DEV TAKES THEM ON
When Dev Sahab first scribbled the world ‘censor’ on a piece of paper it seemed like one of his mischievous games. I didn’t know what to make of it. He then stood up and restlessly ran from one corner of his penthouse to another. I knew it was not Dev Sahab being naughty or trying to say something caustic about the censors with whom he has been having consistent trouble ever since he took over as a director at Navketan Films. Yes, Censor was the unusual name of the film he was planing to make, a thought which could only cross the mind of a man who has been moving with the times. "This is a free country. Every individual has his own freedom to say, to write, to read, to make the kind of films without any fear and have something to change society, to purposely hurt the feelings of certain people who take decisions in high places. My title makes it very clear that I am making a daring film about censorship, about censors, about the state of affairs in the country when it comes to the censors, when housewives and retired teachers and so-called social workers are given the powerful right to pass judgement and tell the filmmakers and the world what’s wrong and what’s right and why, according to them. My film is a deep insight in to the ins and outs of censorship in films. I have always made bold films but this is the first time that I have touched a subject that is very risky, when crores of rupees are involved in the making of a film. It is the first time that I have twenty-eight major stars playing key roles in the film and all of them meaningful roles. People, even my best friends and relatives, pleaded with me not to make a risky film like Censor. How can you take on the Censors whom other filmmakers are so scared of and I said why not and I went on without thinking about what other people thought, about what I thought, about a very delicate subject, very essential for the progress of people of India as a whole” Dev said.

Dev, like always, completed Censor with all his twenty-eight stars and a number of newcomers within a matter of months. And people once again wondered from where Dev got all his money to make such a big film after making a series of films which did very little business at the box-office. "I don’t know why people are so worried about where I get my money to make the films I want. I only know that I make money and put money into the films I make, only the films I make. Films are my passion, my only passion for the last fifty-two years and nothing can stop me from pursuing my passion till the end,” he says. Dev’s intensity and involvement in the making of Censor can be gauged from the very fact that the Censor Board of Film Certification, the one body which was looking forward to see what Dev had to say about the censor and censorship has passed the film with a UA certificate. It was a major triumph for Dev and Dev’s thoughts. The film is due for release on March 30 and Dev plans to have a massive premiere in different parts of the world to make people realise that he makes films with a purpose which would affect not only India but countries all over the world.

In the meanwhile, Dev has completed two more scripts which will go on the floors some time this year whatever happens to Censor, and once again people are asking the same, what he now calls a silly question -- where does Dev get all the money from and Dev says Dev is where "Dev" (God) is and as long as the two have a fascinating contact there can be no misunderstanding of any kind, not about money at the least. Dev makes money to make films, more and more films till he can no longer make them and I hope that day doesn’t come. The day Dev is asked to stop working I am sure he will not want to be a vegetable, never.

NEVER SO HAPPY
How does a handsome young man feel after he has found what he always wanted and didn’t know why he didn’t find? Ask Akshay Kumar
I have never seen Akshay Kumar so happy like I have been seeing him after his marrying Twinkle and changing her to Mrs Twinkle Ahuja. Twinkle seems to have brought the light into the life of a man who has been craving for love for years. He found girls but never found that rare something he wanted in them and the many-splendours he looked for in them desperately. He seems to have found all those colours of love in Twinkle, it seems and that’s why there is so much glow on his face, a face which looked very different when he failed on all fronts, career and life. Says Aki: "I never knew so much good would happen so soon and so much for my good. We met only when we were teamed together in a film called Zulmi. We became friends. We shared so much in common. I believe this was the girl for me and I fell in love with her. We talked, we proposed, I proposed first. My mother then spoke to her parents and within a matter of time I was Twinkle’s husband and the son-in-law of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia and we now form a very fond family.
If you look at my career, you will see that the coming of Twinkle into my life has literally brought me out of the clouds that threatened me sometime ago. To think of it, Twinkle has also doubled my belief in God and destiny. If not, how could an unknown handsome boy working in a hotel abroad come to Mumbai to make it as an actor, leave some photographs with Pramod Chakravarty’s right hand man, reach where I have after going through several swings, ups and downs, even brushes with death?

