Who are you voting for? Ranveer Singh or Farhan Akhtar?
Ranveer Singh for walking out of Don 3 before the first schedule took off? Or Farhan Akhtar for demanding ₹45 crore compensation for expenses ostensibly incurred on pre-production?
An awakened Ranveer Singh for becoming script-conscious post-Dhurandhar? Or Farhan Akhtar who had put Don 3 on hold while he watched aghast Ranveer’s plummeting market, decided to complete his own starrer 120 Bahadur before re-visiting Don 3, went into depression when 120 Bahadur lost the war and sprang into action when Dhurandhar rejuvenated Ranveer like never before?
“You cannot force any actor to work in a film,” Asha Parekh had commented when she used to head CINTAA (a cine artistes’ association). During her tenure in the 1990s, a film titled Kartavya (1995) had begun with Divya Bharti opposite Sanjay Kapoor whose brother Boney Kapoor had brought together an able support cast to bolster the uncertain hero. Dimple Kapadia and Moushumi Chatterjee had been signed to play roles that resembled Yashoda and Devaki (the two mothers of Lord Krishna).
Shooting started and all went well until 19-year-old Divya Bharti took a tragic tumble from her fifth-floor apartment and died in 1993.
When 26-year-old Juhi Chawla stepped into Divya’s role, calm turned into chaos. Dimple who was dating Sunny Deol, snorted, “Juhi is Sunny’s heroine. I’m not going to play mother-in-law to her.”
She walked out of the film, the producers lodged an official complaint, and the matter went before the cine artistes’ association and the producers’ guild. The producers wanted compensation, the artistes backed Dimple saying, “She’s got a point. Playing mother to an older Juhi is not the same as playing ma to Divya.” The producers decided to cut their losses and make their film.
But there was more to come. Moushumi, the other mother figure, had been told that a leading lady of her stature would be signed in Dimple’s place and alternatives like Rekha and Jayaprada were considered.
When the producers finally brought on board Aruna Irani, Moushumi fumed. “She’s a fantastic actress but Aruna is not in the same league as me.” Aruna retorted, “Who does Moushumi think she is? We’re all playing mother’s roles.” To which there was a rejoinder that Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Kader Khan play father’s roles. Do all of them share the same commercial standing?
Interestingly, Wikipedia claims Moushumi ultimately did the role when threatened that she’d have to pay damages. But the actress herself has always maintained that she did not shoot for Kartavya, the makers made use of footage they’d already shot with her.
“This is a creative space and you can’t force an actor to work in a film if they don’t want to,” she echoed Asha Parekh’s words.
Cases before film associations have been curious and varied. The most unique was when director Rajkumar Santoshi proposed marriage to Meenakshi Seshadri. When she politely turned him down, he dropped her from Damini (1993).
This time the aggrieved party was the actor who took it to her association. Amjad Khan was heading it at that time. After several rounds of negotiations, Meenakshi was reinstalled in Damini, and to the director’s credit, he did not play the thwarted suitor during its making. Santoshi did complete justice to the film and prised out of Meenakshi the best performance of her career.
In the Ranveer-Farhan standoff, the word compensation is being bandied. But let’s ask another question. Karan Johar spent over ₹40 crore six years ago on his spectacular Moghul drama Takht where Ranveer Singh was cast as Dara Shikoh and Vicky Kaushal as Aurangzeb.
When the film was called off, was the producer expected to compensate his actors, which included Kareena Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, for wasting the dates they had allotted to him? Or, should Aditya Dhar have paid Vicky Kaushal for not making the grand Ashwathama? After all, they were assignments that meant a lot to these actors.
But, amidst the many cross opinions today, only one cost is unanimously accepted — that Ranveer Singh is paying the price for sudden and surprising superstardom.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author