It’s a crying shame. Whoever thought that the city that Sunny Deol loved so much — the city he flew off to at the slightest opportunity (more often than he went to Film City); the city where his beloved wife Pooja hailed from — the name of that very city, ‘London’, would give him nightmares. Except that the problems that had cropped up with the ‘Vijeta Films International’-produced London were real. Not just a bad dream that could be woken from.
THE FILM AND HOW IT ALL BEGAN
TThe film was to have been a three-month, start-to-finish shoot in London — to be called ‘London’. Starring the two Deol brothers — Sunny and Bobby — together for the first time. Co-starring Karisma Kapoor. To be directed by Gurinder (‘Bhaji On The Beach’) Chadha. The project was hot.
Then things started going wrong. Horribly wrong. In a way that Sunny couldn’t have envisaged even in his most horrible nightmare. It began with differences over the script with Gurinder. Then it was unhappiness over the choice of cameraman. Later Karisma walked out and the first schedule had to be aborted. The unit had to return to India, Urmila signed on, and shooting resumed at Bombay’s Mehboob Studios.
In the meantime, the creditors back in London began baying for his blood. ‘Vijeta Films International’ was declared bankrupt. But the creditors weren’t letting go that easy. They wanted to see to it that ‘London’ never got made — by that or any other name. They wanted to see to it that no member of ‘Vijeta Films International’ was ever issued a visa to visit the UK. They wanted to prevent any shooting there by the company. And most frightening, they were planning to sue Sunny. Not only in London, but back here in India as well.
It was our London office that did some investigation — beginning in Michelle Fox’s (the co-producer of ‘London’) office and ending in the offices of the various unions and lawyers who were threatening to start litigation. They were bloodthirsty alright, and they wanted to see that Sunny never should prosper, not at their expense.
HOW MICHELLE FOX MET SUNNY AND GOT ALONG
ASunny met Michelle Fox by accident. Michelle had produced the movie Jungle Book, which had been shot in India. An actor wanted to work with the make-up artiste of Frankenstein — an English make-up guy who was a close friend of Michelle’s — and when Sunny called him down to meet him, he invited Michelle to come along. That was when Michelle told Sunny that if he wanted any help, he could ask her because she knew all the people connected to films. Within two weeks she got a call from them as they needed some help with sound equipment.
In the course of their interaction, Michelle learnt that Sunny wanted to make a film in the American way — his benchmark being Schwarzenegger and Stallone-type movies. He wanted that quality, that effect, that stuff. He was looking for people experienced in such techniques. So Michelle got him Simon — one of the finest stuntmen in the British and American film industry, the man who had doubled for Pierce Brosnan and done movies such as Mission Impossible and The Saint.
Sunny then requested her to look out for a writer of international calibre. That was when Michelle introduced him to Gurinder Chadha, who had made Bhaji On The Beach, and Sunny asked her to write the story for his film.
ON ‘LONDON’ AND MICHELLE’S INVOLVEMENT
When Gurinder began writing the story, she also roped in her buddy Behroze Gandhi as co-producer. However, Sunny and producer Suneel Darshan (Sunny’s right-hand man) didn’t like the way Behroze worked because she was quite inexperienced. So they decided to drop her and begged Michelle to take over as co-producer instead. After Michelle agreed, things began moving smoothly. In fact, when Dharmendra’s brother saw the set-up, he exclaimed: “My God! I’ve never seen anything like it.” Even Sunny agreed that he had probably never done a movie like that before. Everything was going according to plan.
The Beginning of London’s Problems
At that time the grapevine was ripe with rumours of the alleged Sunny-Raveena affair. Apparently, Sunny seemed quite distracted and would not come to work on time. Despite this the shooting schedule was progressing smoothly as everything worked according to a tried and tested system. Any delay would only have meant losses.
Production-wise everything was very organised. Everyone would start at 8 o’clock and go through a twelve-hour shooting day. With both Indian and English crews working together and with contrary ways of working, there were bound to be problems — but these were soon ironed out. Since the Indian technicians did not know how to work the lights, they were replaced with English crew. Further, both Sunny and Karisma preferred English make-up artistes.
The Opinion of the Londoners on Sunny Deol
According to the grapevine, the Deols were basically nice people, but they are not acclaimed to be a very intelligent lot. Sunny was said to have survived because of his charm, because of which nobody said no to him. Even if he invited anybody over for dinner and they could not make it, they would never say no — only that they’d make it some other time.
