MUMBAI: “I am getting life threatening calls, I am on my way to lodge a complaint at the police station,” yells film producer Ranjit Sharma over a crackling cellphone from Daman.
With a flair for courting controversies, the producer claims that ever since he announced a project on the life and times of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, his ring tone has become a nightmare.
Titled Hello, Hum Mahajan Bol Rahe Hain, the film intends to look at the “positive as well as negative sides” of Mahajan. The material for the tell-all script, the film’s director Kiran Surve emphasises, has been obtained after “thorough research and meetings with several of the political leader’s relatives.”
Both the producer and director maintain they have met Pravin Mahajan in jail to get his go-ahead. Meanwhile, producer Sharma’s film Deepa ki Tarannum on the controversial bar dancer has been stalled because of legal complications. Another film Qaidi No 210, based on the Salman Khan black bucks case, is also on Sharma’s agenda.
Self-righteously, Sharma states,”Pramod Mahajan was an internationally known personality, so there is no reason why we should not make a film on him.” Director Surve, speaking in impeccable Hindi, says that earlier he had made TV serials in the US. He had arrived three months ago from Colorado Springs to land the Hello, Hum Mahajan… assignment.
Ashutosh Rana has been offered the role of Pramod Mahajan. Rahul Roy has been finalised as Pravin Mahajan. “The search is on,” they say, “for actors who will portray Rahul Mahajan and a Delhi-based woman journalist.”
Director Surve repeatedly alleges that he has been contacted by a man from Jodhpur “who told me he was personal assistant to one of the Mahajan family members and suggested a meeting.” On the other hand, producer Sharma says that he has received menacing threats from anonymous callers.
The film’s first schedule will start next month in Gujarat because the director wants it that way. The budget, Sharma concludes, “will be at least Rs15 crore — after all, a film on Pramod Mahajan must look slick and sophisticated.”
