Komal Nahta on Taran Adarsh, Sanjay Gupta: Film Information
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Article published by Komal Nahta on Film Information (Issue: May 11 2013)
The relationship between stars, producers and filmmakers on the one hand and journalists, reviewers and trade analysts on the other has always been fragile. Stars, filmmakers and producers don't like it when journos criticise their film or predict that the films won't click at the the box office. It is an accepted fact that if a reviewer doesn't speak highly of the film, the people associated with it will, more often than not, speak ill of the reviewer.
But Sanjay Gupta producer-director of last week's Shootout At Wadala, crossed all limits of decency and etiquette by using filthy four-letter words on Twitter against me (your editor, Komal Nahta), as I predicted that his film would see many of its distributors (but not the Bombay and C.P Berar distributors) in the red. In spite of the fact that many of the distributors of SAW will, in fact, lose between 25% and 40% of their MG royalty prices. Gupta went hammer and tongs against me, calling me names and alleging that I had ulterior motives in terming the film a non-success at the box-office. He even went to the extent of saying that I had an axe to grind with Balaji Motion Pictures, the co-producers of SAW ,without knowing that Balaji's Ekta Kapoor and I are very much on talking terms and it is not rare for Ekta to enquire with me, via sms-es, the reports of new releases including her own films. So what was Gupta hallucinating about the strained relations between me and Balaji?
It is understandable that Gupta must've been under tremendous pressure because his Delhi-UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Nizam and Mysore distributors (in other words, almost all) will lose heavily in SAW but, frankly speaking, he ougtht to know how to deal with failure as he has more often than not made flop films only. Using abusive language against someone who was merely doing his job honestly was uncalled for. Probably, Gupta got carried away with the public applause the swear words in his films is getting in Bombay and the rest of Maharashtra where, incidently the film is doing extremely well. May be, Sanjay Gupta thought that gaalis will always be met with taalis. But he may not be aware of the "shame shame" messages my followers have posted against Gupta on Twitter.
Supporting Sanjay Gupta all the way was journalist (frankly can he be called a journalist?) Taran Adarsh. The guy doesn't have the courage to openly come out against me, probably because of the criminal case I have filed against Adarsh, which is pending judgment in the court, but Adarsh's favourite pastime seems to be to run me down surreptitiously. Belive it or die but Taran, on his Twitter, calls my news-oriented tweets "fake" and "false". Of all the people in the world,Taran, whose reviews are a sham (4 stars to Murder 3, 4 stars to Shoot At Wadala, 4 stars to Bombay Talkies, 3.5 stars to The Attack of 26/11, 3.5 stars to Gippi.. the list of his ridiculous reviews is long, almost endless) should be commenting on my tweets is probably the biggest joke. For a person who thrives on false-hood CANNOT comment on a person whose integrity is very well-known in the trade. Yes, Taran, it is a well-known fact that mediocrity will always try to drag excellence down but are you even mediocre? Probably, you have realised, that's the only way the trade will cast a glance at you – if you piggyback on my popularity in the trade.
Althrough the following is not connected with SAW, sample what Taran Adarsh did on 8th May on his Twitter account.
I tweeted on the afternoon of 8th.
'Breaking News: Vinod Chopra strikes deal for theatrical distribution of P.K. with UTV. Reportedly UTV will pay Rs. 118 crore for India and Overseas'.
Obviously, frustrated at my genuine and breaking news tweet, here's what Taran tweeted some minutes later.
'Xclusiv: News that UTV has acquired Rajkumar Hirani's Aamir Khan starrer PK is FALSE . Yes, talks are on, but deal isn't clinched yet'.
Note the use of the word 'Xclusiv' in realiation to me using 'Breaking News'.
As if that tweet was not enough to express his frustration, he tweeted after a few minutes.
"It's rumoured that the price UTV is ready to pay for Aamir Khan's PK is Rs 118cr. Another FALSE news. Price no where close that, I am told'.
F-A-L-S-E? when UTV did not clarify, who the hell is this Adarsh to decide what is false and what is true? Did he think that Disney UTV would agree that it had paid the price mentioned in my tweet? Probably, Taran is not aware that rarely do corporate houses admit to prices at which deals are concluded. And yet, these prices become public knowledge because of something called investigative journalism. Frankly, how can one expect Taran Adarsh to know anything about investigative journalism when he seems to be clueless about even basic rules and ethics of journalism?
The moment I tweet about something, Taran takes it upon himself to negate the tweet by using words such as 'fake', 'wrong' , 'incorrect' and the like – little realising that he is exposing his immaturity more than anything else by doing what he is doing, imagine the irony – Disney UTV didn't react to my tweet but Taran Adarsh did!
Taran conveniently forgets that if one were to just start reproducing his reviews of excerpts from them along with his star ratings for films, one would have a fantastic comedy column for one's readers, whether on the net, Twitter or in a print magazine. Where else would you get to laugh as much as when you read his reviews?!?
Actually, it looks Gupta and Adarsh don't have mirrors in their homes, and I should be getting them one each. Sanjay Gupta can then stand in front of the mirror and use the choicest gaalis for himself – after all, he deserves them more than anybody else (including Komal Nahta, for sure!) for putting his many distributors to such miserable losses. And Taran Adarsh can, every morning, look at his face in the mirror before venturing to comment so shamelessly on things that simply shouldn't be his concern.
And a sincere piece of advice to Adarsh: if my tweets cause you so much heartburn, just unfollow me on Twitter. It may do your health a world of good!
Taran, just in case you are under the mistaken belief that you can do what you want and run me down, you need to be informed that there is something called LAW in this country. Have you forgotten that you already have a criminal case filed by me against you, in the Bandra metropolitan magistrate's court in Bombay? Is that not enough? Do you want another court case? And do you want your brother, Baran Adarsh, to then plead with me to withdraw the new court case, like he did last time? If not, simply LAY OFF! Mind your own business – that is, if you have any!
Komal Nahta (Editor, Film Information)
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