Vickey Lalwani, TWF, Bollywood Trade News Network

She is a niece of legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt. On her own, Kalpana Lajmi walks tall as an award-winning filmmaker for movies like EK PAL, RUDALI, DARMIYAAN, DAMAN, etc. But she has been unusually silent after her last film CHINGAARI. Now MUJHE RANG DE (with Ishaa Koppikar, Rahul Dev, Rituparna Sengupta) announced sometime ago is yet to get off the block. What's happening on the Lajmi front?

Excerpts from an interview:

What is happening to MUJHE RANG DE?

The film was supposed to start in October but has now been put on the backburner.

Why?

Ishaa has opted out.

You could have taken someone else?

I turned to Urmila Matondkar to step into Ishaa's shoes. Urmila agreed. Few days later, even she backed out.

But hadn't Ishaa signed on the dotted line?

Yes.

So why did she opt out after that?

She suddenly fell silent and refused to respond to my calls. I told Mahendra Dhariwal (the producer) that it was clear that she was not interested in the project anymore. She kept me in the dark for nearly six months. Till then, I had made several calls to her- but to no avail. Finally, she informed my assistant that we couldn't reach her simply because she had disconnected her phone since somebody was stalking her. For six months? God!

What did you do then?

I approached Urmila Matondkar, but before that I sent a SMS to Ishaa.

What did the message say?

The message read: 'Ishaa, you are a very fine person. I like you very much. But please don't get caught up with people who don't show you the mirror of reality'.

What happened with Urmila? Did she too opt out?

Suddenly she told me that she won't be able to give me dates since she was busy with shows. I told her that I was ready to wait till her shows get over- but she insisted that I let this pass. What could I do? Am I in a position that I can sit and make enemies?

Is it because Mahendra Dhariwal is not a big name and today's actors want to work with big banners only?