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Beti No 1 lacks money...

Komal Nahta

So Rajeev Kumar's Beti No 1 didn't storm the theatres yesterday.

Reason? (Shouldn't be difficult to guess) Shortage of funds. Two reasons for that: lack of publicity, because of which the film failed to find buyers to cover its costs. That its distributors went back on the contracted price was another setback.

One distribuor, whom the producer claims to have sold the film for Rs 1.11 crores, refused to pay a rupee more than Rs 85 lakhs.

According to the distributor, the price at which he had struck the deal was Rs 85 lakhs -- not Rs 1.11 crore. Obviously, the absence of a written agreemnt between the producer and the distributor only helps increase the confusion. Reportedly, the shortfall was to the tune of Rs 75 lakhs.

Rajeev Kumar was so distressed that he landed in the ICU of a city hospital!

The aggrieved financiers claim that Rajeev had feigned illness and intentionally got himself hospitalised to avoid embarrassment.

Meanwhile, AMPTPP president Pahlaj Nihalani, has been trying his best to bring about a settlement between the producer, his distributors, financiers and the laboratory owner, Girdharilal Seksaria of Ramnord Lab.

Seksaria, too, had reported sick and didn't come in to office on Wednesday, August 30.

Nihalani and others who had intervened, tried to prevail upon the financiers to forgo part of their money as well as urge distributors to pay more than the contracted price. To no avail.