Movies Interrupted: hard luck films that never got released

Sweet relief? or a lost masterpiece. Roshmila Bhattacharya and Vajir Singh unspool the story of hard luck films that never got released.

Due to production goof-ups, a schedule of Nagesh Kukunoor's Eight by Ten (earlier titled Tasveer) went awry. Back home from Canada, Akshay Kumar, who obviously doesn't like his dates to go down the tubes, alloted them to another film. So what happens to Eightby etc?

Well, it could be shelved.. stalled.. stuck. Glitches, differences, plain old production problems have been the bane of Bombay show business, notorious for the wastage of man and money power.

HT Image

Cut to the chase then.. or just look at some of the movies that went poof with the wind.. for reasons known and unknown.

Zamaanat
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Vijayashanti, Arshad Warsi, Karisma Kapoor
Status: Coming, coming.. but where? For months had a Juhu hoarding which faded with the summer heat.
Reason: Not even Bachchan's blessings could get this S Ramanathan film into the theatres.. and mind you, Ramanathan sir is one of the most likeable souls in the business.

Milenge Milenge
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor
Status: Almost there.
Reason: Everyone concerned, including director Satish Kaushik, is into new projects. Only producer Boney Kapoor is still optimistic, claiming, " Hoga.. hoga.. hoga."

Mehbooba
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala
Status: Ready but no takers.
Reason: Director Afzal Khan's romantic saga has been a case of no-show. Shakeel Noorani's Jaan ki Baazi and Pankaj Kharbanda's Dost are other Sanjay Dutt movies that are not likely to increase the sale of popcorn.

Is Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
Cast: John Abraham, Akanksha Malhotra, Om Puri, Ranjeeta
Status: Shot for a few days.
Reason: It was supposed to be Johnny Abraham saheb's debut. But saheb understandably preferred Jism. Akanksha opted for marriage.. and director Rahul Rawail for Buddha Mar Gaya. No comments.

Paanch

Cast:

K K Menon, Tejaswini Kolhapure

Status:

Awaiting release.

Reason:

Tutu Sharma's financial crunch followed by censor problems. It's been nearly five years and heroine Tejaswani has become a

Bahu

bhi

Kabhi

Actress

thi

.

Idiot

Cast:

Zayed Khan, Celina Jaitly, Amrish Puri

Status:

Almost complete.

Reason:

Z Khan made his dislike for director Deepak Shivdasani apparent by refusing to shoot for nearly four years. Why? Er.. was he cast in the title role?

Yahoo

Cast:

Govinda, Juhi Chawla, Chunky Pandey

Status

: Far from the finishing line.

Reason

: Financial crisis. Then, Govinda's downslide. Next, Juhi Chawla's

shaadi

.. and finally director Sanjay Chhel's disinterest.. whatever!

Kashmakash

Cast

: Suniel Shetty, Juhi Chawla, Pooja Batra

Status

: Few more reels to go.

Reason

: Believe it or not, Suniel Shetty was mega-busy. But eventually, it was director Priyadarshan who was juggling for dates.

Time time ki baat hai

.

RadheyshyamSeetaram
Cast: Suniel Shetty, Aishwarya Rai
Status: Nowhere on the horizon yet.
Reason: Money. Suniel Shetty says that it's his best comedy yet.. ha ha .. there is another Ash-Suneil movie in a limbo.. Hum Panchhi Ek Daal ke.

Purab ki Laila Paschim ka Chhaila
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Namrata Shirodkar
Status: Please let us know.
Reason: A couple of years ago, Akshay Kumar wanted to wrap up all those films which were stuck. This one is still on the way. Namrata married Mahesh Babu.

Tere Pyar ki Kasam
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Mahima Chaudhary, Hrishita Bhatt
Status: Almost complete.
Reason: Post- Vaastav, director Mahesh Manjrekar went on a signing spree. Mahima became Mum and Hrishita Bhatt is waiting for a phone call from the unit wallas. Manjrekar's Deh also has no buyers despite steam spirit from Dino Morea, Amrita Arora and.. heavens!.. Jaya Prada. And there's Struggler, a Manjrekar monologue on his struggles to make it big. Puhlease.

Jai Jai Shiv Shankar
Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Dimple Kapadia
Status: Even Google doesn't know. Wikipedia went blank, IMDB turned violent red.
Reason: Naseeb.

Dus

Cast

: Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon, Shilpa Shetty

Status

: 3 out of 10.

Reason

: Director Mukul Anand passed away prematurely. Ramesh Sippy was asked to finish the film.. he declined politely. Ram Gopal Varma was also asked but he was thinking of

Sholay

.. sad, very sad.

ANTIQUES

Aakhri Mughal

Cast

: Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan

Reason

: Kamal Amrohi had planned this epic with Dilip Kumar as Bahadur Shah Zafar and Amitabh Bachchan as his son Mirza Zafar.. the last Mughal. The dream died with him. J P Dutta had shown an interest in reviving the project with Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan.

Majnoon

Cast

: Rajesh Khanna, Raakhee

Status

: Two songs recorded.

Reason

: In the ‘80s, Kamal Amrohi had planned this lavish spin-off on the Bagh Bahadur and Roopmati love legend. The film had been launched at Mehboob Studio, Khayyam had recorded two songs. Then Rajesh Khanna's father-in-law, Chunnibhai Kapadia who was producing

Majnoon

ran into money problems and the film ground to a halt... forever.

Suhana

Geet

Cast

: Kishore Kumar, Madhubala

Status

: Halfway through

Reason

: Madhubala fell seriously ill.

Kalinga

Cast

: Raj Babbar, Raj Kiran, Sumeet Saigal

Reason

: The film was launched with much fanfare by Sudhakar Bokade. With Dilip Kumar as director. The thespian managed an arduous schedule in the Jaisalmer desert and then the project ground to a halt because of Bokade's reported intervention.

Devaa

Cast

: Amitabh Bachchan

Status

: Canned after a few reels.

Reason

: Only Subhash Ghai would be able to answer that. However, Bachchan's Afghan look was unveiled in Mukul Anand's

Khuda Gawah

.

Rishtey

Cast

: Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit

Status

: This rishtey ended after the launch party.

Reason

: The two ‘A's would know best.

Champ of incomplete projects
¦ We need to introduce a Film Café Award..pronto! For the Best Mr Shelved Projects. Raj Kumar Santoshi has announced more projects than any other living Indian director (Shekhar Kapur is a close runner-up). Even a very early project planned with Meenakshi Seshadri and Sunny Deol was scrapped.. and no, we're not talking Damini.
¦ Then two years ago, it was the Rs 100 crore Mahabharat for Ramoji Rao. What's happening sir?
¦ London Dreams (inspired by Amadeus) with Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan but now it's learnt that producer P J Singh is looking for another director.
¦ Saamna toplining Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai and Nana Patekar was launched but nothing happened.
¦ In 2005, Santoshi announced Prithviraj-Samyukta with Ajay Devgan playing the feisty Rajput warlord and Aishwarya Rai as his consort. Poof.
¦ Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan were supposed to appear on the screen for the first time with Ranveer. In fact, Bachchan Sr was to re-start AB Corp with this project, but apart from a big launching party, nothing happened.