Big Bhojpuri fight at audio release

(From left) Ravi Kishan, Bhagyashree and Manoj Tiwary at the audio release. Telegraph picture

Patna, May 22: Big B and Aamir Khan do it in their blogs, so does King Khan through his jibes. And now Bhojpuri actors Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwary have engaged in a cat-fight that would put Bollywood to shame.

A verbal duel between Tiwary and Kishan became so intense yesterday at the audio release of their film Ago Chumma Deda Rajajee that their colleague Bhagyashree was forced to comment that the two stars fought like “they were married”. The duel started when Tiwary reached “late” for the Patna function, leading Kishan to yell: “Ka ho, kahe late aylah (Hello, why are you late?).” Manoj took the jibe from his “elder brother” (as he calls the elder actor) in his stride and answered that he was “well in time” for the function.

Industry observers believe that the lingering ego clashes between the two stars intensified ever since the Netherlands government released a stamp after singer-cum-actor Tiwary and Madame Tussauds “approached” the star to make a statue of him.

Yesterday evening was a match of sorts where allegations and counter-allegations flew across the table with poor Bhagyashree dodging the salvos.

If Tiwary asked: “Why did you not come to my daughter’s birthday party?” Tiwary’s reply was: “You did invite me to a birthday party, but I abstained as I saw it was turning out to be a launch party of your film.” “I know you have become a star with a postal stamp and wax statue being made after you. But remember that I am also a national award-winning actor,” said Kishan with a grin.

Perhaps to make the atmosphere “less intense”, Tiwary touched Kishan’s feet after the comment, which the elder star saw only as a gimmick meant to deride him before the media.

“On one hand Manoj calls me a mahanayak and then he goes on to compare to a Hindi film star out to kiss girls on screen,” Kishan fumed. “Are sudhar jao (mend your ways),” was what Tiwary roared after the comment.

For Tiwary, another retort was ready when he suggested that “Kishan has not grown a moustache, the symbol for a matured man and he will mature only when he grows one.”

The actors, however, later “cleared the air” and conceded that they did not envy each other’s successes. Kishan said he wished to meet his fellow actor to “dispel” any “misunderstanding” between them, while Tiwari stressed he was more than willing to oblige “Ravi Bhai, the superstar of Bhojywood”.