Sanjay Dutt's open war with Ekta Kapoor

With Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Films suddenly doing an about-turn and aligning itself with Sanjay Gupta, Sanjay Dutt, who broke ties with Gupta last year is an aggrieved and wounded man.

Shaking hands with the enemy is not what Dutt expected Ekta to do. And now it's an open war between the ex-business partners.

Says a source, "Sanjay was really fond of Ekta. Now that she has done the unthinkable, and teamed up with Gupta, Dutt is on a movie and star-buying spree. No one says no to Sanju Baba."

Apparently, post the Ekta-Gupta alliance, Dutt is eager to prove a point. That his goodwill in the industry is all-pervasive. Adds the source, "He has gone and signed the A to Z of the film industry, from Amitabh Bachchan to Zayed Khan. Naturally, there's no question of these actors working for Balaji or White Feathers."

Even Dutt loyalist Sunil Shetty's Popcorn Entertainment is completing their three-film contract after Joy Augustine's Little Godfather is released. Hopefully, this film won't suffer because of the shifted alliances.

The open war doesn't end there. Apparently, Balaji had promised Sanju baba Rs 1.5 crores for the item song on the comedy C Kkompany. The dues are still pending.

A Balaji source, however, says that a BMW car was gifted to Dutt in lieu of his payment. But a source close to Dutt has another story to tell. "It was decided that he be given a token gift. The then-CEO of Balaji, Ramesh Sippy offered Dutt a watch. When told that he had enough watches for seven lifetimes, they decided to gift him a BMW which costs only Rs 35 lakhs. But the amount promised to Mr Dutt was 1.5 crores. And he's wondering where the money went."

Dharam Oberoi, CEO Sanjay Dutt Productions confirms. "Yes, Mr Dutt was offered a certain amount of money for his appearance in C Kkompany which wasn't paid. But he is not one to demand or extract his pound of flesh. He has moved on to bigger and better things. He wishes Ekta all the best."