Why did Rekha drop out of Fitoor?

Rumors were that she left the film because it was too similar to her real life situation but she's never been afraid of acknowledging that before in public. In fact, she seems to relish in it. And she did Silsila so why was this film so different?

Originally posted by: RaniPreityAish

Rumors were that she left the film because it was too similar to her real life situation but she's never been afraid of acknowledging that before in public. In fact, she seems to relish in it. And she did Silsila so why was this film so different?

Rekha is one of those actresses where she likes having control of everything on set - she takes a lot of time to rehearse and gives way too many suggestions. The producers started Fitoor and everything worked okay, but then UTV (the production) and Rekha had a HUGE fallout. I don't know why. Maybe it was pay? 

Also Rekha likes to lean into this melodramatic image of herself because it allows the media to leave her alone regarding her life today. Her staff and friends are incredibly private and barely anyone knows who they are because the media is busy talking about a failed love affair from a while ago. 

Madhuri to an extent is similar but Aaja Nachle's failure was a shock to her (and then finances). Shah Rukh Khan is an actor who likes to do the same thing as Madhuri and Rekha, whereas they give their ideas for the movie to the director who is unable to refuse. While that's fine for an SRK production because he has fans that WILL show up, that does cause issues for certain producers while directing actresses. If I remember correctly Fitoor had a lot of date issues and delays so Tabu, an incredibly quick actress stepping in was probably much easier. 

Originally posted by: VimalPanMasala

Rekha is one of those actresses where she likes having control of everything on set - she takes a lot of time to rehearse and gives way too many suggestions. The producers started Fitoor and everything worked okay, but then UTV (the production) and Rekha had a HUGE fallout. I don't know why. Maybe it was pay? 

Also Rekha likes to lean into this melodramatic image of herself because it allows the media to leave her alone regarding her life today. Her staff and friends are incredibly private and barely anyone knows who they are because the media is busy talking about a failed love affair from a while ago. 

Madhuri to an extent is similar but Aaja Nachle's failure was a shock to her (and then finances). Shah Rukh Khan is an actor who likes to do the same thing as Madhuri and Rekha, whereas they give their ideas for the movie to the director who is unable to refuse. While that's fine for an SRK production because he has fans that WILL show up, that does cause issues for certain producers while directing actresses. If I remember correctly Fitoor had a lot of date issues and delays so Tabu, an incredibly quick actress stepping in was probably much easier. 

Thank you for that complete write-up and explanation.

I've heard that about Rekha too, that she only likes movies where she's the main focus and she likes to have total control over the set. Which is fine for superstars, but Rekha has never had the level of influence in the industry. As you pointed out with Madhuri, in the 90s she had that superstar image but all her comebacks failed, even Aaja Nachle which was tailor-made to fit her talents. Rekha was never even the box office queen that Madhuri was. In her heydays, she never topped the box office charts. Her films did average and even her classics today underperformed. Many of her contemporaries were far more successful at the box office.

And when you look at Rekha's comeback, Super Nani, that was a box office disaster.

Originally posted by: RaniPreityAish

Thank you for that complete write-up and explanation.

I've heard that about Rekha too, that she only likes movies where she's the main focus and she likes to have total control over the set. Which is fine for superstars, but Rekha has never had the level of influence in the industry. As you pointed out with Madhuri, in the 90s she had that superstar image but all her comebacks failed, even Aaja Nachle which was tailor-made to fit her talents. Rekha was never even the box office queen that Madhuri was. In her heydays, she never topped the box office charts. Her films did average and even her classics today underperformed. Many of her contemporaries were far more successful at the box office.

And when you look at Rekha's comeback, Super Nani, that was a box office disaster.

I would not say Rekha likes movies when she's the main focus. She has done a lot of art films where she is supporting another actress/wearing a costume that is extremely ugly. She likes to have control over the set, nothing to do about her role in it. If I would compare her to someone, I would compare her to Aamir Khan. He also has a habit of ghostdirecting and controlling things on set. To be fair, that is how he got a lot of his hits, but for a movie like Fitoor Rekha realized she was making the dates even worse. 

Rekha already made a fantastic comeback in the 90s after a huge period of inactivity with her best films whereas Madhuri was not able to do that in the 00s. SLB desperately wanted her for Heeramandi, but Rekha said no, and pushed for Manisha Koraila. 

If Rekha ever does a movie again it'll be if someone she really likes asks her. So if Manish Malhotra wants her for one of his movies or she wants to work with one of the Sri-putri. 

They took Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in adaptation of "The Great Expectations", why didn't the producer drop out? 

She heard Jaya was going on a long vacation....Bachchans schedule opened up....it was a no Brainer!