This week’s blind item was not that easy to remember, but after a couple of minutes I managed to get them right. I wonder sometimes how does Rajeev Masand get his information. Some of the details his blinds are quite personal. I think whoever leaks them to him must really hate the targets in his blinds. Imagine working with people who hate you? All in a day’s work!
Mean Employers
After directing a well-received box-office hit for a prominent production banner, this actor-turned-director believed he’d found a permanent home for his films at this company. After all, he was thick friends with the two producer partners (one of whom he even successfully ‘launched’ as an actor with his last film) and they seemed eager to keep him on their roster of directors. But when the producer partners wouldn’t approve a single script idea he’d developed in three years, he began to think it was time to move out of their fold.
The clock was ticking too. The director was hot property after his last hit, and now three years had passed with nothing to show for it. He reportedly mustered the courage to ask the producers if he could take the latest script he’d developed to other producers if they really weren’t interested in making it themselves. Apparently they weren’t, but they reminded him he was bound to a contract with their company that didn’t allow him to work for anyone else just yet. Allegedly, it took more than a few heated conversations and some pleading on his part before they ‘allowed’ him to seek employment elsewhere.
Fortunately for the director, a top studio jumped at his script and signed him on to make the film right away. This is the same script his earlier producers had shown no interest in. The film is now being quickly finished to time it for the Berlin International Film Festival (in February next year) whose scouts have reportedly shown interest in the project.
The director is happy he was able to make the film he wanted, and while he doesn’t badmouth his earlier producers openly, it is no secret that he feels they wasted his time and didn’t let him make the most of his best years. Nevertheless, he’s still committed to directing a sequel of his last hit for their banner, although they haven’t yet green-lit the idea he has presented them for that project.
OSOP GUESSES
Actor-Turned-Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Two Producer Partners: Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani
Film : Kai Po Che
