Kulraj storms off Kareena set

Unhappy with her role

Hitlist reported last week that the actress has been unhappy last month over the way her character is shaping up. Says a source, "Unable to tolerate it any more, Kulraj left the shooting midway. Efforts to make her change her mind didn't work and she refused to shoot on Sunday as well."

Three demands

The actress's demands were: 1. Change the graph of my character; 2. Keep me in the loop about where the story is heading; 3. Don't make the character "soapy".

An emergency meeting was called on Monday morning at the Zee office in Worli, where Abhijeet Saxena (Zee President) and James (vice-president, production, Nimbus) heard Kulraj out.

What sparked it off?

The issue was a trivial one — upset over the food served on the set, Kulraj exploded.

Says the source, "She agreed to restart shooting only after she was convinced that the show would proceed like she wanted. Shooting restarted on Monday at 3.30 pm. Because the next day (after Kulraj's row) was a Sunday, nearly two days of shooting were thrown out of gear."

Boils down to money

The actress is particularly peeved with the recent track in the show that shows Tushar's (Sandeep Rajora) family continuing to degrade her, because she lied in the past. She feels the track is painting a wrong image."

Kulraj had been promised a fee hike one or two months after the serial went on air, but got a hike only after six months, adding to her ire.
James confirmed that a meeting had been called at the Zee office on Monday, but denied that the storyline had been modified to Kulraj's demands.

"We are very clear that no artiste can dictate the script and screenplay," he said. Then why did Kulraj refuse to shoot?

"The meeting was called over production issues; such things tend to happen when one works with a certain person for a long time." James said Kareena Kareena had a contract till 240 episodes, culminating in December-end.

vickey.lalwani@mid-day.com