BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) has received information from insolvency practitioner… Jan Franses Associates, that Vijeta Films has failed to honour an agreement it made with creditors earlier this year.
At a stormy creditors’ meeting in London on 25 March, creditors of the Bombay-based Vijeta Films agreed to its London-based subsidiary company’s offer of paying half outstanding debts by 31 May and the rest in December.
The vote was carried unanimously only after the directors of the subsidiary company, Vijeta Films International, told the meeting that there was nothing to prevent creditors from continuing to take action against Vijeta Films in Bombay.
Last year the parent company hired a large number of BECTU members to work on a film provisionally titled ‘London’, which started shooting in the U.K in June with a budget of 1.4 million pounds. Production fell behind schedule and by September mid-production filming was suspended.
The film was to have starred Mr Deol and Karisma Kapoor. The company owes more than 300,000 pounds and this includes approximately 100,000 pounds for BECTU members.
BECTU official Phil Hooley commented: “I asked at the time why it was that if the company was able to meet its debts, it was not willing to pay our members then. The union continues to advise all members to contact BECTU before accepting work for the company.”
What Sunny had been banking on
What Sunny had been banking on was his distribution company who had the rights to ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ — the film starring Bobby and Aishwarya Rai — and he had been planning to plough back the proceeds into ‘London’. The Deol had expected to make at least half a million pounds (approx. Rs 3.4 crore) through the distribution of the film. When the film bombed at the box-office, even this prospective source evaporated into thin air. In fact, the film did so badly that it is said that they did not make even thirty thousand pounds (approx. Rs 20 lakh) out of it. One particular company in America or Canada which had bought the film didn’t even bother to pay him the $100,000 (approx. Rs 42 lakh) or so they owed him. Bhupinder Bhansal, who runs Sunny’s office and is involved in the distribution of his movies in the U.K., was having a tough time indeed.
MONEY OWED TO MICHELLE AND HER REPUTATION AT STAKE
According to reliable sources, Vijeta Films International still owes sixteen thousand pounds (approx. Rs 11 lakh) to Michelle, but what she was more upset about was the fact that all the people whom she had worked with all her life had been let down. One lighting company was owed sixty thousand pounds (approx. Rs 41 lakh). Another transport company was owed twenty-six thousand pounds (approx. Rs 17.5 lakh) while a camera rental company was owed thirty-six thousand pounds (approx. Rs 24.5 lakh). Though the creditors did not blame her, Michelle felt responsible for getting them into such a mess.
THE REAL REASON FOR THE SHELVING OF ‘LONDON’
What had originally started off quite well had turned into one big mess. Initially, Sunny didn’t like the work of cameraman P C Sriram and Michelle too agreed with him. It turned out that Sriram had a totally different idea of the film. He thought he was doing a European film and since he came from a Bollywood background, he was trying to experiment with European techniques. Sunny naturally sacked him. Then he decided that he didn’t like the way Gurinder shot. However, insiders claim that what really got Sunny’s goat was that his character was not an action hero role at all, but a very soft spoken, shy, quiet type — a virtual replica of him in real life. What he wanted was to play the sexy, handsome, dashing piece of meat — the kind of role that had been given to Bobby Deol. Gurinder had given them roles very like their real selves. But Sunny was used to the hero type of roles and felt that the audience back in India would not accept him in his new avatar. And since ‘London’ meant to be released for the Indian audience, Sunny decided to shelve the film.
