Ready, Steady, Pay
Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 11, 2014)

Anees Bazmee is a relieved man. He had slapped a case of non-payment of dues against Bhushan Kumar, the producer of his 2011 directorial Ready, in September. The arbitration proceedings have gone in his favour and Bhushan will have to pay Rs 9 crore to Anees.

The relationship between the director and the producer went sour after the film's release when Bhushan failed to pay Anees his directorial fee, plus a percentage of the profit. Talking to Mirror (September 11, 2014), Bhushan had explained: "The film has earned Rs 120 crore. The deal was that we would pay Bazmee 30 percent of the profit after we recover all our money. We had to re-shoot two songs, which cost us an extra Rs 2 crore. Added to that, we spent Rs 20 crore in publicity." He insisted he had also paid Anees a signing amount of Rs 5 crore four years back. Now, he plans to move High Court.

Advocate M L Ranjit representing Anees, said: "Let Bhushan appeal. He has every right to do that. But my client is not a liar."

Bhushan retorted, "We have a court hearing later this month. We will present our set of arguments in detail then."

Anees was diplomatic: "Bhushan and I are cordial to each other. Whatever I have asked from him is my rightful money."