Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

The Sanjay Leela Bhasali and Farah Khan rivalary has further intensified, as Bhansali believes that Farah had ridiculed his mother.

‘Making fun of my 75-year-old mother is really not done. I’m proud to have my mother’s name as part of my name. No civilised human would want his or her parent ridiculed. Even if ‘reliable sources’ decide to make fun of my mother to make mileage they’d still have my mother’s blessings,’ Bhansali said.

‘My mom has shown immense love for Farah and her family although over the years they’ve repeatedly made barbed comments about her in public. On ‘Koffee With Karan’, Farah was heard saying that if I made ‘Om Shanti Om’ it would be called ‘Ma Shanti Ma’.
‘Why bring my mother into this unnecessarily, specially since my mother has always shown so much love and affection for Farah? No matter how much the provocation, I’d never speak like this about anyone’s parents.’

When asked about the supposed competition Sanjay said: ‘I’m here to make a film and believe filmmaking to be an art form. Cinema is not a battlefield. We all work very hard on our films. And I’m sure my film is as dear to me as other people’s films are to them.

‘Let me say at the outset that we had announced our decision to release ‘Saawariya’ on Nov 9 a year ago at a press conference held by Sony Pictures. So we aren’t coming on anyone else’s release date. I’m sure ‘Om Shanti Om’ is a terrific film. And Shah Rukh Khan has a huge draw. In fact, he’s the biggest star of the country. We are very small compared with him. I wish his film all the best.’

‘Shah Rukh and I had come to a moral decision to keep this dignified and not to speak about each other’s film in print. I intend to stick to that decision even if other people on his behalf are eagerly breaking that moral code. There are ’sources’ close to the film making catty comments about me, making fun of me and even my mother to get attention.’

Such provocations won’t affect him and he is not going to retaliate, said Bhansali.

‘I’m not going to be provoked into talking about another person’s film or its cast. Me and my mother wish Shah Rukh and his film all the best from the bottom of our hearts.’