Mani Ratnam, Bobby Bedi part ways

Director Mani Ratnam has decided not to work in any film produced by Bobby Bedi any more. The fall-out between the soft-spoken filmmaker and the producer was building up for a while right through the making of Guru. "But things came to a flashpoint at the premiere of Guru in Toronto when Mani and his family were rather shabbily treated. Bobby Bedi apparently refused to pay the fare for Mani's son Nanda to attend the premiere. Mani is too polite to retaliate. He took the humiliation quietly. But swore never to work with Bedi again." Adds the source, "Even Vishal Bhardawaj was far from happy about the way Bedi behaved during Maqbool and decided never to work with Bedi again." As for Mani he has already called off two projects-the earlier Mahabharat and more recently Lajjo-with Bobby Bedi, and is working towards forgetting the ugly experience.

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Lajjo News With Pics

The Mani Ratnam-Aamir Khan combo sounded lethal when it was announced over a year ago. And now it is learnt that the twain may never meet. After gathering dust for the longest time, Mani Ratnam's ambitious film, Lajjo, has been scrapped.The film’s would-be producer Bobby Bedi maintains, "The film has not been shelved and we are going to shoot the film at some point." However, our sources confirm that the film has been done away with. The problem started with Kareena opting out and Aamir getting busy with his other films including his directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par. However, producer Bobby Bedi has been citing other reasons for the oh-so-long delay. The film didn't hit the floors in December last year for reasons best known to the filmmaker. A source close to Ratnam says, "The film is definitely not happening. Even the actors have got busy with other projects." According to an insider on the project, “Bobby Bedi was aware that bringing two hot-headed personalities together would be difficult. He had spoken to them separately about the possibility of creative differences and requested each one of them to be mutually respectful of each other’s responsibilities.” So far, so good. Problems started with Mani Ratnam paying more attention to Guru and Lajjo, which was supposed to go on the floors last October, had to be postponed to this year. Since the film is set in Rajasthan, Bedi and Ratnam wanted to shoot the entire film around winter in a non-stop schedule. The shoot was expected to begin in mid-October this year. It is learnt that the screenplay was ready but Ratnam was not willing to get it scanned by the usually nitpicking Aamir Khan. And obviously, Khan wouldn’t go further unless he was shown the screenplay. Another problem: Mani Ratnam needed a dialogue writer because he is not well versed in Hindi. “Mani sir wanted someone absolutely fluent in Urdu since Lajjo is a period love story. He zeroed in on Gulzar saab. But Gulzar saab made it clear that he would not brook any kind of interference. Even if Mani sir had convinced Gulzar saab, Bedi was worried that he would end up handling three diverse temperaments.”  says a source.Mani Ratnam is extremely unhappy about the fate of the film. Sources indicate that even Aamir Khan wasn't too happy with the final script. This led Khan to work on his home production, Taare Zameen Par followed by Kajri, the Hindi remake of Tamil super hit Ghajini. "There were major differences on the script and other aspects. As a result the film never got started," adds a reliable source.

Mani Ratnam, Bobby Bedi part ways.

Mani Ratnam has decided not to work in any film produced by Bobby Bedi any more. The fall-out between the soft-spoken filmmaker and the producer was building up for a while right through the making of Guru. "But things came to a flashpoint at the premiere of Guru in Toronto when Mani and his family were rather shabbily treated. Bobby Bedi apparently refused to pay the fare for Mani's son Nanda to attend the premiere. Mani is too polite to retaliate. He took the humiliation quietly. But swore never to work with Bedi again." Adds the source, "Even Vishal Bhardawaj was far from happy about the way Bedi behaved during Maqbool and decided never to work with Bedi again." As for Mani he has already called off two projects-the earlier Mahabharat and more recently Lajjo-with Bobby Bedi, and is working towards forgetting the ugly experience.

