by Subhash K Jha

Sanjay Gupta seems to be constantly losing his cool with the women around him. The latest victim of his wrath is Aarti Chabria who has triggered off yet another controversy.

"We already had three cases against our film. Now today we've the fourth. Thanks to Ms Chabria's unthinking statement, the real-life bar girl Tarannum has taken us to court. Aarti went overboard claiming she researched her character on the real Tarannum.

So the real Tarannum who must have been a schoolgirl when the actual shootout happened in 1991, thinks Aarti's character is based on her. Was the real Tarannum dancing as a school girl? I admit Aarti is named Tarannum. And she's a bar girl."

Sanjay Gupta has blacklisted Neha Dhupia from his production company White Faeather. "Her conduct has been thoroughly unprofessional. When we needed her here to promote the film with the rest of the cast she left us in a lurch to strut at some fashion parade, in spite of being given dates and schedules."

Reacting to accusations of bad behaviour with Neha, Sanjay protests, "I'm not capable of behaving badly with any woman. I don't swear and abuse when women are around, forget raising my hand. I'm much too conservative in my attitude to women.

I was very clear in my dealings with Neha. I've completely cut her out of my life and profession. I haven't been taking her calls. She won't work for us again. I know it's no loss for her.And it's no loss for us either."

Another lady. Another controversy.

"You mean Mandira Bedi? There's no controversy there. She couldn't do Alibaug because our dates kept getting shifted since June last year."

As for rumours of his involvement with Ms Bedi, Gupta is pretty much in the dark about their whereabouts. "Mandira and I pretty much hung about in the same group. I'm very grateful to my well-wishers for giving me a girlfriend every day. But it's affecting my efforts to woo my wife back."

To stay away from the womanizer's reputation Gupta has stopped partying and socializing. "Though I love my drinks I don't go out with women any longer. The other night I was out with pals Rohit Roy and Suddhanhu Pande. We went to a club where they played retro music, had our drinks and came home quietly."

So far Gupta has only been able to convince his wife for an occasional lunch, or to accompany him on a road trip to Pune to promote Shootout At Lokhandwala.

"She hasn't budged from her stance to stay separately. She did come with us on the bus to Pune to promote Shootout...We had great fun playing dumb charadeand antakshari"

At Pune the entire cast and crew had to sing.

"Aanchal Dutta who's singing extensively in my films (and mark my words, this girl is going to be a huge singer) led the singing party. But all of us including Diya Mirza and my wife Anu took a turn at the mike.

All the boys –Rohit Roy, Vivek, Tusshar and Shabbir—sang the entire Ganpat song together. Then we danced till 4 am. My wife of course retired early."

As for Chota Rajan disapproving of Shootout. "He hasn't seen the film. Nobody has. Let me clarify. All the characters except Sanju Dutt's, are fictionalized. I'm just sitting back and quietly enjoying the tamasha."