Hrithik-Akshay Crores deals in jeopardy

Idle talk. That's what those so-called multi-crore deals between Adlabs and Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar were all about.

Adlabs never signed a deal with either Hrithik or Akshay on paper.

An industry source says, "Initially, everything was hunky-dory. But after stories about Hrithik Roshan's Rs 36 crore three-film contract appeared in the press, talks between him and Adlabs soured.

Presently, no such deal exists." When asked about the status of Roshan Jr's deal, Adlabs chairman and managing director Manmohan Shetty tells us, "I have no clue how the news got splashed all over the media.

The fact is that it is only a proposal. If anything significant happens, we will announce it. As of now, I have nothing to say on this." Now, even Akshay Kumar's Rs 20 crore deal with Adlabs seems to be in jeopardy.

He was to star in four films to be produced by Vipul Shah (the first of which is Namastey London, releasing this Friday, which he has also directed) and presented by Adlabs But Praveen Nischol, CEO of the Film Production Division, says that Adlabs never had a deal with Akshay to begin with. "The deal was with Vipul Shah, and he backed out," he says.

When contacted, Vipul explains, "Akshay was to star in all four films with Adlabs, but I realised this would not be an easy task. It wouldn't have been possible for me to produce four films in one year.

The quality of work would have suffered. Hence, I decided not to go ahead with the deal."