Article-------To heel, guys!--Ekta Kapoor

Reportedly Ekta Kapoor has issued a circular to Balaji Telefilms' actors, asking them to stay away from the Gold Awards — which is direct competition to the Balaji Awards

Ekta Kapoor continues to hold sway over the television industry. And how. We have been informed by an insider that Ekta Kapoor has issued a circular to all actors of Balaji Telefilms, asking them not to attend or perform at the Gold Awards, to be held in Mauritius in September 2007.

Vikas Kalantri and Pooja Ghai of White Leaf Entertainment and Anuj Saxena of Maverick Productions Private Limited, recently announced their joint venture the Gold Awards - the first ever global television awards! This is in direct competition to Ekta's own awards ceremony. She too is planning a grand awards ceremony, to be held in December in UAE. Hence, possibly, the circular.

Says an actor on condition of anonymity, "Balaji is having its own awards function, and it want its actors to attend it exclusively. Ekta wants the show to be the best and we have all signed the circular. The circular says that the Balaji Awards will be a grand event, so to make it a success all actors must be present. There will be some actors who will attend the Gold Awards. But Balaji cannot afford to let go of its actors for three days at a stretch, when they go to Mauritius for the Gold Awards. This request has been made in order to make Balaji's first awards show a success."

Says Pooja Ghai, "I have heard about this circular too, and do not know what to say. I do not know why Ekta is doing this, she must be having her own reasons for it. However, actors from Balaji did come to our launch party, due to their friendship with us, despite the circular. It is, finally, every actor's call and I cannot blame anyone who does not attend our awards function."

Adds Pooja, "I really do not think it will be a hassle for people to go to Mauritius for three days, especially since I have given them two-and-a- half months' notice. Besides, they can very well co-ordinate their work schedules for the such a big event, it isn't such a big deal."

Another organiser of the Gold Awards says, "She stopped most of her actors from attending the party last night. She cannot dictate terms to actors, I don't think this kind of dadagiri should be tolerated by the actors. But they also have very little choice as they earn their bread and butter by working in her serials."

Apparently Prachi Shah, Neena Kulkarni and Sanjeeda Shaikh, all Balaji actors, will be attending the awards ceremony in Mauritius. However, Sanjeeda has refused to perform in the award ceremony, after signing Ekta's request letter.

Most Balaji actors dare not speak up. When contacted, Riva Bubber simply said, "No comments."

Another Balaji favourite, Ronit Roy said, "I have nothing to say about the Gold Awards, but if Ekta wants me to be present for the Balaji Awards, I will surely be there."

Says Anu Ranjan, host of the Indian Television Academy Awards, "Last a few of Ekta Kapoor's actors (Prachi Desai, Sanjit Bedi and Ram Kapoor) backed out of our show just 24 hours before the award function. Luckily for us it didn't really matter as we got bigger stars like Mandira Bedi and Mona Singh to perform for our show. But if Ekta is repeating the same thing again, it is really not fair as nobody can dictate terms to any actor who is being honoured for his work. Besides if they are not allowed to perform at award function that means the production is depriving them of the extra cheques, extra exposure and the mileage that are likely to get when they perform at an award function."

Meanwhile, we spotted Mouni Roy, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Reshmi Ghosh, Vikas Sethi, Ritu Chaudhary and Ali Asgar at the Gold Awards launch party. We don't yet know whether they plan to attend the actual ceremony.

Other Balaji actors like Ram Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Naman Shaw, Pulkit Samrat, Riva Bubber, Saakshi Tanwar, Rakshandha Khan and Shilpa Saklani gave it a miss, despite being invited.

We have to wait and watch, to see what happens next. And whether Ekta has her way or not.


• I have heard about this circular too, and do not know what to say. I do not know why Ekta is doing this, she must be having her own reasons for it – Pooja Ghai

The rebels? Balaji actors who attended the launch party

Sanjeeda with Prachi Shah from Kayamath	Komolika and Mouni Roy from Kyunki...
Shabbir Ahluwalia aka Milind in Kayamath	Ekta's best pals Natassha and Eijaz Khan