Replace the underworld goons with media mafia. Add cocky lines to the script like “Welcome to the business of media”, have the bad man of Bollywood (Gulshan Grover plays the head honcho of a powerful news channel) make pronouncements like “Use, reuse, misuse, or abuse but get me breaking news”, and you can apparently claim to have made a film that “shows the dark side of fame”.

Mukesh Bhatt’s Showbiz is a story of a wannabe singer who becomes a superstar and falls prey to a handful of power-hungry journos. But these are not simple gossipmongers. They are con men who are ready to go to any extreme to get TRPs, power and money and stop at nothing, not even murder.

So they find themselves a soft target — a rising rockstar, played by debutant Tushar Jalota, who’s just got a taste of fame. He becomes a sorry scapegoat for the three media honchos who scuffle among themselves for the upper hand.

Sushant Singh is a big disappointment. He repeats himself, playing a bhai-type character who is, well, a journalist!

Tushar holds his own but unfortunately his introduction is far from dhamakedar. All Vishesh Films’s new finds have had good songs to support them on screen but despite his role of superstar singer, Tushar doesn’t have any catchy song to his credit. Mrinalini and the rest hardly get to do much.

After media bashing for the better part of the film, showing them as bloodthirsty, power-hungry, demented villains, the end — which comes in a hurry — is an unconvincing compromise. Raju Khan’s Showbiz has nothing new to offer.