Roshans refuse to party with Anurag Basu

Still sore over the debacle of Kites, Rakesh strikes the director's name off the guestlist

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 5, 2013)

Rakesh Roshan has neither forgotten the debacle of Kites nor forgiven director Anurag Basu for it. The proof lies in the guestlist of his much talked about upcoming birthday bash.

Roshan Sr has made sure that the filmmaker is not invited to the big celebrations, which will be held at a banquet hall in Worli on Friday.

According to a source close to the family, the invitees to the party include Kumar Manglam Birla, Mukesh-Nita Ambani, Subroto Roy, Sumanto Roy, the Bachchans, Ekta Kapoor, Jeetendra-Shobha Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Kangna Ranaut, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar among others.

"When the list was being made, Rakesh made it clear that he does not want Anurag to be invited," added the source.

The discord can be traced back to Kites, the 2010 flop, starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori. The friction started showing around the film's release when Basu admitted that all was not well between the two. "I wouldn't call them creative differences because we were both creating the same film and moving in the same direction. But yes, Rakeshji's vision of cinema is quite different from mine. Rakeshji was not just the producer of Kites. He's also a very big director with a vast experience as filmmaker behind him. He naturally had very strong opinions on how the film should be shot. It's all fine now. Over and done with," Basu was quoted as saying.

But clearly, everything is still not fine between them and the birthday boy has decided to use his prerogative to curate the guest list.

"While Pinky Roshan, Hrithik and Sunaina are making the arrangements for the party, it is clear that Rakesh Roshan is calling the shots on the invitations that are being sent out," said the source.

Reportedly, the English version of Kites was also taken away from Basu and given to Hollywood director Brett Ratner for editing. Also, Basu did not feature in any of the publicity campaigns.

Mirror has it that Roshan Sr and Basu have not interacted since the release of Kites and a white flag is certainly not on the horizon yet.