Jeetu fires Anurag, Prerna and Mr Bajaj

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day
Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The stars of Kasautii Zindagii Kay are the most troublesome lot to have come out of the Balaji stable.

After all the affairs, controversies, catfights, ego issues and walkouts, the latest twist to the off-screen drama on the show happened last Thursday.

Says a source from the unit, "On July 13 we required Ronit Roy (Mr Bajaj), Cezanne Khan (Anurag Basu) and Shweta Tiwari (Prerna) to shoot for an extra hour for the next day's episode. But all of them refused as they wanted to leave early.

Cezanne said he would rather shoot the next day, but that would mean getting paid for one extra day for half an hour's work. Shobhaji was disgusted at this behaviour and asked Jeetuji to intervene. After he stepped in, they all shot for the extra hour and finished the episode."

Starry airs

Doris Day, the creative director of Kasautii, confirms the news, but refuses to go into the details.

She says, "It has been extremely chaotic trying to co-ordinate the dates of the three lead actors and the other ten artistes. In a month, Cezanne gives us just 15 days, Shweta has cut down from 25 to 20 days, and Ronit has 30 days. But we have to share him with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, so he shoots for only half a day for us.

Shweta comes late but wants to go early, Cezanne doesn't want to shoot for more than two hours on his non-block days, so half the time we can't shoot his scenes.

Then the production house has to write fillers, which bring down the show's TRPs as it spoils the storyline. Last week, we had to use two fillers for the episodes and that's why everybody at Balaji got so angry."

Is there a problem with the dates or is it the cast? The source reveals, "Shweta and Cezanne have ego issues and internal problems all the time even though they don't talk to each other.

Cezanne doesn't like the fact that Shweta earns more than him as she works extra days. But that's his choice as he shoots for only 15 days in a month. There are co-ordination problems too because Ronit wants to leave by 10.30 pm, while Prerna comes at 2 pm and wants to go by 9.30 pm."

Time is money

But Cezanne denies that Jeetendra hauled him up. "My dates are from 15th to the last day of the month, but since I am going out of town from July 21 to 23, I had given dates for July 13 to 15. In fact, I was there the whole day on Thursday and didn't leave early.

So no, I wasn't issued a warning. I am extremely punctual and stay for the entire 12-hour shift. It's the other cast members who want to leave early.

When Balaji wanted to give me an increment, I refused saying I wanted more time not money. I use the remaining 15 days to do what I want."

Master blaster

So when did Jeetendra intervene? Says the source, "Ekta and Shobhaji were so disgusted with the behaviour of the stars that they asked Jeetuji to speak to them.

They are fed up of trying to sort out things. Jeetuji called up Cezanne, Shweta and Ronit and gave them an ultimatum.

He said that if they don't give time to shoot for the next day's telecast and stop causing so many problems, he would start coming on the sets every day and start checking. If they don't behave, he will reprimand them on the sets every day."