Anees Bazmee denies non-payment to Sunil Pal, says he is not related to the show.
Comedian Sunil Pal, who tickled our funny bones with The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, has taken to Facebook to express his anguish against Mubarakan director Anees Bazmee. He accused the director of non-payment of dues and has delineated the entire incident in the 3-minute long video. To this, Bazmee said that Sunil does not deserve any kind of payment.
Sunil Pal shared how Anees Bazmee approached him for a performance at a family gathering, before the shooting of Mubarakan began. Starting off with calling Mubarakan an out an out failure, he went on to say that Anees deserved the same because he had become too high-headed. He had started to disrespect artists and Sunil was one of them.
According to Sunil, even though Bazmee had earlier accepted that he couldn’t pay the market price for his show, Sunil still agreed to the deal. And then after the thing was done, Bazmee disappeared and stopped attending his calls. He also accused Bazmee’s partner Mayur Barot of the same and described the situation at length.
Anees Bazmee’ side of the story is a lot different than this. Anees said that he was nowhere related to this show, apart from the fact that he just directed him to Mayur. He also alleged that Sunil got drunk during the event and doesn’t even deserve any sort of payment. In an interview with DNA, he said, “This is exactly what this man wants me to do. Normally I wouldn’t respond. I’ve been bombarded with calls and messages asking me to react to Sunil Pal’s nasty allegations. I will just clarify to you what happened. Sunil is among the numerous hopefuls who come to my office every day for work. And yes, he’s right I did tell him I’ll find him something in one of my films. He seemed desperate and I felt sorry for him. However, there was no scope for Sunil in Mubarakan. Now, of course, there is no question of working with a trouble-maker and a publicity seeker.”
In the video, Sunil Pal also tells how when he finally got to meet Anees Bazmee after long hours of waiting, Bazmee outrightly refused to pay, saying, “Wo toh ghar ki baat thi. Bhool jao. (That was a family favour. Forget it.)” Sunil said that only for the sake of his relationship that he didn’t file a legal complaint against the director. We wonder whose story to believe but non-payment has become a serious issue in the past in Bollywood too.
