Bhavna Talwar, the director of ‘Dharm’ which was also in the running for becoming India’s entry for the Oscars has accused a jury member of favouritism.
Talwar has alleged that Sudhir Mishra is a “good friend” of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, whose film, ‘Eklavya’ was finally chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars, suggesting their friendship may have influenced the decision.
Mishra is livid at the accusation. “How did anyone know that I am friends with Chopra? I haven’t visited his house for the last seven years! How can I be accused of favouritism? If we were such great friends, wouldn’t we be working together?"
"How does this lady know that my vote went to Chopra? Just because I am a small filmmaker doesn’t mean anybody can get up and raise a finger at me. Would anyone dare to accuse Karan Johar in a similar manner?” says Mishra.
But Bhavna insists that lobbying took place for ‘Eklavya’. “If Mishra claims he is not Chopra’s friend, why did he claim in a tabloid about a year ago that he’s like his brother?
Nadeem Khan (one of the jury members) has gone on record saying that Chopra was lobbying for it and was calling up members of the jury before the decision was made.
So why is Mishra even denying everything?” she counters.
However, there’s a twist to the tale. When Bhavna sought to enlist the support of the unit members of her film ‘Dharm’ most of them apparently refused because they are upset with Bhavna and her husband Shital Talwar.
“Why should we support them? They haven’t paid most of us our full dues and some of us haven’t even got the credits for the film,” says one unit member under condition of anonymity.
In fact, the unit members have started sending out SMS to make public the fact that they won’t support Bhavna before they get their dues.
Akanksha Sood, who was the still photographer for the film, also corroborates that the unit members were treated shabbily by the Talwars.
“We were all made to sign a contract of 42 days, but the shoot went on for more than 70 days. We were paid only for those 42 days, the remaining days were not accounted for,” says Akanksha, who for one, was not given her credits.
Says another unit member, “Forget us, Bhavna used to take a lot of advice from Nallamutthu, the director of photography, because she didn’t know too much about filmmaking.
But when the film was complete, she not only didn’t pay him the full amount he was due, he was mentioned as just a cameraman in the credits It is very unfair.”
