Bollywood battle gets bitter

After their much-publicised brawl in a Mumbai pub a couple of weeks ago, directors Mohit Suri and Vishal Mahadkar (of Blood Money fame) don’t seem to have called it a truce yet. Tempers between the two Vishesh Films protégés flared after Mohit allegedly passed an untoward remark at one of Vishal’s assistant directors, Leena Tandon, when the trio ran into each other at a suburban bar. In the time since, various versions of what actually transpired have been floated, but in a chat with us, Vishal claimed that Mohit’s PR machinery went into overdrive after the incident, maligning his (Vishal’s) character.   

“The incident happened two weeks before the release of my film 3AM. If I wanted, I would  have spoken about it at that time for publicity. I didn’t, because the girl’s reputation was at stake. But people took advantage of my silence, calling it a ‘drunken brawl’. It wasn’t; everyone knows the truth. Mohit’s PR machinery manipulated the story and maligned me, that’s why I decided to speak out,” Vishal said.

Vishal says it was the derogatory comments Mohit made towards Leena that compelled Vishal to “go after” his one-time friend. “Nobody is above the law and you can’t demean people. Success has messed up Mohit’s head and he has become arrogant,” Vishal says.

Vishal tells us that after the incident, Leena also received a call from Mahesh Bhatt (Mohit is the veteran filmmaker’s nephew) inquiring about what took place. “It is so honourable of Bhatt sahab that he has stayed out of the matter and has not taken any sides,” Vishal says, adding, “Leena might go to the cops.”

Incidentally, Mohit and Vishal had got into a brawl previously as well, at a party hosted by filmmaker Kunal Deshmukh several years ago.