Mahesh Bhatt and Emraan Hashmi fall out?
Filmmaker displeased with his protégé prioritising another studio’s film.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is upset with his nephew, actor Emraan Hashmi for prioritising another studio’s film Raja Natwarlal instead of his “parent company’s” Mr X, reported the Times of India.
Emraan’s decision to allot 10 days to promote his upcoming film Raja Natwarlal did not go down well with Mahesh, Mukesh and Vikram Bhatt. They had demanded the same dates to wrap up their supernatural thriller Mr X with the actor. But due to his unavailability, they will have to get another combination of dates from the rest of the cast.
“He did inform me about this change in plans, but he still caught me off-guard. Without taking away from his efforts, I have to say that I am the architect of ‘brand Emraan’. We are his parent company and deserve his loyalty more than anyone else,” said Mahesh, when asked how he feels about the change in plans.
Responding to Mahesh’s show of disagreement, Emraan said, “Bhatt sahab has been and always will be my mentor. But he forgets that he was the one who told me that at the end, only success matters, be it through fair or foul means.” Adding that, “I am going all out for Raja Natwarlal as it is a good film and I want it to succeed. Bhatt sahab should be happy because I am following his teachings.”
What’s interesting is that Kunal Deshmukh, the director of Raja Natwarlal, is also a Bhatt protégé and this is his first film without the Bhatt banner.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2014.