Two-and-a-half months after the historic judgment between producers and multiplexes the first cracks within have begun to appear. Ajay Devgan, who wants to release All The Best, may have to shell out Rs 50 lakh if he wants his film to hit the theatres on October 16, the same day as Aladin, Blue and Main aur Mrs Khanna.

According to our source, the United Producers and Distributors Forum (UPDF) had decided that they will fix the release dates of films till November this year and anybody who goes against their decision will be fined.

Commenting on why Ajay is keen on releasing All The Best on October 16, the source said, "Diwali is the best time to get the audience to the theatres."

Ajay's spokesperson said, "We cannot comment on this issue." However, an insider from Ajay's office said, "We are releasing All The Best on October 16. 50 lakh bharna pada, toh bhar denge. Yes, we are aware there is a clause, which states that if we go against the UPDF's decision we'll have to cough up Rs 50 lakh. But we hear that one of the three films may not release on that day, in which case we will be free to release our film."

Distributor Ramesh Sippy, who is part of UPDF, said, "After the producer-multiplex fight was resolved, it was agreed that the release dates will be decided by the principal body. There is a certain amount of fine that has to be paid to UPDF, but the amount has not been fixed. If Ajay releases All The Best, he will have to pay the UPDF. The makers have been told all this clearly but they believe that Main Aur Mrs Khanna will not release on October 16, and that is how they will be able to release their film on that date."

President of Association of Motion Picture & TV Programme Producers, Ratan Jain, who too is part of UPDF, said, "I don't think Ajay will release All The Best on October 16. He has given us in writing that he will go ahead only if one of the three releases scheduled for October 16 falls through. Even I am ready with my film, De Dana Dan and would like to release it on October 16. But we do need to understand that every big film needs a decent release in terms of screening."

Mukesh Bhatt, Chairman of UPDF, said, "Why should Ajay pay us? We are here to help people and not for extortion. Some of our people have advised Ajay not to release All The Best on October 16. Where will he release the film? On the roads? Moreover, how many films can a person see on a Friday or over the weekend? But if somebody has decided to commit suicide, you can't stop them, can you?"

By Kunal M Shah
Posted On Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 04:25:30 AM

Ajay Devgan, who is known for his daredevil stunt scenes, has broken all his part records in his forthcoming film, All The Best. He has proposed to leading lady Bipasha Basu in an upturned car, which is suspended mid-air.

A source from the production unit said, “It’s quite a unique stunt. We took all the precautions as it was risky for both Ajay and Bipasha. The car was suspended mid-air and Bipasha had to stand under it. Ajay had to maintain his balance in the car and, at the same time, look romantic as he was proposing to Bipasha by offering her a rose. It took almost two days to plan the scene and an entire day to shoot it.”

Not many are aware that Vidya Balan was the first choice for Ajay Devgan’s home production, All The Best. She was first approached by Ajay and Rohit Shetty, the director of All The Best, but eventually this very same role went to Bipasha Basu.

A source claims, “Ajay and Rohit wanted bulk dates from Vidya for their 45 days long shooting schedule in Goa which was to include the entire cast of the film. But since Vidya had already committed her dates to Balki’s Paa and few other important projects she expressed her inability to allocate so many days at a stretch that too for an outdoor shoot.”

Well then Vidya’s loss turned out to be Bipasha’s double gain as during the Goa shoot, Bips ended up getting friendly with Ajay Devgan. And now post, All The Best, she has now landed yet another film with Ajay . She has been signed up by Kumar Mangat and Ajay for their new film opposite Akshaye Khanna. It will be directed by Priyadarshan and is based on honour killings.

Bipasha Basu who is a fitness freak in real life will now be seen essaying the role of a gym instructor in Rohit Shetty's comedy flick All The Best. A source reveals, "Bipasha's performance is very natural in the movie since she is acting in a role of a gym instructor. Gymming and working out has always been a part of the actress's routine. When the role was initially narrated to her, she was quite excited with the fact that she will be working out in the movie and for the movie."

The source continues, "She also has donned a different look. The model-turned actress has grown her tresses and comparatively has a sporty look. She is paired opposite Ajay Devgan and plays the role of his wife in the movie. A major chunk of the movie was shot in Goa and the actress was often seen working out after their pack up. This made the other cast members such as Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Mugdha Godse and even the director Rohit Shetty work out and be a regular at the gym."

"Due to her regular work outs, the director use to pull her leg by saying that she should not take her role so seriously, for the fact that even after shooting and pack up she was seen pulling people to work out," adds the source.

