'Jazbaa' Director Sanjay Gupta Lands in Legal Trouble

Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta's ambitious project "Jazbaa" starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan went on floors last week, and this week, the director-producer has already landed in a legal trouble.

Reportedly, much before "Jazbaa", Gupta was said to have teamed up with film producer Vinod Bachchan for a project titled "Delhi Ka Thug", which failed to take off.

However, Vinod has now has issued a legal notice to Gupta demanding ₹50 lakh that was said to be paid as remuneration to Gupta for their previous project.

Gupta's lawyer told Mid-Day: "They wanted Sanjay to be the writer-director and cast Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood and Boman Irani. But after he had worked on the script, the two couldn't arrange for finances or lock the cast. Every time he asked to be compensated for his time, he was given false assurances."

In December last year, the producer and his team agreed that Gupta should keep the token amount of ₹49.5 lakh, considering the amount of time and dedication he had put in for developing the script and didn't take up any other project, a source told the daily.

However, things took a U-turn when "Jazbaa" started rolling with beauty queen Aishwarya on board. Vinod sent a legal notice to Gupta, where he claimed that although the token amount was paid for another project, it was jointly agreed upon to be used in making of "Jazbaa", hence the film should have him as the producer.

Gupta, on the other hand, has filed a case against Vinod for extortion and harassment. In the notice, Gupta accused the latter of demanding a refund of ₹50 lakh which was his compensation for the film that didn't take off.

"Jazbaa" marks the comeback of the former Miss World to the silver screen after motherhood. The female-centric film also features Irrfan Khan and Shabana Azmi in important roles.