Deepika-Nihar's love story gets a Hollywood twist

By Subhash K Jha

Deepika's former boyfriend is under house arrest. Nihar Pandya is not allowed to attend parties, at least not until his pseudo-biographical love story chronicling his heartbreaking romance and breakup with Deepika Padukone is out in the public domain, in this case the movie theatres.

Prashant Chadha who is directing the real-life love story has a simple logic for Nihar's physical confinement.

"If Nihar runs into Deepika and they're clicked together my script goes for a toss. The whole idea behind the screenplay is to show what happens to a young besotted man, the love of whose life falls out of love without telling him of her intention and then never meets him again…Never!

Now if there are pictures in the papers clicking them together the film is over even before it's started shooting. "

Pandya scarcely steps out of home in the fear of bumping into the woman whom he once loved.

Don't get them wrong. Deepika Padukone's aborted relationship with Nihar Pandya is not meant to sensationalize the real-life Nihar-Deepika-Ranbir triangle. And now that the script has been locked in, the fear that looms over the project is, would Deepika get legal on the makers and the young actor?

In fact Chadha is keen to call his protagonists 'Nihar' and 'Deepika'.

Explains the director, "It's the only way we can retain and project the authentic love story. Otherwise it would be just another love story. But we don't want to get sued. "

The director has his legal advisors looking into the matter right now.

Says the director, "We don't want to portray Nihar as a victim and Deepika as the wrongdoer. Ideally we would want her to play herself. But that seems unlikely. "

In the likelihood of Deepika trying to restrain the film from exhibition, Prashant has prepared an escape route.

A Hollywood film that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Deepika-Nihar love story.

Says the director, "There're some really uncanny similarities between the story I have to tell and the film 500 Days Of Summer. I've formatted the screenplay in a similar way. There's no point in a linear storytelling because everyone knows the outcome.

So we will go back and forth in time. Nihar's story will begin with him meeting the girl in acting class. And then we will go into various episodes from the love story, not necessarily in the sequence that they actually happened.

The likeness to the Hollywood has given us a roomy reference point. "

500 Days Of Summer is about Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) whose complete devotion to Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is rewarded with desertion. The film sees Tom looking back on his one-year romance with Summer before she unceremoniously dumped him.

Nihar's love story followed a similar pattern.

"We don't want to be accused of cannibalizing or sensationalizing the real-life story. But for those who think Nihar and I are using his real-life story for publicity my question is…didn't Mahesh Bhatt make magnificent movies out of his own and others' personal lives?

Did he take Parveen Babi's permission before making Arth?" reasons Prashant Chadha.