Earshot

Winds of changeRemember we told you about Ashok Pandit taking over the direction of Prakash Jha's Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangi Wednesday 9.3...

Winds of change
Remember we told you about Ashok Pandit taking over the direction of Prakash Jha8217;s Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangi Wednesday 9.30 pm DD-1. Well now Prakash Jha seems to be out of the producer8217;s seat as well. Jha was producing and directing the serial in association with Multichannel. But now he has walked out from the production front and Multichannel has taken over the serial. And there are more changes that were announced last week at a bash thrown by the producers. The entire set of actors except Raja Yadav who plays Naurangi are out. Their replacements include Amit Bhel, Vani Tripathi, Dilip Dhawan, Zakir and Sushed Parashar.

Out for good
Papiya Sengupta probably thought she was back with a bang after she signed on Reena Wadhwa8217;s Neeyat. But it seems she was wrong. After appearing in just three episodes, she has made her exit from the serial. Apparently she was thrown out after she didn8217;t report on the sets for her shooting. All efforts to trace her went in vain. She was not available on her cellphone or at her residence and repeated messages on her pager proved futile. A furious Sanjay Wadhwa, executive producer of Neeyat, said that he was unhappy with her unprofessional behaviour. 8220;If she had a problem she should have called me or my assistants. It was only after we packed up our shoot the next day that her sister called and said she couldn8217;t make it. So now we have changed the script in such a manner that we won8217;t need her anymore,8221; says Wadhwa.

Funny fellow
The new comedy man on the block seems to be Rajesh Gupta, the director of Yehi Hai Zindagi, Maal Hai To Taal Hai on Star Plus and Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai on Zee. While both his sitcoms are doing fairly well he has been slotted as the 8220;comedy director8221; and most of the offers he gets are for sitcoms. His latest venture is Buddha Ghar Pe Hai, a serial about a 50-year-old man who is always worried about his young wife deserting him and eloping with someone. There is also a film script in the pipeline. No, this time Sooraj Bharjatiya8217;s one-time assistant is not planning a comedy. It is apparently a romantic social family drama. Along the lines of the blockbuster Hum Aapke Hai Kaun may be?

On the move
Anant Mahadevan is becoming adventurous. Recently he canned an episode which is supposedly a take-off on the Prime Minister8217;s bus trip to Lahore. In the Tellywood serial, Satish Shah is the President of a Hotel Owners8217; Association and takes his family from Mumbai to Punjab by bus. Giving them company are Shatrughan Sinha and Dev Anand, their duplicates playing the roles of course.

The entire episode was shot in a bus. The crew did face a few problems shooting on the run. For starters, the monitor conked off due to a short circuit. A new one was connected which also went dead following another short circuit. But Mahadevan refused to pack up and decided to shoot without a monitor. 8220;Someday I8217;ll be directing a film and there won8217;t be monitors there, so why not here,8221; he said, smiling. For the uninitiated, what Mahadevan was referring to was the monitor on which a serial maker can see the proceedings as they are being shot. This facility is not available for a filmmaker.

Lovey dovey
For quite sometime now there have been rumours of an affair between Amit Behl and actress Vaibhavi. The latest grapevine is that they are planning to get married. We are still trying to figure out the date. The two are so much in love that there is not a day when they don8217;t meet, despite their hectic schedules. So, Behl drops in on the sets where Vaibhavi is, even if it8217;s in Madh island and vice versa. And the day both of them are busy shooting, they have a dinner date after their shoots. Also, we hear that Bhel has booked a Tata Indica. No, its not for himself but apparently a gift for his sweetheart on her birthday.