Ghai starrer packs some punch

Last June, just before the release of Ghai’s Pardes, Mahima cheerfully told the media that she herself would have opted for a name beginning with `R’, something that could be shortened to Ritu perhaps. “But M is lucky for Subhashji, so Mahima it is,” she explained with a shrug.

Ghai had always favoured names beginning with `M’ for his star discoveries. Meenakshi,Madhuri, Manisha, they had all been unearthed by Ghai, and they all went on to become screen goddesses. Changing a name seemed a small price to pay for such large-scale potential success. But Ghai’s latest `Mmmm’ factor does not seem to have worked. And this time, instead of expressing his anger in film glossies as he had done in the past, Ghai took the issue of his `betrayal’ to court.

Ghai now insists that Mahima breached the contract that she had signed with him in February 1996, by agreeing unilaterally to doing TV and film shows abroad. Mahima, although she admits that a five-year contract was signed, says that it was done only to protect Pardes and that once the film was released, there was a mutual decision to nullify the agreement.

Says Mahima: “I wasn’t supposed to get married for five years or sign any other films without Subhashji’s permission till Pardes got complete, which made sense.” For an industry where spats are a daily routine, Ghai’s move came as a surprise. Specially so since bothof them had constantly displayed affection for each other publicly over the past two years. In her acceptance speech for the Best Actress Filmfare award, Mahima had stated fervently, “I hope I never let Mr Ghai down.” Throughout this period she never failed to express her gratitude to her mentor. Godfather Ghai, too, raved more than usual about her. “She is the most confident of all my discoveries. I had to groom others as girls first and then as actresses,” he told a film magazine just two months ago.

Mahima was no uncut diamond when she decided to audition for Pardes. Though she was embarking on a film career she still had the spit and polish of a model and dressed with all the elan and elegance of one. Besides the surface gloss, she also had the media raving about her lack of starry airs and the assured and confident manner with which she handled public attention. This was no dumb doll — she had made all the right career moves thus far without looking desperate. More importantly, when it came toacting, she cut the mustard just fine — and walked away with all the plaudits for Pardes.

She also had guts. Some maintain that she took on the mighty Ghai single-handed only because she was left out of his new film, Taal. But if this was the case, it was a knee-jerk reaction that seems somewhat out of character. After all, remaining in the good books of Bollywood’s biggest showman could had done wonders for her career.

In any case, Ghai’s relationship with all his finds invariably deteriorated after the initial phase of mutual admiration. So it could be unfair to presume that Mahima is less at fault here than Ghai. According to an industry insider, Meenakshi Seshadri had a tiff with Ghai after she had done three films with him. She even stated on record, “I can’t keep saying Subhashji this and Subhashji that.” Whereas Ghai complained that she didn’t come across as warm at all. The same source says that Madhuri too got tired of playing the loyal protegee. Pardes, incidentally, had been promised to herbut was handed over to Mahima.

Perhaps the latest conflict rose because Ghai thought he wasn’t getting enough devotion from his new screen goddess who was, after all, his creation. Maybe it is the big showman’s big ego that got hurt when Mahima started signing on other films. While Mahima states that the contract promised her the next few films to be made by Mukta Arts, a letter from Ghai’s office, reproducing certain clauses from the contract, states that she was promised a certain number of films and not the immediate ones following Pardes.

In this fight, there are no prizes for guessing who the industry is putting its money on. What might work against Mahima here is her confidence. When asked whether she is worried about Ghai using his clout to sabotage her career, she brushed the question aside, “That is secondary — there is nothing which cannot be fixed. What is important is that I was let down and I am really hurt.”

Says a film columnist, “There are unwritten rules in Bollywood. You don’t gopublic with grievances specially against a man like Ghai. What is different about Mahima is that she is more aggressive than any of Ghai’s girls were. Madhuri never said anything obvious about her fallout with him and neither did Manisha.” Mahima’s answer to that is the string of films she claims she has just signed up. They include a Sajid Nadiadwala film with Priyadarshan as director, a Vasant Doshi film with director Parto Ghosh and a Polygram film opposite Sunny Deol. While the real reason for the fall-out will probably remain under wraps, industry people say that it will eventually fizzle into candy-sweet public rapprochement with disdain lurking not far from the surface.

Mahima, meanwhile, will have to learn to walk without holding her mentor’s hand. Before the controversy, the sun rose and set with “Subhashji” and she couldn’t talk enough about him as a director and as a person. “We were good friends and spoke frequently on the phone,” she said before she left for a stage show abroad onThursday. But although she may have lost her friend, philosopher and guide, Mahima is sure that she will be able to cope quite well in big, bad Bollywood, thank you.