Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; January 29, 2015)

Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet has been a subject of gossip and rumour for quite a long time now. Even though Kashyap took to the social media network to put the rumours to rest, they kept coming back. The latest whispers in the industry circuit suggest that the makers are losing sleep over the post production work. The film starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Raveena Tandon and Karan Johar is slated for a May release.

Sources say the film’s running time has apparently turned out to be inordinately long, prompting Fox Star Studios, part producers of the film, to outsource the editing job so that they cut it down to size. The new editing team has apparently decided to chop out three or four songs, featuring Anushka and Raveena, so that they don’t interfere with the flow of the film.

Says a well placed source, “When the producers realised that the film’s duration is over four hours even after editing was done, they decided to get the scenes chopped off further. As of now, it looks like the songs featuring Anushka and Raveena will not see the light of the day.”

Recently, Vikas Bahl shot a special promotional song with Anushka. “They are also hiring various people to complete the editing work. A lot of money is at stake,” the source adds.

When we sent a polite mail to Kashyap, asking about the information that was filtering in, he sent us this response: “Do you even have a clue of the process of filmmaking.. Or generally the papers hire dumb people that can be easily manipulated.. the film is locked and edited.. Vikas bahl shot a promotional song which is not in the film.. Production house is my production house, they don’t take decisions independent of me. Don’t become easy prey to rumour mongers... I am exhausted of you people.. Use your brains if there are any to question it yourself.. And read what you ask yourself.. Idiots (sic).”

Kashyap is the co- producer of the film (Phantom productions) along with Fox. A spokesperson of Fox Star Studios denies the story, saying, “ All these are nothing but baseless rumours.”