Ask Vidhu only if you are an Idiot
Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra in Noida on Friday. (PTI)
Jan. 1 (PTI): The controversy over Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots escalated
today with the media caught in the crossfire between the filmmakers
and novelist Chetan Bhagat, from whose Five Point Someone the movie
has apparently been adapted.
At one point during a news conference in Noida, Aamir said Bhagat was
hungry for publicity and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra asked a
journalist to "shut up".
The author, at another media briefing, accused the star and the
filmmakers of denying him due credit.
Aamir alleged Bhagat was trying to take away credit from the film's
scriptwriter, Abhijat Joshi, who the actor said had worked on the
script for three years.
Bhagat called Aamir, Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani "uncivilised
people" and denied he was hankering after publicity. "They are making
a fool of themselves," he said.
The filmmakers' news conference in Noida turned ugly when their
reaction was sought on Bhagat's allegations.
Chopra lost his cool when a journalist said the film was similar to
the book. The producer and Aamir asked the journalist if he had read
the book. When he said he hadn't, Chopra asked him to shut up.
When the media objected, Aamir asked Chopra to apologise but the
producer refused.
"Aamir had asked me to take the legal course before, but now after all
this furore I am really angry and I might take legal action," Chopra
said.
"We have signed a very defined contract with Chetan stating his name
would appear in the rolling credits of the film. We are going to
upload the agreement on (my) website."
Hirani, who has directed Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai, tried
to pacify the media. "I want you to recount each and every scene with
me from the beginning till the climax and tell me where is it similar
to the book," he said. "There are so many scenes which have nothing to
do with the book…. The film has only five per cent of the book and
Chetan read the script and approved of it."
Borrowing a line from Lage Raho, Chopra said: "We will send a 'get
well soon' card to Chetan. We will also send some flowers." Aamir said
Chopra and Hirani had told him not to comment, but he felt "hurt" that
"Hirani's credibility is being questioned".
"I have nothing to do with this issue. I am the non-interested party
but I know Hirani and Abhijat both very closely and I have seen them
slogging on the script for the last three years," Aamir said.
He said it was Bhagat who had approached Hirani to make a film on his
book. "Hirani read the book and decided to make a film. But when they
started writing the script, it became completely different. Chetan
read the script and he was completely satisfied with it. He even told
me that the script and the book are very different," Aamir said.
Bhagat has accused the filmmakers of "playing" with him and not giving
him adequate credit. "From the beginning the film has been promoted on
the lines that it is based on Five Point Someone but when I saw the
film, I found out that my name was nowhere to be seen in the opening
credits," he said.
"For the past two years I have trusted Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and
Aamir blindly and this is what I get in return. Now I am being
threatened with legal action but I am ready for it."
