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Battle lines

The Subhash Ghai-Mahima Choudhary controversy has left everyone in the industry a little shocked. Here goes the story 8212; apparently Ghai had only sent Mahima a notice for whatever disputes they had, demanding an explanation from her. But Mahima wentahead and blasted him in a film glossy. The moment Ghai realised she had gone to the press, he contacted film trade magazines and issued urgent notices about this legal controversy.

And when Mahima won the first round, she did not mince her words. Her altered opinion about the man she used to rave about until the casting of Taal is public knowledge now. But industry pundits think that Ghai may not sit quietly. He may move to the division bench or a higher court with a reappeal. Evidently, another controversial chapter in Bollywood has just begun.

Selling out

The money crunch be damned. Bollywood has found a novel idea to generate funds. They are tying up with corporate houses and getting huge amounts poured into their films. Jhamu Sughandh has tied up with Colgate to sponsor a song in Chota Chetan that has the sizzling Urmila Matondkar doing a shimmy. T-Series, who are currently promoting Jeans, have also found a sponsor.

The film8217;s audio tapes are being sent out in denim pouches, perhapskeeping in mind the title of the film. And the denim, if you please, has been sponsored by Newport jeans. It seems like the silver screen is going the way of the idiot box. Before long there probably will be ads in the middle of the flick in a cinema hall announcing: quot;The hero8217;s jeans were sponsored by Leeway 8212; the company that makes jeans go on and on, like our brave filmstar.quot;

Oh brother!

If Govinda and delays go together, then big brother Kirti Kumar seems to be following the family way. Kirti, who has directed Aunty No 1, has been delaying the release of the film for some odd reason. This despite the fact that his film was running neck-to-neck with Chachi 420 8212; films with a fairly similar-sounding plot. Anyway, the financier, Bharat Shah 8212; who was losing money hand over foot 8212; decided enough was enough. The mixing of the sound track, which is the director8217;s job, was the only thing pending. Shah went ahead and hired a studio and got the tracks mixed by someone else. He also made sure thatKirti didn8217;t find out. In fact, the director didn8217;t know about it until he was invited for a showing 8212; of his own film. Perhaps, there is a lesson in this for directors who suffer from the delayed-response disease.