Pooja, Muzammil's 'nok-jhonk' gaining momentum

By: Faridoon Shahryar, IndiaFM
Thursday, August 23, 2007

“I have no respect for Muzammil but he is still my actor," said Pooja Bhatt reacting to debutante Ibrahim"s recent comments in the media exhibiting himself as a 'victim" who had a tough time on his first film Dhoka because of director"s alleged 'high handed" ways. “There is a difference between Muzammil and John Abraham. The same man (Viraj Adav) has dubbed for him who had dubbed for John in Jism. John had asked me for Viraj"s number to thank him. He said that this guy"s dubbing has added to my performance. The reason why John is where he is today because of his dedication and belief in the people he has worked with." Bhatt said sounding unperturbed by her protege"s “immature trivia in the media" as she feels her movie is way above loose talk.

In a Mumbai tabloid Muzammil had stated that the shooting was completed in 38 days and if he was bad then how did the film get over so quickly? “We had extensive rehearsals for 40 days with the script before we started filming. It"s because of the preparation that we were able to finish the film so fast and not because of Muzammil. I have the making of the entire film that shows what exactly happened on the sets. I can release it to the media but I wouldn"t do it as I don"t want the focus to shift away from the film. It shows how abusive he can be. If a man can tell the world that he is having a problem in his housing society because he is a Muslim, gets locked up in jail; only to be found out later that the people whom he had a problems with in his society were also Muslims, then such a man can do anything. Ashok Pandit warned me against casting him but I always honour the commitments I make," Bhatt said firmly.

Pooja Bhatt, in a lighter vein added that she is grateful to Ibrahim for working in Dhokha despite the couple of flops she has behind her. On a more serious note, she said that since her childhood she was taught to show respect to her seniors. “One should always look at a person"s body of work before making trivial comments. I"m born in the business of filmmaking and I know how it works and how it crumbles. I"ve produced nine films and look at the kind of people I"ve worked with....Ajay Devgan, Paresh Rawal, Sanjay Dutt, Kajol, John, Bipasha, Irrfan...there was never a problem," Pooja says with a finality in her voice.