Subhash K Jha (DNA; May 10, 2017)

The feud between director Hansal Mehta and his writer-editor Apurva Asrani, which started a week ago after the latter spoke to this paper about the unfairness of Mehta’s claim that his leading lady Kangana Ranaut was a collaborator and co-writer on Simran, has intensified.

Apurva, who was shocked when Hansal openly credited Ranaut as co-writer on Simran, had said, “I am the story, screenplay and dialogue writer of Simran. Kangana has done a lovely job improvising some dialogues and has been credited for ‘Additional Dialogue’.” Mehta, who sources say, is “committed” to giving Kangana credit as co-writer did not react well to Asrani’s assertion and has now decided to terminate Asrani’s services.

In a shocking turn of events Apurva has been served a termination notice by Hansal as the official editor of Simran. On Tuesday afternoon Apurva said, “I got a termination letter. My editing services have been terminated citing a clause in the contract that allows them to do so without notice or reason.” Ironically, Apurva has finished editing almost the entire film. “I am still trying to understand why he did this when the editing work is almost over.”

Apurva has collaborated with Mehta over some of latter’s most celebrated film including Shahid and Aligarh. Apurva is pretty dazed by the turn of events. “Right now, I am numbed. I’d like to talk to Hansal once before I say anything else. But he hasn’t taken my calls or answered my text messages after he gave that interview announcing Kangana as a co-writer on Simran. I spoke out in the press because by not speaking to me, Hansal gave me no other choice.”