Show and tell!

Art imitated life in Mahesh Bhatt's Woh Lamhe (based on the director's turbulent relationship with actress Parveen Babi) and Gangster (allegedly modelled on underworld gangster Abu Salem), but this time, life has unknowingly imitated art.

Vishesh Films' Show Business, directed by choreographer Raju Khan, runs parallel to singer Sonu Niigaam's recent allegations that a senior film journalist is trying to tarnish his image because he rejected his sexual advances.

Newcomer Tushar Jalota plays a musician who is victimised by a journalist played by Sushant Singh in Show Business.

Reality bites

Producer Mahesh Bhatt was watching the news on Monday when Sonu called him to talk about the controversy. That's when Bhatt told him about Show Business and how its story is similar to what's happening in his life right now.

Says Bhatt, "My brother Mukesh and I almost fell off our chairs when we realised this. The only difference is Sushant does not make sexual advances towards Tushar. He writes stories against him over a vendetta so that Tushar loses his credibility in the film industry."

Fiction to fact

Yeh Meri Kahani: Sonu Niigaam

Show Business chronicles the life of a musician who emerges as the new sensation in Bollywood on a talent hunt show.

"Sushant wants to ride on Tushar's wave of success and wants to plant stories about him.

But Tushar is a middle-class boy with high ideals and refuses undue publicity.

He tells Sushant that he does not need cock-and-bull stories to be in the limelight. Sushant flies into a rage and vows to destroy him," adds Bhatt.

Tushar chips in, "I was surprised too. Till now, Show Business was fiction. Now, I'm doubly excited about the film."

New mafia

Mahesh Bhatt

According to Bhatt, bullying by the media is not new. "But of late, it has acquired dangerous tones.

I distinctly remember how a particular journalist, who felt terribly hurt when she refused to talk to him on certain stories, hounded Mallika Sherawat. He couldn't take 'no' for an answer and started threatening her.

She confided in me and I told her not to bow down to his demands," says Bhatt. He adds that certain elements in the media have emerged as a new mafia.

"The pen is a very powerful weapon. The old mafia injured physically with a bullet, but this one assassinates the status," he says. Show Business releases in October.