Hema Malini’s Ambitious Project Tell Me O Khuda

Hema Malini’s ambitious project Tell Me O Khuda, starring her daughter Esha Deol, is in hot water. After the project ran into creative differences between the producer (Malini) and its director (Mayur Puri) the latest is that Puri has been shown the door.

The decision to oust Puri has come in the wake of the creative melee between Malini and Puri having snowballed into a nasty avalanche of bitter vibes. Puri was thrown out of the project at 4 pm yesterday at the IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures and Producers’ Association) office, where the association and the IFTDA (Indian Film & Television Directors Association) convened to resolve the issue.

The buzz is that his name will not appear in the credit titles either. Instead, Hema will direct the film herself. “Quite a few portions of the film may have to be reshot,” says a source.

“Hema and Puri could not reconcile. It is good for both of them and the film that they are not working together anymore. Quite a few solutions were offered but there was no way that Puri could have remained the captain of the ship any longer. Puri’s money issues have been settled too.

Hema has directed Dil Aashna Hai and she has a good knowledge about direction,” says the source.

Another source close to Hema said, “Puri overshot the film. Nearly 1.5 lakh feet of footage has been shot. This skyrocketed the budget. Hema bore that with a pinch of salt, but she almost fell off her chair when she saw what Puri had shot until now.

Hema realised that Puri’s reels were nowhere close to the script he had and the canvas he had envisaged for her. “Forget the script, Puri hadn’t even shot the basic storyline he had sold Hema while being appointed to wield the megaphone,” reveals a source close to Hema.

On the other hand, Om Shanti Om’s dialogue writer and Dhoom’s associate director, Puri, is tearing his hair out. According to a source close to Puri, “Hema Malini’s sensibilities are far different than his. Whenever Puri tried reasoning with her, Hema did not lend him a ear.

And he has not overshot the film. He was making only 5.6 cans per day which is very normal. It is an ego clash. Think of it, this is not the first time that a director finds himself in the lurch. It happened with Anurag Basu, Rahul Rawail, Shekhar Kapoor (Joshilay) and Amol Gupte (Taare Zameen Par).”

When contacted yesterday evening, IMPPA Vice President Sushma Shiromanee said, “Yes, we had a meeting today. Puri is not directing Tell Me O Khuda anymore. Hemaji will complete the film.” Hema did not deny that Puri is out from Tell Me O Khuda, but she was not too comfortable talking about her rift with Puri. She simply said, “I am the producer and now I will complete the film. I have people around me including some good technicians.”

Puri denied that he was present at the IMPPA office yesterday. But later he said, “Okay. But I don’t want to talk about this. I would rather maintain a dignified silence.”

Starring Arjan Bajwa opposite Esha, Tell Me O Khuda is about a girl who is in search of her father. The plot bears a slight resemblance to Hema Malini’s first and only film as a director, Dil Aashna Hai, which was about a girl on the lookout for her mother and starred Divya Bharati and Shah Rukh Khan.

Dil Aashna Hai was also incidentally ripped off from Shirley Conran’s bestseller Lace, which was later televised into a mini-series in the late 1980s. The film bombed and was ripped apart by critics. Let’s hope the fabric of Tell Me O Khuda has no tears.