Ajay Devgan has broken all records. In a never-before-seen scene in Bollywood, Ajay has proposed to Bipasha Basu in an upturned car, suspended in mid-air, in his upcoming film All The Best.

According to sources, the stunt is quite unique and a lot of precautions had been taken. The car was suspended in mid-air and it was quite a task for Ajay to maintain his balance as well as look romantic because it was a proposal sequence. It took a whole day to shoot and two days to plan out.

Ajay Devgan is now Ajay Devgn. Yes, he has dropped the letter 'A' from his last name, as evident in the promos of his next production — All The Best. This is a first of sorts, as in the past, actors have added or dropped an alphabet strictly from their first names. It is believed Ajay agreed to change the spelling of his name at the behest of his mom Veena. From now on, he plans to stick to the new spelling for all his films.

Says a source close to Ajay Devgn, "Though his friends and family have been asking Ajay to change the way he spells his name to "make it more balanced" and therefore attract success, he stayed away from the temptation. That was until his mom asked him to make the change for health reasons. Last year, after U Me Aur Hum released, Ajay had a severe back and neck sprain (he was laid up for over a month.) Later, he had some health problems and a couple of accidents on the sets." His worried mom contacted an astrologer, who suggested the name change. Mrs. Devgan then urged Ajay to make the alteration, as she was very worried for him, adding that the change would add to his general well-being and happiness too. Ajay argued but finally gave in."

The source says, "This is a huge step for Ajay as he has never been too much into numerology and astrology though he believes in vastu shastra and stones. His friends were shocked too when they learned that he'd changed the way he spells his name. He has already feeling the positive effects of the change as he has been getting mind-blowing reactions for the All The Best promo." Ajay Devgan says, "I don't like discussing personal things." All The Best also stars

At the wrap party of All The Best in Hyderabad, Fardeen Khan gave a lap dance to producer and co-star Ajay Devgan. It had all the cast and crew cracking up. It was a perfect ending to the film, that had them in splits all through it's making. A lot of male bonding took place on the sets between Sanjay Dutt, Ajay, Fardeen and director Rohit Shetty.

Says a unit member, "It was on the last day of the shooting of the romantic song Martaba — picturised on Ajay, Bipasha, Fardeen and Mugdha — at the Ramoji Rao Studios. Ajay decided to have a wrap-up party for the cast and crew at the hotel there at night as they'd shot through a grueling two-month hectic schedule and wanted to let down their hair and have a blast. Only Sanjay Dutt was missing. Everyone was in great spirits."

The source adds that the normally reserved Fardeen had a great time during the shoot. "He loves burning CDs for others and carries his laptop and iPod with him everywhere. At the party, they played some songs from All The Best and English songs from Khan's playlist. Fardeen was very emotional about the shooting ending and his returning to Mumbai. He was great spirits and when a romantic sizzling number from the film started, Fardeen came close to Ajay and said 'I want to lap dance with you'."

The actor then proceeded to give him a lap dance. Says the source, "It was very cute and sweet to see Ajay and Fardeen together really letting down their hair. Fardeen ruffled Ajay's hair, and gave him the full works. It was a fab act. Ajay was quite a sport too. Everyone was in great spirits having downed a few, clapped to his performance."

Ajay Devgan remained unavailable for comment. But Fardeen responds, tongue firmly in cheek, "Ajay really wanted me to do a lap dance for him but I declined. He couldn't afford my rates!"
Martaba, choreographed by Bosco-Caesar, will be aired from this Friday.

Bipasha Basu recently suffered a bad bout of food poisoning in Kadaikudi, while shooting for Priyadarshan.'s film with Ajay Devgan. She also got an allergy that made her eyes swell up and shut tight. Bipasha confirms, "I have a strong eye allergy (due to dust, flowers, make-up) for years; so before putting on any eye make-up I need to have medication for my eyes. Unfortunately, I had become so ill prior to that I forgot to take any eye medication. I already had a severe bout of food poisoning and was bedridden for a couple of days. I became so weak that they had to call a local doctor."

The eye allergy Bipasha says was the result of some flowers her yoga teacher got to cheer her up when she was recovering from the food poisoning, "I was so thrilled to recieve the bonquet that I held them close to my face to smell them and then wham! My eyes swelled up and shut tight the next day. Obviously, I couldn't shoot like that so they had to cancel my shoot for two days. I was on antibiotics for 5 days. I became a bit better before I returned to Mumbai for the release of the music of All The Best in Siddhivinayak."Bips jokes, "Earlier too my eye has had problems because of the allergy; this became the baap of all allergies."

