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There's a furore over costumes leading to Simone Singh being ousted from her debut film, Dil Ke Armaan

Sneha Hazarika

Had all gone well, Simone Singh would have been the leading lady in new director Anup Das's Dil Ke Armaan. Everything was finalised and Simone had even landed up in Pune to shoot for the film but last minute differences between the director and the actress led to a parting of ways, creating enough bad blood between both parties.

Says the Kolkata-based director, "I had signed Simone for my film Dil Ke Armaan, and the unit reached Pune on January 4. But the actress was not happy with any of the costumes given to her. She rejected one shirt just because it didn't cover the zipper of her trouser. That was a ridiculous demand. We wanted to give her Bipasha's look in Corporate. One night before the shooting was about to start, when I called her to speak about the schedule, Simone complained about her headache and said that she would not shoot until she got the costumes of her choice. It was then that I decided that I couldn't work with her."

The director has even claimed that he gave a signing amount of Rs 1 lakh to Simone which she is yet to return. Simone quips, "This is extraordinary. On the day, when we decided to part ways, I spoke to him and wished him luck. Since then I have not heard from him at all."

Anup Das however is in no mood to change his stance. He says, "See, it was the duty of the artiste to return the signing amount. Since she spent two days with us, she could have deducted some money as her remuneration and paid back the rest. It's been almost three months now. What is it other than an attitude problem? But in no way, am I going to let go of the signing amount. I will first have a chat with her and if things are not settled that way, I will not hesitate to take legal action.

The director thinks it was actress Rituparna Sengupta who bailed him out from such a sticky situation. "Actually, I always had Rituparna in mind. But she was busy doing some other project at that point of time. Thankfully, when I called her again, she agreed to join us in Pune and saved the unit from undergoing any further losses. Now my film is almost complete. It talks about surrogate motherhood and also stars Divya Dutta and Kiran Janjani," he adds.

Simone Singh, however, refutes all the allegations made by the director. She says, "I was pursued with incessant phone calls by this team and since I support well good cinema, I had agreed to do the film. I had three costume trials with them and two telephonic conversations regarding costumes. I even went ahead to do some shopping with Mandira, the writer. But when I arrived in Pune, I found the set-up really tacky. Later, I learnt that the director didn't like the costumes we had agreed upon and wanted readymade clothes instead. It's news to me that they wanted to give me Bipasha's look in Corporate. I, on my part found the clothes contrary to the character. Be it a glamorous role as in Kal Ho Naa Ho or the plain Jane act in Being Cyrus, I have always liked to stay true to my roles. So, I decided to walk out."

According to Simone, it's an entirely laughable effort, desperate measures to generate controversy by an unknown director to benefit his film. Simone reasons, "Otherwise how come a not-so-relevant issue crops up now? It's a real pity. I have absolutely no intention of being drawn into this."

She was earlier seen in Tumhari Disha as the good wife. Later, Chhavi Hussein did the revamped season of Twinkle Beauty Parlour, where she played the lead. Now the actress is making her come back in a totally negative role in Star One's Viraasat.

Mini me!

Talking about the new innings, she says, "The reason I said yes to this role is because I wanted to do something totally different from how the audience has seen me so far. Also, my look is drastically different. I will be totally glamourised and wearing some sexy ensembles."

During her break from TV, the actress decided to work out and lose the extra flab. "It was a conscious decision on my part to get fit and look good. Since I was sitting at home not doing anything, it was important that I didn't put on weight."

Talking about her role she says, "My character's name is Natasha and she wants to get rich quick. Her biggest dream is to enter the Lamba family and become their daughter-in-law."

Calling it a welcome break from the typical roles she has been playing, Chhavi says, "People have seen me in saris and a housewife's role, so it will be interesting to play a role where I wear mini skirts and the like."
Chhavi will make her debut on the show next week.

http://www.mid-day.com/hitlist/2007/april/154755.htm

When his birthday cake arrived this morning, Rohit Roy was stumped as to why the icing on the cake read www.rohitroy.com. The suspense was lifted when his wife Mansi Joshi turned on her laptop and logged on to the website she had specially created for him.

Talking about the incident, Mansi says, "I've been working for the last six months on building this website. It took a lot of hard work, patience and help from friends and family to put together. I thought it would be the perfect gift for Rohit on his birthday."

Fan No 1

From Us To You: Mansi Joshi Roy with daughter Kiara

Before thinking up the idea of a website, Mansi had plans of making him a special scrapbook. "This was the perfect time to launch it since Rohit is venturing into many creative areas besides acting," says the doting wife.

Mansi logged on to several actors' websites before choosing the right company to make Rohit's site. She says, "I loved Sanjay Suri's site. It was aesthetically done and was user-friendly.

That was the exact requirement I was looking for. I had so much material on Rohit that I didn't want the site to look cluttered and difficult to navigate."

With help from Sanjay, Mansi got in touch with Creative Fusion Studio (based in Sydney) to design Rohit's site.

"I got loads of help from my daughter Kiara, who helped me choose the pictures and also Prerna, my sister-in-law. All his friends and the people he has worked with, were supportive."

http://www.mid-day.com/hitlist/2007/april/154877.htm