'Little B's act blacked out'

For two minutes, millions of viewers across the world, were deprived of watching Abhishek Bachchan's performance during the 51st Filmfare Awards screened on Sony Entertainment television, on February 25. Screens blacked out with a 'no signal' message.

Industry sources close to Bachchan allege sabotage, but Sony TV spokespersons denied the allegation, saying it was a technical hazard.

"The signal vanished twice, once when Aby (Abhishek) had received the awards and was about to give his thank you speech and the second instance when he was to perform on 'One Love' and 'Right Here Right Now' from the film, Bluffmaster. This was deliberately done," alleged a filmmaker close to Abhishek.

A source from Sony claims that during a live telecast there are chances of loss of transmission. But adds another industry source, "What are they talking about? The show was being screened 90 minutes behind the scheduled actual time." He says that since Abhishek is hot property, the channel could ensure higher TRPs during the rerun.

Shola Rajachandran of Sony Public Communication confirmed that there was a relay problem from the earth station. "For the first time there was no signal for 20 seconds and the second relay problem occurred for almost one minute."

Meanwhile, furious viewers told Mid Day that the only thing, which kept them glued to the TV till late last night was Aby's performance. Said Rakhi and Jean Jones from Colaba, "I believe Abhishek gave a moving speech, which we missed. I was cursing my cable guy, but later I heard there was no signal and noone watched it either."