Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 23, 2014)

Boney Kapoor may have nothing to do with Kunal Deshmukh’s film, Raja Natwarlal, but it seems that the former is upset with this young filmmaker. Kapoor, who is known to be a close friend of entrepreneur Subrata Roy, is apparently rattled by the fact that Kay Kay Menon’s character in Deshmukh’s film bears a strong resemblance to Roy.

The producer is said to have called Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt to complain about their protégé. Mahesh Bhatt says, “Boney called me to talk about my protégé, Kunal Deshmukh, who has allegedly tried to malign Subrata Roy by showing Kay Kay Menon’s character as a villain in his next film, Raja Natwarlal. Boney feels that it is unfair to show Subrata as a conman. He has asked me to speak to Kunal about the same.”

Bhatt, who gave Kunal his first break as a director, called him up recently. “Kunal told me that he is surprised to hear about a character in his film being modelled on Subrata Roy. He told me that his film has been in the making for more than eight months and it’s only now that such talk has started doing the rounds. Kay Kay’s character may look like Roy, but he assured me that the similarities end there. He even offered to clarify the same with Boney,” adds Mahesh Bhatt.

Sanjay Masoomm, the film’s writer, chimes in, “The role is not based on Subrata Roy, but people will try to look for similarities. One cannot help it.”

Boney Kapoor, on the other hand, was not available for comment.