An example of the twinkle I saw in Aki’s eyes after a hard day’s work in the sun watching Satish Kaushik’s shooting with Anil Kapoor and Shilpa Shetty. I am invited and led to the sets of Vinod Doshi’s (my old friend) set where he is shooting something very interesting. I am led by Doshi’s son, Gaurang Doshi, who once tried to make it as a hero and failed on the first day. I feel as if I have entered some weird place with some out of this world characters all around. They look dangerous but I am confident because I know I am invited by both father and son. The only normal actor I see is “the Big B" and before I can say hello to him I am grabbed by a strange looking creature who asks me all kinds of questions I am scared. I am human after all and the creature dangerous. The creature, having done its job of scaring me rips off his mask and reveals a happy and smiling Aki. I wonder if I would have choked or even died if Aki had not flashed on that bright new bridegroom smile still on his face.

As I leave the set of Vinod Doshi’s film I hope Aki and Twinkle live a fairy tale love life together for ever.

SO MUCH AT STAKE
I am anxious to know what must be going on in the sensitive mind of my friend, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The success, the recognition, the applause, the appreciation, and the awards added strength to his inspiration, I know. He wanted to make a subject which has obsessed him for years for him, Devdas. He was determined to make a Devdas which was not like Sharad Chander Chatterji’s Devdas or P. C. Barua’s Devdas or Bimal Roy’s Devdas.
It took him a long time to find one of the most in-demand film presenters, Mr. Bharat Shah, who was almost a God in pants and whose presence, his very name, they said, blessed the place and Shahji went out of his way and gave Sanjay all the freedom to make Devdas the way he reconceived him.
Work started with a bang. Sanjay and the only man who understood what Sanjay wanted to make things look like (Nitin Desai) built a set which all those who have seen it, specially in the night will be dazzled, dumb founded. I was taken on a round to see the set (not as a journalist). The set was, to put it in one word, mind-boggling, some thing which had never been seen before in years.

There were several other sets to be built like this one and I wondered about the money that would go into them. But before I could wonder any more, Bharat Shah, the wonder-man who seemed to produce money from air was arrested and is still in police custody with just a blanket, an aluminium plate matched with a stained glass for company. Sanjay was in serious trouble. There were other problems too like Shah Rukh Khan getting injured, like Shah Rukh being embroiled in a massive financial hassle involving Mannat, his palatial bungalow and reportedly some minor hassles between the hundreds of workers.. "All these things have happened and I am sure many more things will happen. But I will see that Devdas is made the way I want Devdas to be made. Devdas can never die for me, come what may, what people may say,” he says. And I know the sensitive but tough Sanjay will go all out to see that he doesn’t surrender to the forces of darkness like Devdas did. A few lessons from Dev Sahab, Sanjay?

THE GAMES
DESTINY PLAYS
Some fifteen years ago Jeetendra and Hema Malini were the leading stars and were doing more films in Hindi in the South than in Mumbai. At one time all the leading papers were full of the wild stories of Jeetendra, Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar trying their best to win the hand of Hemaji. Dharmendra, however, was the winner and soon they had two daughters and Jeetendra married his childhood friend, an ex-air-hostess, Shobha. They too had two children, a girl and a boy. Jeetendra and Hema continued doing successful films.

Now see how times have changed! Jeetendra’s son, Tusshar and Hema’s daughter Esha have been teamed in a film being made in Hyderabad (their parents’ favourite outdoor locations too). The film to be made under the banner of Padmalaya Films under which Jeetendra and Hema also did some films is being directed by Sanjay Chhel, the young director who has written over two hundred and fifty TV serials and written Hindi films like Rangeela, Yes Boss and Duplicate and directed Khoobsurat.

Strange things never stop happening here in this my favourite industry, like I always say and I know many will agree with me.