ROLE PLAY: Shakti Kapoor

Casting for the couch

There could be a job yet for India’s most famous actor, Shakti Kapoor, with the BBC as actor-cum-consultant. I am quite prepared to negotiate a handsome five-figure fee on his behalf for the usual consideration ? that he undertakes to keep me informed of all his dialogue.

Even as we speak, the BBC is preparing to do a documentary on Bollywood and the casting couch. Normally, documentaries, in which reporters equip themselves Ruchi-style with hidden microphones and cameras, are more the province of Channel 4 television.

However, two years ago, the BBC made waves with a documentary called Secret Policemen in which six young recruits, training to join Her Majesty’s constabulary, were forced to resign after they were shown dressing up as hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan for their private amusement. They also freely used words such as ?nigger? and ?Paki?, taboo in today’s multi-racial Britain, in their conversation.

The whole controversy about Shakti Kapoor has been given a local twist by some aspiring British Asian actors who have returned home to the UK with colourful tales of their alleged personal experiences of the casting couch.

One girl, Jian Khan, aged 16, told The Times of London: ?There was a lot of harassment. I would check out my costume and be alone with someone who would then try it on me. I was told that there are thousands of actresses like me and I was replaceable.’’

Jian claimed she saw some actresses sitting in the laps of producers.

‘‘It was disgusting, but maybe that’s the way it works,? added Jian. ?You have to be flirtatious with the right people.?

One or two of my journalist friends, who have been consulted by the BBC, have told its researchers that the documentary will be hard to make since no well-known actors will want to reveal she has slept her way to the top ? assuming this ever happened.

India TV chairman Rajat Sharma, who will probably be approached if he hasn’t already, can make a little money by flogging his footage to the BBC.

As for Shakti, he could play himself in a ?dramatisation? and show how he was conned by the said Ruchi who promised so much and delivered so little. It is certainly fortuitous that the BBC won’t have to bother with sub-titles since most of Shakti’s dialogue with Ruchi was delivered in English ? ?All actresses have slept with directors. I want to make love to you and kiss you. You must do this or else I won’t be able to help you.?

Ruchi, too, could be roped into the project and play herself. You might well be wondering why the BBC wants to make such a programme in the first place.

The answer is three-fold: Bollywood is big in Britain; the documentary would be good for ratings; and the BBC is keen to improve the intellectual content of its programming.

DOUBLE TAKE: Rupa (left) and Konnie Huq (right) in Chesham and Amersham during the election campaign

Sisters-in-arms

The BBC has a strict rule forbidding its journalists from expressing their personal political preferences during an election. This made matters awkward for Konnie Huq, a popular presenter of Bangladeshi origin on the BBC’s long-running children’s programme, Blue Peter.

Her sister, Rupa, is an academic who stood as a Labour candidate in the true-blue Tory constituency of Chesham and Amersham in Buckinghamshire. Since Rupa was up against a Tory majority of 11,882, it was jolly brave of her to stand at all, but having shown herself willing, perhaps she will be picked for a more winnable seat next time.

Konnie, who is something of a celebrity and a role model for young girls, last week managed to cut a ribbon in a school in Chesham and Amersham when her sister just happened to be present.

By the time I got there (an hour by underground train from central London) the ribbon-cutting was over but I stayed on to have tea with the two girls. Konnie, who is 30, three years younger than her sister, left for Japan almost immediately afterwards. Her filming work has taken her all over the world.

Both she and Rupa were at Cambridge and are anxious to dispel the notion that Bangladeshi girls get stuck at the bottom of the social pecking order. Like all candidates Rupa had to consent to kissing babies on the campaign trail but, in her case, she could be forgiven. The baby was her own year-old son, Rafi.

DIFFERENT STROKES: Sonjoy Chatterjee

Right beat

Sonjoy Chatterjee, energetic MD and CEO of ICICI Bank UK Ltd, whose office in Knightsbridge commands a lovely view of the spring flowers in Hyde Park, says he plays the drum professionally and is trying to break into the music scene in London.

I know ICICI, the biggest private bank in India, wants to floor the opposition but isn’t Sonjoy taking competition too far? ?I go boxing once a week at the LA fitness centre in London,? he tells me.

In a fight, Sonjoy would be a good man to have around. ?I am six-foot-three,? he points out.

ASH YOU LIKE IT: Aishwarya Rai

Circle of Jag

Jagmohun Mundhra is just about to start shooting Provoked, based on the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Sikh woman who was sent to prison for 10 years in Britain for the manslaughter of her abusive husband, Dipak.

I know something about Kiranjit’s landmark case (which changed the law and made it more understanding towards women who kill after suffering years of domestic violence) because when she was released in September, 1992, after serving three years of her sentence, I was the first one to interview her.

Jag has got a great cast for his film, which is based on Rahila Gupta’s Circle of Light, with Aishwarya Rai playing Kiranjit. Nandita Das, Naveen Andrews (as Dipak), Robbie Coltrane (as the lawyer), Miranda Richardson and Rebecca Pidgeon are among the others in what should be a worthy successor to Jag’s Bawandar.

I remember Kiranjit telling me of her mixed emotions after the death of her husband. She felt she was at last free. ?I also felt remorse because I had robbed my two sons of their father,? she pondered.

Nandita has said she and Ash have something in common. ?I will be a jury member at Cannes this year ? Ash was a jury member two years ago,? she told Jag, who feels he is a born-again serious film director and should be allowed to leave behind his earlier life as a maker of ?adult late night tv movies? in LA.

?I was with Nandita in LA when the call came through from Cannes asking her to be jury member,? said Jag.

Tittle tattle

Sourav Ganguly will no doubt be relieved to know he has not been dropped. The committee deciding which of the Indian greats should be represented in the India Room at the Oval cricket ground ? this will be inaugurated on June 20 to coincide with the tsunami appeal match ? have so far decided that the photographs of C. K. Nayudu, Kapil Dev, Hazare, Lala Amarnath, Ranji, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar should hang on its walls.

?Your Sourav is also there,? my mole reassures me.

Mind you, in the present ?Let’s get Sourav? climate, that might cause even more trouble.