Blind Item(Rajeev Masand) – Superstar Pressure – 8th March

Rajeev Masand has published a blind item in Open The Magazine about a top talent manager, whose clients are deserting her owing to pressure from a superstar.

The popular opinion about the superstar before he met her, was that he was not achieving his potential. While he was among the top three heroes in the 90’s, his star had fallen after he was embroiled in several controversies. His rivals had raced past him. But she managed him well & in a few years time, he dethroned his rival to become the reigning superstar. Her interfering nature is rumored to have led to her getting sacked by the superstar’s family. But they parted ways on a bad note.

Both tried getting back at each other. The superstar made his mentees sack her, while she sabotaged a multi crore deal for his movie with a top studio(click here to read more). he was then forced to distribute the movie himself. The superstar is notorious for giant size ego. He is known never to forget & take his own sweet time to forgive. As expected owing to the superstar’s pressure most of the talent manager’s clients have now deserted her.

In the bollywood jungle, you better not mess with the biggest cats. Or else, you may end up paying a heavy price for it.

Blind Item

So it appears that her fallout with a leading superstar is hurting the business of one of Bollywood’s most popular talent managers.

The lady in question is responsible for giving one of Hindi cinema’s favorite bad boys an image makeover. She’s correctly been attributed for his reinvention and for top brands warming up to him despite his tempestuous reputation. The association with the former enfant terrible led to her expanding her modest shingle into one of the top talent management agencies in town. Soon she was representing the superstar’s actress girlfriend, a clutch of newcomers he was responsible for launching and other stars who signed up hoping she could do for them what she did for the superstar.

The honeymoon ended abruptly a few years ago though when the star’s family decided to handle his business affairs. There was much finger-pointing and ugliness, which ended with the lady and the superstar parting ways professionally.

Now it appears she may be paying the price for falling out of favour with him. Not long ago a young male actor she was representing, courtesy the superstar’s blessing, relieved himself of her services on the grounds that she wasn’t getting him any work. Truth is that the actor is embroiled in a legal case that has scared off producers who don’t want to risk their films being held to ransom in case the actor is convicted.

More recently there has been news that a star child, the daughter of a popular 90s action hero who was also being represented by the lady’s agency, has decided to move on. No loss, some might say, given that star child’s acting career never quite took off in the first place. But the fact that the young actress is moving to a new agency floated by the superstar is indicative of the real forces at work.

Rumour has it there is immense pressure on the superstar’s former girlfriend and prominent female star (who remains close to the superstar) to ditch the agency, but she has insisted she is too close to the lady to even dream of going elsewhere. Some believe it’s only a matter of time, given the actress gets some of her best roles starring opposite the superstar.

Our Guess

Leading Superstar: Salman Khan
Talent Manager: Reshma Shetty
Actress GF: Katrina Kaif
Young Male Actor: Sooraj Pancholi
Star Child: Athiya Shetty