Blind Item(Rajeev Masand) – Money Issues – 16th March

Rajeev Masand has published a blind item in Open The Magazine about a lady moneybags facing money issues.

Bollywood may be recession proof, but a few flops can run your business to the ground. As is the case with several production houses biting the dust recently. we have seen several studios UTV Disney, Reliance & other big names shut shop after years of delivering blockbusters. One or two bad years & you are out of business. Only a few filmi family owned production houses have survived. You need an eye to spot the next big blockbuster or the next big star & tons of money. These honchos of family run production houses, are well versed with the creative as well as the business aspect of film making. Film making is in their blood. Making movies is not everybody’s cuppa tea.

Blind Item
The uncertainty over the release of a new film—previously slated for December last year, now likely to be pushed further— has put the spotlight on one of the film’s producers, a Ms Moneybags who announced her arrival in Bollywood not long ago through expensive co-productions.

But insiders say the party has ended. The producer’s cheques are bouncing, there are reports of financial irregularities in her books, and there’s a string of unpaid talent that is getting impatient. Chief among them is the bicep-bulging actor-producer of this film who is reportedly seething over the fact that the producer has defaulted on his salary and the last set of payments to ensure the film’s smooth release.

There is also talk that she fell out with the other producers over a recently-released horror film that she was involved in, and then there is the very public embarrassment over a romantic film with a top studio that had to temporarily be stalled after she got into a spat with the film’s director over money issues.

The lady in question shot to fame when she partnered with a top action star in his last film, a ‘social drama’ that she partly financed, and which did solid box office numbers last year. Industrywaalas are saying her approach to the business has been all wrong. One insider refers to an instance of her ‘messing up the market’ by signing an actor for Rs 11 crore when his market price is considerably lower.

The lady is reportedly amiable and in the habit of sending expensive designer products to potential collaborators in her relentless efforts to woo them for partnerships.

Our Guess
Producer – Prernaa Arora
Film postponed – Parmanu
Horror Film – Pari…Fought with anushka
Romantic film – Kedarnath