Bollywood plays strange games with those who aren't familiar with it.
Take Jiah Khan. She made a spectacular debut with an author-backed role in Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd.
After that...nothing! Until Aamir Khan green-lighted her for a role in Ghajini.
Then suddenly everything started to fall in place. ...Or so it seemed. Until strange stories about Jiah's conduct have surfaced.
Apparently she was shown the door in Ken Ghosh's new film with Shahid Kapoor. There was just one small problem.
Jiah wsn't informed about it.
She appears shocked by tales of her ouster. "I've already shot for two days for the untitled film with Shahid. After that there were scheduling issues.
My dates for Ken's film were clashing with Aamir and Ghajini. I couldn't possibly let the Aamir project suffer at any cost. It's my chance to create the impact that I couldn't, for some weird reasons, create after Nishabd."
Now Jiah is in fact all set to shoot for Ken's film. "I've already given my dates for Ken's shooting. No one has so far informed me that I'm not in the film. So it'd be right for me to presume the project remains as it is."
As for talk of her over-friendly messages to Shahid Jiah protests, "I've just sent him a couple of formal messages saying how much I'm looking forward to working with him. Is that wrong?" she asks with touching tenativeness.
She then whispers. "I'm new to all this. I keep to myself and I've no idea what people do in this industry. I am here only to work."
Jiah will have learn the hard way that PR skills are as important as professionalism.
In the meanwhile director Ken Ghosh suddenly surfaced to say Jiah was back in the project. "I wouldn't like to say
much on the matter.I'll let my producers UTV clear all the misunderstanding. But Jiah is very much in the project...This isn't to say that I don't want to work with Katrina. Of course I do. Look how hot she's at the boxoffice! We'll work together some other time. It's a small industry."
But how could Katrina be eligible for a role earmarked for Jiah??!!
"Why not?" Ken shoots back. 'Didn't Mr Bachchan do Zanjeer in place of Dev Anand? And didn't Mr Bachchan say yes to Deewaar after Rajesh Khanna opted? These things happen all the time. Like I said it's a small world."
