Nagesh renames jinxed Tasveer to Eight by Ten

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day
Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Nagesh Kukunoor"s next film, a supernatural thriller called Tasveer (starring Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia), appears to have run into problems in Calgary (Canada).

A source from the unit says, “The film"s shoot has been jinxed from day one. So much so, that Nagesh and Percept Picture Company decided to change the title from Tasveer to Eight By Ten.

The problem started when a majority of the crew didn"t get visas. They were forced to hire a Canadian crew, leading to the budget going overboard and a five-day delay (from September 5 to September 10)."

Then Jaaved Jaffri and some crewmembers lost their luggage in transit. Next, a make-up artist met with an accident in Vancouver!

Too much trouble

But the problems didn"t end there. The source adds, “Things became worse when we actually started shooting.

Nagesh"s two key assistants, production designer Devika and his executive producer Ilahi, started interfering in production. They were rude to the Canadian crew and 50 per cent of them quit."

What"s more, the line producers got permission from SAIT Polytechnic University for shooting a hospital scene on September 18.

“But Devika and Ilahi were adamant on shooting it on Sunday, September 16. The line producers couldn"t do much about it and had to face the consequences when the Canadian authorities yanked the permit."

Money was another major issue. The source says, “The money wasn"t flowing in and the deposits on locations hadn"t being paid.

When they wanted to shoot in a $20 million mansion, they couldn"t pay the $25,000 deposit. That"s when line producers Bina and Raj Shah called it quits." The source says the matter was later resolved.

“The Film Commission too made Percept sign their rules and regulations form and the producer promised to listen to the line producers. Since then, things have been going smoothly in the last eight days."

Problems unlimited

When contacted, line producer Bina confirms, “It started off with visa problems and we had to hire a Canadian crew that we lost thanks to interference from the director"s team. Shooting got stalled for three days due to the SAIT episode."

She elaborates, “There are money problems too. The Canadian crew needs to be paid every week. We have shot over 40 films in Canada and USA, and we"ve rarely had such problems. We decided to quit because of too much pressure, but now everything has been sorted out."

Preet Bedi from Percept Picture Company says, “Yes, we did lose five working days due to the visa problem, but the stars are not unhappy at the delay in shooting. Akshay was very accommodating. As for the new title, Tasveer was a working title anyway."

When asked if Devika and Ilahi messed up, Bedi says, “No, that"s nonsense. It"s just that when dates get shifted a few things get shifted too.

Everything got delayed so the location authorisation at SAIT also got delayed."