'Blood Money' tells tale of diamond mafia

After dealing with the evils of pornographic films in 2005 release "Kalyug", the Bhatt camp's next, "Blood Money", deals with the diamond mafia. It releases Friday.

Directed by Vishal Mahadkar, the film sees Kunal Kemmu and Amrita Puri of "Aisha" fame in the lead roles. It also features Mia Uyeda and Karan Mehra. Bhatt had previously thought of naming it "Kalyug 2" but after objections from the director and the lead actor, he zeroed in on "Blood Money".

The film is the story of Kunal (Kunal Kemmu) and his wife Arzoo (Amrita Puri), who shift to Cape Town from India after the former gets a job with a well-known diamond export firm run by Zaveri (Manish Chaudhuri) and his brother (Sandiip Sikcand).

Thanks to the job, Kunal gets a plush mansion, a swanky new car and all the luxuries of life that money could procure. However, gradually, Kunal finds himself getting trapped into a structured whitecollar crime conglomerate.

It is a fast-paced movie, packaged with good music and reflects the plight of young people who don't realise foreign jobs can put them into danger.

The makers wanted to shoot the film in Antwerp, Belgium, where a large Indian community is employed in the diamond industry, but the Indian community opposed it as they felt that the film might show them in a bad light.

The film has been extensively shot in Cape Town and Western Cape in South Africa.

"Blood Money" found itself embroiled in a controversy after an intimate scene from the film featuring Canadian model Mia Uyeda and Kunal was leaked online. While many thought it is a way to create a buzz around the film, however Mahesh Bhatt denied it.

The filmmaker also rubbished reports that the film belongs to erotic thriller genre.

"I am not happy. One of our over-enthusiastic PR person thought that leaking it would benefit the film. But these things send a wrong signal about. I was never apologetic about the kinds of films we make," Bhatt said.

It is also being said that the film has been inspired by Hollywood moive "Blood Diamond", but the makers say it bears no similarity to Leonardo DiCaprio starrer.

With the film Kunal returns to the Bhatt camp five years after "Kalyug" and is looking forward to the response. This is Amrita's first lead role after her stint in "Aisha", where was seen in a supporting role.

Also releasing alongside "Blood Money" is a comedy movie called "Bumboo", which features Kavin Dave, Sharat Saxena, Sanjay Mishra, Sudhir Pandey, Sumit Kaul and Mandy Takhar.

"Bumboo" tells the tale of professional hitman Mangal Singh, who takes a contract to kill stock market scamster Manu Gupta in front of the Goa High Court where he will be presented for his trial.

Mangal checks into a hotel to execute his plan.

Co-incidentally, Suresh Sudhakar, a press photographer is sent to Goa to cover Manu Gupta's trial and he checks-in the same hotel and gets the room next to Mangal. What happens after that is a rib tickling experience in which each character in the film screws someone's happiness in humorous situations.

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