by Subhash K Jha
It's happened before. Manoj Bajpai and Vivek Oberoi have been groomed, marketed and then shown the door by their mentor. Now, it's Randeep Hooda's turn.

The D actor who Ramu has until lately been raving about, has been eliminated from the filmmaker's repertory. Randeep will no more be part of a Varma project.

The tension between Varma and the actor had been brewing for a while, and came to flashpoint earlier this month, during the shooting of Varma's Darnaa Zaroori Hai, directed by Chekravarthy, which had Randeep in the lead.

Ramu couldn't tolerate the constant arguments on the sets, and decided to terminate all professional relations with Randeep, including for Shock, which Jijy Philips (My Wife's Murder) was supposed to direct in November.

Says Ramu. "It's true that Randeep is no longer doing Shock, or any other film for me. That segment of Darna Zaroorai Hai will be Randeep's last stint with my company. I wouldn't like to go into details about our differences. But yes, I'd like to say Randeep and I could no longer see eye to eye. I wish him all the best."

Randeep, who's in New York for Manish Gupta's Karma Confessions And Holi, isn't surprised.

"Has Ramu really come out in the open with this? Yes, it's true I'm not doing Shock. I had set aside so many assignments, including Shyam Benegal's Carmen (Chamki) to give dates to Shock.... Anyway, I'll never have anything but the highest regard for Ramu."

Randeep will now be starring in D director Vishram Sawant's next film, Risk. "It's to be produced by Vishram's own company. It's a dark thriller like D. But I'm moving to the other side of the law for this one — I get into a khaki uniform in the film."