Ashutosh and Sajid fight during Screen Awards

The Screen Awards held at the Bandra-Kurla Complex on Wednesday night will be remembered for an ugly public spat, akin to the Salman-SRK fight last year. At least that was at a private party, the guests were all friends, alcohol was flowing freely, the mood was reckless. Such things happen at parties. But at an award function, it's unheard of. In the presence of the entire film fraternity and media, Ashutosh Gowariker and Sajid Khan had a war of words.

A fuming Sajid Khan says, "Ashutosh Gowariker is a very dear and old friend of mine and he of all people should understand that Sajid Khan is an entertainer and it is his job to entertain audiences. I work for the channels and have been entertaining audiences and hosting awards for the last 10 years. If the channels repeat me, it's because audiences expect this kind of entertainment not just in India but worldwide!

"Even at the Oscars, you will see Holly-wood personalities laughing at themselves. It's high time we learn to laugh at ourselves and enjoy ourselves. At the end of the day, we are one big family and it's absolutely alright to laugh and joke with each other because that's what friends and families do."

There's a buzz that some filmmakers including Gowariker are planning to ban his shows. Sajid says, "For me, my viewer is the ultimate. He has made me and only my viewer will break me! No Ashutosh Gowariker in this world can ban Sajid Khan. At every show I make fun of myself first even yesterday, I made fun of Heyy Babyy! not once but three times. At the end the day it's TV, which like films is a source of entertainment."

"After every show I host, I get hundreds of calls and SMSes from the film industry saying how much they liked it, and that happened yesterday too! I'll never be apologetic about my work. The day I need to be, I will apologise to my audience. Let the viewer decide who they want to see on stage at an awards function Ashutosh Gowariker or Sajid Khan?"

The fight was triggered off a comment by Sajid on Ashutosh's hero Harman. When Gowariker later came on stage he voiced his displeasure at the jokes and the fact that certain techni-cians weren't allowed to speak. When Sajid told him that the jokes were given by the organisers, the director asked him to shut up. Sajid snapped 'kisika baap bhi mujhe shut up nahi bol sakta!'

Farah, who was not on stage at the time, later told the audience, "I love films more than anybody else and I do truly believe that we are family and friends and family can joke with each other. We shouldn't take ourselves so seriously." Ashutosh's outburst came as a complete shocker to Farah. She felt Ashu should have told off both Sajid and her back stage instead of making a public tamasha.