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Tusshar in a campus horror flick
How sister Ekta Kapoor fired director Anurag Basu from Kya Pyaar Karoge Mujhse
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Subhash K Jha
They were thick as thieves. Not many people know Indian television tycoon Ekta Kapoor's penchant for naming characters in her soaps after people she is fond of. Hence her favourite director Anurag Basu showed up in the popular Kasauti Zindagi Kay. The soap's hero Cezanne Khan was named after Basu.
Basu was roped in to direct Ekta's feature film Kya Pyar Karoge Mujhse, featuring the producer's brother Tusshar Kapoor in the lead. Suddenly, Basu was fired and replaced by another director from Ekta's serials.
From Rajendra Kumar and Rahul Rawail during Love Story to Satee Shourie and Anil Sharma during Farishtay, R V Pandit and Kalpana Lajmi during Rudaali, there have been several widely recorded producer-director disputes in the past.
Never before has a director been asked to vacate his chair for another (unless we count Shashilal Nair who was fired by his producer from the yet-incomplete Hum Panchi Ek Daal Ke).
Explains Ekta, "Such things do happen. I found a certain amount of disinterest creeping into Anurag's attitude. I did not want any bitterness creeping into our relationship. So we decided to part ways. Since I was producing this film, I had to keep the venture going. So I got another director named Anil Vishwakarma, who shot Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kkusum for me, to take over."
Ekta says both the directors would be duly credited for the film. "Such changes in the guard are quite common in serials. Sometimes we have two directors shooting the same episode on television. It is a wrong belief that two directors cannot create a uniform atmosphere in the narration. Anurag Basu left after shooting about 65 per cent of Kya Pyar Karoge Mujhse. The parting was very amicable. Anurag was one of my favourite directors. He always will be. I am readying the film for a January 24 release. It is a very fresh, campus film. Audiences have never seen anything like this before."
Kya Pyar Karoge Mujhse is crucial for both Ekta and her star brother. Ekta burnt her fingers as movie producer with Kyunkii Main Jhooth Nahin Bolta with director David Dhawan. "Now I have realised one cannot be an absentee film producer. I have been directly involved with every department of Kya Pyar Karoge Mujhse. So if, God forbid, anything goes wrong, I will have no one to blame but myself."
Adds Tusshar, "It will be my next release after Vashu Bhagnani's Jeena Sirf Merre Liye with Kareena Kapoor which opens on November 1. In fact, we are starting a marathon schedule of Kya Pyar Karoge Mujhse this month. And I am giving it all I have got."
The film goes into a genre never attempted before in Hindi cinema: the campus horror flick.