Anyway, since Sunny did not like his character role and did not want Gurinder to make his film on the same lines as Bhaji On The Beach, he brought in Rahul Rawail.
Budget Problems
When the budget began going haywire, Michelle immediately told Sunny that neither she nor Gurinder could work with Rahul Rawail, who worked as though there were no financial constraints at all. She informed him that the situation in the UK was not the same as in India — these people had to be paid immediately for their work or services. She also told Sunny that he could probably get away with a lot in India, but the name Sunny Deol meant nothing there. Even Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner could not get away with that.
Financial Problems
It was only when the cheques issued began bouncing that Michelle realised that there were financial problems. Suneel Darshan, who had since gone back to India because he didn’t get along with Rahul Rawail, was supposed to raise some money and send it to Sunny. The junior Jat’s father-in-law was allegedly financing the movie, but there was no sign of anymore money coming in. When the cheques began being dishonoured, Michelle put everyone on a week’s notice as it was the legal thing to do there. According to sources, it would have been better not to issue cheques in the first place than to let them bounce — because the dishonoured cheques resulted in a field day for the gossip mongers who went to town claiming that Sunny had been financially shot, that the local Mafia was after him, etc.
RAHUL RAWAIL’S ENTRY
Sunny’s intention when bringing in Rahul Rawail was to add a few fight scenes, make it a little ‘different’, to beef it up, so to speak. Gurinder, naturally, was upset about this because it was she who had written the story. Apparently, if rumours are to be believed, Gurinder and Rahul Rawail hated each other from the start because Rawail was this very difficult, older, rougher guy who had been around a lot and who was not ready to take any nonsense from a much junior Gurinder or anybody else for that matter. If sources are to be believed, Rahul Rawail even refused to shoot with Sunny once because he said Sunny looked too rough and told Sunny to go sleep off his stress.
Michelle’s Showdown with Rahul Rawail
A day after the week’s notice had been issued to everybody, Michelle had a massive showdown with Rahul Rawail in front of the entire crew. She told him in no uncertain terms that since his arrival in town he had done nothing but jeopardize Sunny’s movie. Rahul Rawail, of course, went berserk and nearly had a heart attack. He went faint and they had to give him some water. He was so mad that he immediately decided to leave. When Sunny got to hear of this, he called Michelle and asked her to apologise for the sake of the film — but the latter refused. Then later that night Sunny personally met her and told her that he was pulling the plug on the movie. He’d had enough.
Sunny’s Depression
According to sources, eight to nine days leading up to the fight, Sunny had gone into a deep depression because of the finance problem. Dimple was with him throughout, lending a shoulder. However, his father-in-law had stated that after the money ran out after one or two weeks, there would be no more — since he had already put in 850,000 pounds (roughly Rs 5.5 crore) in the film, which was a lot of money by any standard.
Why Two Films?
As things stood, there were basically two films. The first is the English version — Love In London — which Gurinder had the rights to. The second film is the Hindi version with a partly changed story and different ending — the working title Cash & Carry. The Arts Council had shown interest in financing Gurinder’s film, but when they found out that Sunny had not paid his debts to his British creditors, they suddenly refused to touch it with a barge pole.
VIJETA WARNING ON ‘LONDON’ PRODUCTION
BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) received information from insolvency practitioner Jan Franses Associates that Vijeta Films had failed to honour an agreement it made with creditors earlier that 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 film was to have starred Mr Deol and Karisma Kapoor with a budget of 1.4 million pounds. Production fell behind schedule and filming was suspended mid-production. The company owes more than 300,000 pounds — including approximately 100,000 pounds for BECTU members alone.
Phil Hooley (BECTU): “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.”
Money Owed to Michelle and Her Reputation at Stake
According to reliable sources, Vijeta Films International still owed sixteen thousand pounds (approx. Rs 11 lakh) to Michelle. A lighting company was owed sixty thousand pounds (Rs 41 lakh), a transport company twenty-six thousand pounds (Rs 17.5 lakh), and a camera rental company thirty-six thousand pounds (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 Siram — coming from a Bollywood background, he was trying to experiment with European techniques. Sunny sacked him. Then he decided he didn’t like the way Gurinder shot. But 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 given to Bobby Deol.
