Clashing with Shah Rukh Khan

No filmmaker wants his movie’s release to clash with Salman Khan or Aamir Khan but Shah Rukh Khan seems to be holding little fear for them. Rakesh Roshan refused to change his date of Kaabil – which starred Hrithik Roshan – when Shah Rukh’s Raees suddenly decided to release at the same time. Roshan didn’t get bruised. Kaabil could have done better if Raees didn’t release but it was still a decent hit. And Raees might have made a little more money than Kaabil but trade pundits called its box office performance average because of the huge cost incurred in making the movie. With the result of that clash evident, others aren’t giving Shah Rukh movies a solo pass in a coveted holiday weekend period. Like the Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet – Ek Prem Katha. It was announced recently that the movie would be released on the Independence Day weekend. The only problem: Shah Rukh’s next release, directed by Imtiaz Ali, was already slated to release on the day. The situation is the reverse of the Kaabil clash when Shah Rukh ambushed the date. One of the persons who took great glee from Akshay doing unto Shah Rukh what he had done to Hrithik was Sanjay Gupta, the director of Kaabil. He tweeted, ‘KARMA, you beauty! I love and believe in you so much. I love how you go after all that f*** with you. KARTAM BHUKTAM on Independence Day.’ And then panicking at unnecessarily picking up a fight with a superstar, he deleted his tweet but not before it had been picked up by scores of Bollywood reporters who keep a hawk’s eye on the tweets of celebrities. This loss in stature for Shah Rukh because of a protracted run without a huge blockbuster is a testing time. Incidentally, he has just completed 25 years in the industry and for much of that period he was Bollywood’s King Khan without a doubt. He rang in his 25th year with the opening of a new office of a special effects division of his company and tweeted, ‘25 yrs in Mumbai, which has given me my life. For the 1st time at the opening of RC vfx new office I felt, I must have done something rite.’ It is probably good that he is diversifying his business interests beyond the usual. The way his career is going he might need it. Casting togetherSalman Khan and Katrina Kaif were once in a relationship and now they are not. Salman is said to be dating Iulia Vantur, the Romanian model. Katrina meanwhile is single again after her break up with Ranbir Kapoor. Salman has been a sheltering ark to most of his former girlfriends and with Katrina’s career too witnessing a number of flops, it was no different this time. Salman and Katrina will soon be seen in Tiger Zinda Hai, the sequel to their earlier blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger. That will be a big boost to Katrina’s professional fortunes given that it almost certain to be a huge hit. But that is not all. According to reports, they are now going to be cast together in one more movie. This is said to be a production of Salman’s brother-in-law. Naturally there is speculation on why these two are coming together in so many upcoming movies? Is this a hint that their relationship may soon resume?Meanwhile, Salman and his entire family took off to Maldives to celebrate the first birthday of his nephew. And Iulia Vantur also coincidentally put an image of Maldives saying that she was glad to be back. While they have not publicly acknowledged the relationship, it shows Salman and Vantur are going strong.Split puzzleLately, rumours about trouble brewing in the Deepika Padukone-Ranveer Singh relationship have been recurring with regular frequency. It started when Deepika was out of India for a lengthy period, shooting in Hollywood. And then there was her cosiness with former boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor that, in fact, is said to have cost Ranbir his relationship with Katrina Kaif. The latest rumour now says that Ranveer and Deepika have split. But then there was an image floating around online of the two together. Another strange rumour doing the rounds is that the two have not broken up but are making it look like they are not close anymore. The rumour says that this is at the insistence of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is directing them in the controversy-ridden Padmavati. Since an alleged love angle between the characters they play – Allauddin Khilji and Padmavati – is the reason for repeated attacks on the movie’s shooting by lumpen political elements, it was thought, says the rumour, in the interests of caution that the real life couple should also not been seen together. It sounds too far-fetched to be true but one never knows! No attendanceThe only context in which one hears of Rekha nowadays is as her being member of the Upper House of Parliament, for which she had been nominated some years back. Since then she has become famous for not attending the august institution, to the extent that she is now ranked as the worst performing Parliamentarian with just about 5% attendance. This suddenly became an issue again recently and there was a big hullabaloo. News channels ran shows on it and Rekha, of course, wouldn’t comment. If she had not shown her face in Parliament, there was little chance of her defending her position. It fell upon the lyricist Javed Akhtar to come on television and offer the odd explanation that usually these posts are thrust on celebrities even if they are not interested and relentless pressure forces them to agree to take it up. That seems like a specious argument. Rekha is after all not a child to not know what being a Parliamentarian entailed. Even if political parties pressurised her, she should have been able to figure out that this is not going to be her cup of tea. Or having realised it late, she should have resigned. Kiron Kher, another Bollywood personality who is an MP, has an outstanding attendance record and she made a similar argument – those who don’t feel up to it, shouldn’t take it up.  Send your feedback tobollywood.eye@gmail.com