The cold war between Sanjay Gupta and Zoya Akhtar's team after the former opposing the latter's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) in a jury meeting for Best Picture, has just intensified.
The entire ZNMD team barring Katrina Kaif boycotted the Colors Screen Award function on Saturday night after it was made known that Zoya's film would have to share the Best Picture trophy with Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture.
Says a source close to the Akhtars, "They stayed away after they heard of this ridiculous scheme to keep two filmmakers and their teams happy by putting them both up for Best Picture."
What has specially hurt the Akhtars is that the move to oppose their film for Best Picture came from Sanjay Gupta.
Says the source, "The guy has made his career out of filching foreign DVDs. And he accuses Zoya of copying some film that no one has heard of!"
Ends the source, "This incident has definitely soured relations between Farhan Akhtar and Sanjay Gupta."
While Zoya remained unavailable for comment, the ZNMD's spokesperson said, "The team definitely smelled something fishy and decided to stay away."