatt’s home. The other who had been keeping an eye on the filmmaker’s every move for the past many months had befriended Mahesh’s building watchman in Juhu, Mumbai and who had promised him a job as the security in the same building at the earliest.

The crime branch came to know of the plan from the three gangsters arrested for firing producer Karim Morani a few months ago. The arrested goons in police custody confessed that Mahesh Bhatt would be attacked and incase he escaped then his brother Mukesh Bhatt and son Rahul Bhatt would be attacked too. Their next target was Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan. It may be remembered that actor Boman Irani and director Karan Johar have been threatened by underworld some months ago but reported the matter to the police in good time and the artistes provided with police security.

Extortion calls to film folks was very common in the late 80s and 90s decade when the underworld had made inroads into the film fraternity and some of them also invested money into films. It was a phase when producers were forced to make stories about the underworld and decent families had stopped going to cinema halls. During this time there were a number of mysterious murders and a pall of gloom had fallen over cinema world. But for more than two decades now, there was no such threat. There was no black money into films after producers turned corporate and artistes accepted fees in cheque.

The shoot out at Karim Morani was jolting and the devious plan to eliminate Mahesh Bhatt is macabre. Clearly it must have resulted out of Mahesh Bhatt denying paying money to the callers and they were following up on Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan because ‘Happy New Year’ was soon to be released and it was the right time to put pressures on the filmmakers.

I’m proud of Karan Johar, Boman Irani, Karim Morani, Mahesh Bhatt reporting the matter to the police and seeking help. It is clear signal to the rest of the artistes and to the underworld that they cannot be black mailed.

Fortunately, there were many happy news also to engage our artistes. Amitabh Bachchan who prides in being described as Kolkatta’s jamai babu is happy to be shooting in the city of joy for Shoojit sarcar’s ‘Piku’. Deepika Padukone who played his daughter in Prakash Jha’s ‘Satyagraha’ is playing his daughter a second time. It is the story of father daughter and Jaya Bachchan says that somehow Deepika looks like Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter.

Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansalai who is shooting ‘Bajirao Mastani’ in Mumbai at the moment planning his next production with writer / director Anuradha Tiwari has finalised Patralekha as the heroine and Sharman Joshi in a unique role as the hero. I can guarantee that working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali will be a terrific experience for both.

And finally all eyes are on the palace in Hyderabad where Arpita the laadli sister of Salman Khan is getting married. It is a wedding to remember and Arpita is blessed to have a family like the Khans who will love her for now a­nd forever.