Ghost from the past: Ajay Devgn gets tolerant to first producer's crisis

Dinesh Patel who had produced Ajay Devgn’s career-making debut Phool Aur Kaante is currently in an unhappy financial situation. To tide him over the monetary crisis Devgn, known to be charitable towards the film fraternity, has agreed to let Patel’s 10-year old film with Devgn in the lead be released. Old long-forgotten films being fished out of the cans for release... these are every star’s biggest nightmare. Ajay Devgn who is currently going through the most fruitful phase of his career now has to confront the embarrassment of a 10-year old film entitled Naam (no relation to the Mahesh Bhatt film starring Sanjay Dutt) being released next week. The film directed by Anees Bazmi features Devgn with Sameera Reddy and Bhoomika Chawla. Complicating the issue further is the fact that the film is produced by Dinesh Patel who was the producer of Devgn’s debut film Phool Aur Kaante. Apparently the producer is going through financially difficult times. Ajay is therefore not inclined to discourage the release. Neither is Anees. Says the director, “As a director I feel uncomfortable about a 10-year old film being released now. But the producer has put in the money and needs to get back his investment. I am told he’s going through financial hardships. We have to respect the producers’ financial interests.” Anees agrees the film may look dated. “Ajay and I are not what we used to be ten years ago. But when we did the film it was a very well-written thriller. I’ve done another film Deewaangee with him. That too moved away from my forte, namely comedy. So we are both on a firm ground here.” Incidentally Priyanka Chopra too went out of her way to accommodate a financially challenged producer. She not only agreed to let K C Bokadia release her decade-old hibernating project Deewana Main Deewana, she also gave him bonus dates to shoot a new song. Old projects are never good news for a star’s career. But actors like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Govinda have repeatedly bailed ailing languishing projects out of the cans, knowing well that the project would bomb.