Vipul Shah’s decision to shoot the last song of London Dreams in Bhandup in a makeshift maidaan representing a rock stadium turned out to be quite traumatic.

To begin, the woes in the middle, when Salman’s dog passed away during the shooting of the song, the actor broke down and wept like a baby. But he didn’t cancel the shooting.

Nonetheless this could qualify as the most difficult climactic song ever shot. Vipul Shah recently shot the final rock–concert number for London Dreams in Bhandup near Mumbai with 5,000 junior artistes cheering Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Asin Thottumkal, Ranvijay and Aditya Roy Kapoor who play members of a music band.

Says Vipul, “We were struck for the last song because of the rains. And then because of swine flu, we weren’t allowed to shoot in crowds. But I had no choice. The song couldn’t be delayed.”

Remo choreographed the song and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shankar Mahadevan sang the track.

Says Vipul, “We couldn’t get the stars fans to fill up the open-air auditorium, for the very simple reason that in the earlier concert songs for London Dreams we had seen how unruly the fans get when they see their favourite stars dancing in front of them.”

On top of it all, the practical problems faced during the shooting of this massive song; the stars were all busy elsewhere. “Salman was shooting for 10 Ka Dum. He requested them to postpone their shooting for two days. Ajay was supposed to start Priyadarshan’s shooting on those days. He asked Priyan to push his dates forward. Asin was doing an endorsement down south. Ranvijay was shooting for another film in Delhi. He flew both days and flew back. And Aditya Roy Kapoor, who was shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, also accommodated my song.”

To compound Vipul’s troubles Salman’s dog died during the shooting. “I thought he would leave. But he continued shooting.”

Though the experience of putting the climax song together turned out to be a nightmare, Vipul is undeterred. “I’ve relieved my non-core group of technicians for my film Action Replay from their duties for now. When we regroup, they’re free to join us. Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Bachchan have promised the dates whenever we need them. If the actors are committed to a project nothing can stop a film from reaching the winning post.”

When Ajay Devgan first heard he had to whip himself in London Dreams he couldn’t believe his ears. Once he accepted this startling form of self-protest as essential to the plot Ajay went all out and flogged himself black and blue for a continuous 8 hours.
Says Vipul Shah, “We had a detailed discussion. Audiences could easily end up laughing at what is meant to be a moment of extreme self-loathing. Ajay was very concerned about how he would look whipping himself on screen. I assured him that we’d shoot the sequence in a way that would look nothing less than stunning.”

It is a sequence, where the impulsive emotional character punishes himself.

Says Vipul, “It is sequence of repentance. But it is not religious. I saw the self-flagellation as a perfectly defining moment for the character. It’s not done with a whip. It’s done with a belt. And Ajay hit himself powerfully. Once or twice I called ‘cut’ in more ways than one. But Ajay didn’t want a cut. He didn’t want to go through the experience in pieces. It was that harrowing for him.”

Says Vipul, “And that too for a shot which would last no more than 25 seconds on screen. I’d tell him that we should stop. But Ajay insisted we do it non-stop. We didn’t want the aesthetics to be lost. I’ve never taken longer on any sequence.”

Says Vipul, “It’s not a very macho thing to do. And it certainly goes against the image of the action hero and the comic hero. Quite naturally Ajay was zapped when he heard that he was to do sequence which required him to punish himself by whipping himself.”

Self-flagellation is a very Islamic concept. But Ajay doesn’t play a Muslim character in London Dreams. “I’d be very alarmed if people see it in a religious light. It’d just show we’re cynical about religion. I just wanted to show a completely incredible expression of the character’s intensity. Ajay plays a very intense and emotional character that does shock people with his extreme behaviour. I wanted to shock audiences. Ajay’s character is on the edge. I had to show that edginess. And considering it’s Ajay Devgan, audiences will be doubly shocked. Ajay is such a chilled-out in-control person. He would never be expected to punish himself. But I’d rather let the character define its actions rather than the image of actor.”

Ajay in fact expressed the same reservations. No protagonist has been shown violating himself so brutally.

Does Vipul expect censor trouble? “I expect trouble from the censors any time.”

Right before we see Ajay Devgan whipping himself on October 30, we get Devgan whipping up the laughs on All The Best.

Says Vipul, “In a span of two weeks audiences will see Ajay in two drastically different roles. If London Dreams was funny I’d be nervous. Mine is a completely different film from All The Best. London Dreams is my most intense film to date. And if Ajay is the only leading man to whip himself, I’d say he has guts.”

