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JCPK lands into controversy
BARELY a week after Sony’s answer to the game show mania
hit the small screen, Jeeto Chappad Phaad Ke has sailed into
a controversy. Royal Entertainment, a software provider has
served a notice to Chief Executive Officer Kunal Das Gupta,
and Director of Sony Entertainment Television Sudesh Iyer,
claiming that the concept of this gameshow, with Govinda as
host was first presented by their production house to the
channel.
Das Gupta refused to comment on the controversy. A spokesperson
of Sony denied Mehra’s claims saying, "According
to Das Gupta the show has been entirely conceived by Derek
O’Brien. He does not wish to say anything more than that."
Sunil Mehra, proprietor of Royal Entertainment has served
a notice on Sony and says they intend to go to court if they
do not hear from them in 15 days or they do not pay the dues.
"We spent Rs 1.5 lakhs at least on the entire excercise,
but more than this monetary damage, they backed out on a moral
agreement," says Mehra. He claims they have sufficient
proof and recorded conversations to back their claims.
Mehra says the show was conceived during an informal meeting
with Suresh Prabhu, Govinda’s secretary. "We felt
the only star who could hold his own against Bade Miyan (Amithabh
Bachchan) was Chhote Miyan (Govinda), and that gave us the
idea for this show. We spoke to Govinda who was very enthusiastic
provided we could sell the idea to a channel. This was confirmed
in a letter that Prabhu wrote to us," says Mehra.
He adds, "Consequently we conceived a show titled Kaun
Payega Flat No 1 scripted by Kulwant Singh Bhardwaj. I met
Das Gupta to explain the concept and he expressed deep interest."
Mehra claims this was followed with another meeting where
Das Gupta formally agreed to sign Govinda as the star anchor
and told them to submit the proposal file.
Deepak Mehra, producer with Royal Entertainment, went ahead
with initial arrangements. "The verbal agreement was
that Govinda would get Rs 12 lakh per episode and if the show
flopped, Govinda would act in some of Sony’s films. It
was agreed that Royal Entertainment would only be the co-producer.
We are a small production company and lack the financial capacity
for a gameshow of this magnitude. We were assured by Sony
that Royal Entertainment would have an important role to play
in the programme," says Mehra.
However, according to Mehra after being told they could handle
the public relations, the channel began sidelining them. "We
were told by Iyer that we were not good enough for work of
this magnitude. We were warned not to cross swords with them
if we wanted Royal Entertainment to survive," says Mehra.
But the last straw in the humiliating affair came when on
the final meeting Royal Entertainment were told they had the
task of getting Govinda on the sets for shooting everyday
for a fee of Rs 2,000. Says an angry Mehra,"It is degrading
they gave the work of spot boys to producers."
He maintains that although they have changed the title and
the contents to a very large extent Sony ‘stole’
the basic concept.
According to Mehra, Govinda is also now avoiding them. When
they sent him the notice he refused to accept it the first
time.
In spite of repeated calls, Govinda could not be contacted.
Prerna
Bindra
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