Arjun Mathur is miffed that his beefy scenes were edited out of the Prateik starrer

Arjun Mathur, the Farhan Akhtar discovery who gave a sterling performance as Irrfan Khan's gay lover in Zoya Akhtar's Migration and as a male prostitute in Onir's I Am, is unhappy with the way his role has shaped up in My Friend Pinto.

He says, "It beats me why my role was cut. May be they wanted to showcase Prateik more. Maybe they thought a caper may be safer at the box-office than a film about friendship."

Arjun says the script had a lot more of him and Prateik together. "The story, my track and even the marketing plan was quite different when I was signed.

They edited out my meatiest scenes, in effect, robbing the film of its soul and the only conflict there was in the plot. Why was it removed? Who am I to question calls taken on the editing table?"

Arjun describes the scenes that have been removed. "The track was never meant to be this half-baked where you don't end up feeling for these characters. The bulk of the arguments between my character and my wife (Shruti Seth) was removed."

Director Raghav Dhar said, "I find it hard to believe he'd say any such thing. Any editing has been done to make the film sharper, not to highlight one actor.

Arjun has done an incredible job and he's a friend. But my responsibility as a director was towards the film."