What Sunny had been banking on was his distribution company which had the rights to Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya. He had expected to make at least half a million pounds (approx. Rs 3.4 crore) through distribution. When the film bombed at the box-office, even this prospective source evaporated into thin air. In fact the film did so badly that they did not make even thirty thousand pounds (approx. Rs 20 lakh) out of it.
ON THE CREDITORS AND SUNNY AVOIDING THEM
What had irked the creditors most was the fact that Sunny had handled them badly. For them this was not a new situation — other films go down, it happens all the time. According to sources, if Sunny had owned up, said “I ran into money problems, I’m really sorry. It’s what happens. If I can pay everybody, fine, I will try to do so. But please bear with me everybody. I am going to finish the film” — in that case he would have salvaged some respect. Nobody goes and hides and says “No, it wasn’t me” when everybody knows it was him. And it was not as if this was a small film — it was a big film with 20-30 vehicles, 100 extras, English and Indian catering wagons and buses and crews. It was massive.
The impression had been very bad on everybody concerned. Even Suneel Darshan backed out of a major project with Sunny reportedly saying: “I don’t want to be involved with this guy.”
The Next Steps the Creditors Were Going to Take
The creditors had told Sunny in no uncertain terms that if he set foot in the UK to make his film or any other film for that matter — even for another producer — the unions would picket it, find out where they were shooting and stop it, be it anywhere in the UK or Scotland. They would even contact the unions throughout Europe. They had already contacted the unions in India who had in turn called Sunny in for a meeting. The unions had even contacted the Home Office to stop anything related to Sunny’s film.
WHAT THE OFFICIALS SAY
Spencer MacDonald
“There was a commitment from Vijeta Films International that they would pay fifty percent of what was owed to creditors by the end of the year. When the time came around, it went flat. Subsequently we called in the main creditors and had a meeting as to what action we would take. We’ve got to be a little cautious if we are to sue because if they are linked… have we got enough documentation to prove that Vijeta Films had contacted these people? I spoke to the British High Commission in Bombay and they said no applications have been made. In fact, the British High Commission has told us they have put Vijeta Films on the waiting list. The Indian Unions are helping. They have conducted an interview with Sunny Deol. The initial response is Sunny said that ‘It’s got nothing to do with me.’ So what the Indian Union has asked us now is for us to demonstrate that he is linked. So the Indian Union is being co-operative. We are actually waiting for our lawyers to get back to us.”
Phil Hooley
“The problem is that Vijeta Films International says they have nothing to do with Vijeta Films, Bombay. The creditors believed the money was owed by Vijeta Films, Bombay. If the money was not forthcoming, they would still pursue Vijeta Films in Bombay. At present no money is being paid. What we’re looking at is taking them through the courts in Bombay to retrieve the money. One more thing — we have had information that they may be coming back to finish the film under another title in the UK, and obviously if they do we will be watching them. We informed the British High Commission and have given them a list of people and told them exactly what happened. Yes, Sunny Deol’s name is also on the list.”
Martin Kenny
“Basically, the company Vijeta Films International has been declared a company voluntary arrangement — a form of liquidation here. The total amount of money owing to everybody across the board is in excess of 1.3 million pounds. It is an incredible amount of money to be perfectly honest. Through the UK there is no way one can launch a legal challenge to get the money from Vijeta Films once the company has entered liquidation. But there was some thinking that since the company is coming to the UK to finish filming we may be able to make a claim on the second company. But because this is a separate company — called Thames Valley Films — they are not liable to debts accrued through Vijeta Films. There is talk of pursuing the holding company which is based in Bombay. This would be very complex, very time consuming to pursue somebody who is not resident in the same legal jurisdiction.”
FINALLY…
As per industry insiders in London, Sunny himself will be unable to take on his creditors in court because he will not be able to afford it. According to them, it would be better for Sunny to come out of the woodwork and say: “Look, I hold up my hands, I’m sorry. I’ll stop blaming the world and I’ll take responsibility myself” — instead of having an “idiot” like Bhupinder Bhansal talking for him. That’s what’s irking everyone more. Maybe if he comes out, puts his pride aside and admits to the mistakes — they could all start afresh. After all, it’s not as if these things don’t happen. But the famous Deol charm can still win the day. Otherwise, the legal beagles aren’t listening. They’re set to sue.
— Kevin Rego, ‘Stardust’ London Bureau
