Ramu gifts his Baby to Sajid

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day

Monday, June 26, 2006

Ram Gopal Varma is known to be a tough nut when it comes to dealing with business, but few people know about his softer side.

After Ramu announced a film titled Baby, Sajid Khan called him up to tell him that he'd been working on a film called Hey Baby! On hearing that, Ramu offered to change the title of his film.

When asked about the incident Ramu prefers to keep it brief. "I didn't know that Sajid's film was called Hey Baby! Since I know Sajid well, and he's a good friend, I thought of an optional title for my film."

Sweet gesture

Sajid prefers to be gushy, "It was a very sweet gesture on Ramu's part. In this industry, people are very selfish about their films.

Who does these selfless gestures in the name of friendship, like Ramu? If it were somebody else, they would have asked me for money to change their title. Ramu is not as ruthless as people think him to be or he wouldn't have agreed.

He gave me my first break as a director with the first episode of Darna Zaroori Hai.

Only because of our friendship, did Ramu give me the break, without checking my credentials as a director . Besides being a friend, I am very fond of him and he's fond of me, too."

'I owe you one'

So what happened? "I read in the newspapers that Ramu had announced a new film called Baby. I called him and told him I was making a film with the same name. He immediately said he would get an alternate title. Later I sent him a text message saying, 'I owe you one.'"

Absolute original

Sajid launches his Hey Baby! on August 7 this year as it's a very auspicious date.

The film stars Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, and Vidya Balan but "It is not a remake of Three Men And A Baby. I have written the story and it's 1000 per cent original. The only similarity it has, is that it has three heroes and a baby. It's an emotional-love story-cum-comedy."

Incredible fans

At present Sajid's having a blast with TV show Deewana Bana De on Max. "I get to meet loads of funny people who can be scary, too. I travel all around the country finding the country's biggest film fan and finding out the frauds from the true ones. I have met Shah Rukh, Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan fans.

There was this Mithun fan in Lucknow who was quite scary. He acts, dresses and talks like Mithun Chakroborty, is married with two kids called Mimoh and Chimoh and his wife is called Pinky (Mithun's wife Yogeeta's pet name). Imagine what his kids must be facing in school? He's even got his mole burnt on his face like the one Mithun has! It's unbelievable!"