Asin Thottumkal, who claimed that she doesn’t mix friendship and work, doesn’t seem to be heeding her own words at present. She told the media point blank that she isn’t in touch with Aamir Khan since their film Ghajini, released because their relationship was entirely professional. But she has been spotted getting very friendly with Ajay Devgan on the sets of London Dreams.

The film’s shooting is over but their friendship seems to be going great. Ajay gives her advice on every matter – from career to shopping. Asin feels that Ajay is a wonderful human being and a great actor. She likes his fun-loving nature a lot as well.

Now, will this new found Bollywood dosti survive?

Ajay Devgan has set up a makeshift gym in far-off Karaikudi for more than just recreation. For his role in Priyadarshan’s hard-hitting tale of honour killing in Bihar, Ajay Devgan needs to have a specially toned-up physique.

Priyan tells us why. “I’ve turned the horrific tale of an actual incident in Bihar of an inter-caste romance into a full-on action flick. See, I wanted to keep it real. At the same time, I wanted to make it riveting for the audience. So while shooting on an authentic location (Karaikudi is like a small town in Bihar) I’ve made my two heroes Ajay and Akshaye Khanna into full-on action heroes. This film has the kind of real stunts, never seen in Hindi cinema.”

Priyan has roped in his old action director B Thyagarajan and a stunt director from South Africa- Frances to devise action scenes, which would take the director’s Bihari drama into the region of riveting realism.

Says Priyan, “When I say real action I mean fight scenes that are the opposite of cable-wired flips somersaults jumps and leaps. This time Ajay has gone as raw as it can get.”

The action sequences have both Devgan and Khanna locked in hand-to-hand combats, and other very basic forms of physical aggression that went out of vogue with the old Kung Fu films. For this Devgan needed to get into a different shape, and so did Akshaye. In fact Akshaye is a new convert to the gym till this schedule in Karaikudi started. And Ajay persuaded Akshaye to head for the gym.

“Yes we’ve a set up a terrific gym in this wilderness. It’s been set up in an under-construction building. It has all the equipment,” says Bipasha Basu. “We all work out in it. Ajay, and I of course. Paresh Rawal also works out. Akshaye Khanna only used to play squash for exercise. Now he’s started going to the gym. They need to get into a specific shape for this film.”

Before producer Arbaaz Khan can shift from Bihar to Vai near Mumbai for the shooting of Abhinav Kashyap’s Dabangg, Priyadrashan has relocated a village of Bihar in Karaikudi, a Tamilian small-town 80 kilometers away from Madurai to shoot for his very real headline-derived inter-caste love story that shook rural Bihar some time ago.

Doesn’t the film take Priyan into a space completely different from his award winning Kanchivaram? “Not at all. That was a different kind of reality. This is different,” says Priyan.

Bollywood actress Asin Thottumkal might be just one film old in Bollywood but she is already giving a taste of her starry nature to her producers. Asin has apparently asked producer Vipul Shah to kick the London Dreams promotions with her instead of Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan. Asin was kept under wraps till the last leg of promotions for her debut movie Ghajini. She doesn't want to repeat the experience and miss the limelight.

Vipul Shah might have just given into her demands and it will be Asin who will kick off the promotional campaign breaking the convention as it is usually the male stars who start such campaigns. Vipul said he wanted to bring in some Lady Luck so went ahead with rolling the promotional campaign with Asin. It remains to be seen how Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan react to that as both have been in the industry at a time when Asin might have been an infant.

Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Fardeen Khan and Mugdha Godse have shot for a cricket video wishing the Indian cricket team all the best for the forthcoming Champions Trophy. Ajay is cricket-crazy, has a huge plasma TV installed in his van and watches matches in between shooting. It was his idea to wish the Indian cricket team before they started the Champions Trophy in South Africa, which starts next week.

Says a source, "He told the director Rohit Shetty that Indian cricketers are always been criticised, and we should contribute to encouraging them. Also since his film is called All The Best, they decided to shoot a music video around that. ESPN was very happy with the catchy song and has already started showing it on their channel."

Rohit Shetty says, "We shot the video in Filmistan. It's a special promo on cricket with the stars wearing masks of different cricketers and cheering the cricketers. The song is meant to wish the Indian cricketers before every game. It's an association between the channel and All The Best team. They wanted to me to direct the promo for the Championship Trophy."

Rohit adds, "The cast wishes the cricket team and says 'yeh diwali hogi cupwali' and then they start dancing to the title track." Seema Desai had choreographed the video while Pritam has given the music. All the dancers are wearing the Indian cricket team's outfits. It has been shot against the background of a cricket stadium shot with over 100 dancers.