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While the celebrations at the Marriott in Juhu, Mumbai, resembled a filmland wedding on September 15, there was one well-known family of actors that didn’t just abstain from the revelry but was also completely down in spirits. Glaringly missing from the starry music release of Saawariya was a mother-son duo closely associated with Devdas. A stone’s throw from the glittering venue live the Khers, Anupam, Kirron and Sikander — the same Kirron Kher about whom Sanjay Leela Bhansali sang non-stop praises when she played the feisty mother of Devdas’ passion, Paro. Assisting Bhansali all through Devdas was Kirron’s young son, Sikander Kher. As the entire Hindi film industry knows by now, anybody who dares to go aboard this captain’s ship, has to develop a thick skin since Sanjay Leela Bhansali has the reputation of having an extremely abusive tongue, and is even known to temperamentally fling things around. In fact, when Rishi and Neetu Kapoor’s son, Ranbir, and Anil Kapoor’s daughter, Sonam, assisted Bhansali for a while during the making of Black, it was the director’s hot temper that had made the young twosome run away from his sets.
Those who knew what had transpired during Black and what had driven Ranbir-Sonam out of the project, were amused at the grand show of emotions at the music release of Saawariya. Anybody not privy to the Black drama would’ve never guessed that the two star kids had made a huge compromise with their self-respect to go back to Bhansali and spend the next two years of their lives under his supervision. But then, anything for a great break and there’s no doubting that Ranbir-Sonam have benefited from the ordeal.
Ordeal? Nobody from either of the Kapoor families will endorse that today since everybody’s in a festive, celebratory mood. Why, if the pretty bride, sorry, new heroine, Sonam Kapoor shone in a gorgeous Abu-Sandeep creation, the tears that freely flowed were like a bidaai at a wedding.
While Saawariya has the right aura around it and it’s been a happy ending for both Kapoor groups, for the Kher family it has been a different story altogether. Few know that just like Ranbir-Sonam, Sikander Kher had also silently taken all the abuses during Devdas as Bhansali’s assistant because the film-maker had promised to launch him as a hero!
The story goes that three years ago, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had sounded out Sikander for a grand debut in his next film. An excited Sikander was told to keep it under wraps since Bhansali has this trait of protecting all his moves like highly sensitive defence secrets. There was the odd offer coming in for Sikander from other film-makers, but the young man preferred to wait for his boss to launch him. Like all directors who keep their protégés exclusive, Bhansali had made it clear that if Sikander was to be launched by him, SLB’s film had to be his first release. As Ranbir and Sonam have proved, to get a launch from Sanjay Leela Bhansali is the ultimate dream of every new actor. Sikander Kher was no different. Except that in his case, he waited, waited and then wilted, as he heard the buzz from outside that Bhansali was making Saawariya with Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam. No, SLB didn’t even inform the languishing Sikander that his project had been abandoned. One hears that Kirron’s son had to call up Bhansali and ask him, only to be told that a film would be made with Ranbir and Sonam Kapoor and not with him.
Family and friends watched as the demoralised Sikander, a typically testosterone-filled Mumbai boy, began to have serious doubts over whether he had it in him to be an actor.
That’s when he settled for a tame debut like Woodstock Villa. Produced by Sanjay Gupta, Woodstock Villa has also been a rough ride for the Kher boy. Sikander has reportedly signed another film called Summer 2007 which has perked him up and helped him regain his lost confidence.
The film industry is famous for upsets where the underdog often topples the top dog, like the unseeded Hrithik Roshan did to Abhishek Bachchan in 2000. This time next year we’ll know whether Sikander Kher has the screen presence and the power of performance to be the dark horse of the season. Or whether Sanjay Leela Bhansali was right in dropping him so unceremoniously.
Meanwhile, Rishi-Neetu’s little boy, Ranbir Kapoor has costar Sonam tailing him everywhere. At Dabboo Ratnani’s studio where Ranbir was doing a session, Sonam fussed around helping him get ready. Her name for him: an endearing Bir!
Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International