Since Amitabh Bachchan delivered the big news of Aishwaryas pregnancy on twitter,its been a hectic round of negotiations and deliberations between UTV and Madhur Bhandarkar. As producers of Aishwaryas forthcoming film,Heroine,they finally decided to stop the shooting of the film. It is believed that the content of Heroine required Ash to film scenes that entailed smoking,drinking,elaborate item numbers and also the occasional under the waterfall Mandakini sequence. Though Ash was keen to finish the film before her term datewhich is November by the waythe producers felt otherwise.
The fiery Sush has exposed the double standards of the industry. My take on the Ash- pregnancy clause issue is simple: If producers want to include a no pregnancy clause then they should do it across the board for even male actors. If terms have to be dictated to female actors then even male actors should be told not to have a baby while their film is being shot. Come on,its the 21 st century,boss,equal rules should apply for everyone.
As regards Ashs exit from Heroine,this is perhaps the third instance when she has been dropped from a film. Each time it made big news. Readers will remember the commotion that broke out when Shah Rukh Khan dropped Ash from his home production Chalte Chalte after a ruckus was created on the sets allegedly by Salman Khan. Rani Mukerji replaced Ash. The latter never forgave the former and since then they havent spoken. Then Ash was dropped from Bobby Bedis Mangal Pandey: The Rising because of some remuneration issues. A lot of back and forth happened between Bedi and Ashs Hollywood agents,William Morris. It was said that Ash wanted to renegotiate the financial terms of her contract,which was not accepted by Bedi who found her replacement in Ameesha Patel.
Now it remains to be seen whether the producers of Heroine will sign another female actor to kick-start the stalled project. It is being said that Priyanka Chopra is interested to team up with Madhur again after Fashion.
The Heroine saga never ends.