Mani Ratnam, Bobby Bedi part ways

Mani Ratnam has decided not to work in any film produced by Bobby Bedi any more. The fall-out between the soft-spoken filmmaker and the producer was building up for a while right through the making of Guru. "But things came to a flashpoint at the premiere of Guru in Toronto when Mani and his family were rather shabbily treated. Bobby Bedi apparently refused to pay the fare for Mani's son Nanda to attend the premiere. Mani is too polite to retaliate. He took the humiliation quietly. But swore never to work with Bedi again." Adds the source, "Even Vishal Bhardawaj was far from happy about the way Bedi behaved during Maqbool and decided never to work with Bedi again." As for Mani he has already called off two projects-the earlier Mahabharat and more recently Lajjo-with Bobby Bedi, and is working towards forgetting the ugly experience.

Aamir to co-produce with PVR pictures

 

 

 Aamir Khan Ajay Bijli of PVR line of cinema halls has decided to move into the movie production business. PVR pictures have reportedly signed Aamir Khan for their first two projects. These two movies are expected to release in 2007 and 2008. It is also believed that Aamir will be involved in co-production with PVR. He charges about 7-8 crores for a film and had signed a deal with them a few days ago. Bijli has however refused to comment on this. It seems a great year for Aamir as he already has given two hits in the form of Rang De Basanti and Fanaa. He will also be starting work on Mani Ratnam's Lajjo and will be starring in the remake of a Tamil film. Apart from that he is also producing his next film after Lagaan starring his nephew.

Kareena with Aamir again in Lajjo

Kareena Kapoor a.k.a. Bebo has been one of the reigning actresses in Bollywood since the past few years. She has proved herself to be a versatile actress with a wide range of roles that she has performed in space of these few years. The actress feels that she has now entered a much more mature stage of her career. The news of Mani Ratnam reviving his film Lajjo, which was earlier shelved have surfaced recently. The buzz is that Kareena and Aamir Khan will be playing the lead roles in this movie. Apparently, Kareena will be one of the happiest persons around if Lajjo is made. She claims that she would rather do challenging roles than the 'Barbie Doll" ones. She has come to realise that she enjoys doing diverse roles as an actor now. Bebo feels that she can no longer do the singing and dancing kind of girlie roles which she had essayed earlier. And she believes that these roles fail to bring out the actor in her. She has been able to win the hearts of many with her uniqueness in Kurbaan, Jab We Met, Omkara and others. Currently, Kareena has quite a few promising roles in her kitty. Reportedly, she will be playing the role of a mother in Ra.1. She will be acting as a step mother in the Bollywood remake of Stepmom too. The role that was originally played by Julia Roberts. Well, it looks like Bebo"s come a long way from 'Pooh" of K3G and has matured to 'Dol

A R Rahman to put Lajjo tunes into Ravana

 if  you are a die hard fan of the Rahman-Ratnam combination and follow every single news item about them, you will remember that they were both working on Lajjo seriously until the summer of 2007 but were forced to give up the project later. Now, the buzz is that A.R. Rahman has decided to use the tunes he had composed for Lajjo in Mani Ratnam's new project Ravana (this tentative title is also referred to as Raavana). It is also heard that Mani Rathnam has also permited him to do so. For those who do not know about the film, Lajjo is Mani Ratnam"s Bollywood project which was supposed to star Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor. As usual, Mani invited his favourite music director A.R. Rahman to compose the music of this period film. The project was supposed to start in 2005 but Aamir was busy with Mangal Pandey then, so it got postponed to 2006, a time when Mani was busy with Guru (Abhishek Bachchan). Again, Lajjo got postponed. When finally Mani returned to the project in 2007, speculations were rife that the film would be dropped and the film"s producer Bobby Bedi did not scotch that rumour. But unfazed by these rumours, Mani Ratnam and A.R. Rahman kept working on the project diligently until August 2007. Mani formulated a perfect screenplay for the film which he discussed with Rahman regularly and the latter came up with several beautiful compositions. But with no response from Bobby and the different tracks Aamir and Kareena have gone after Mangal Pandey and Jab We Met respectively, the project"s future seems too bleak. [an error occurred while processing this directive]Whether Lajjo is revived or not, the music originally meant for it will definitely get a new lease of life in Ravana/ Ashokavanam.

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