Akshaye slaps a politician

Even before the sound of Harvinder Singh's slap resonating across politician Sharad Pawar's cheek has died down, there comes the news that Akshaye Khanna playing the frustrated disillusioned Common Man in a new film has done exactly that in a forthcoming film. Writer-director Rumi Jaffrey, however, kills the rumour that the sequence has been shot after the slap-happy incident in Delhi.



In what looks like a bizarre reprise of Harvinder Singh's slap against corruption last week, Akshaye Khanna playing the Common Man in writer-director Rumi Jaffrey's Gali Gali Gali Mein Shor Hai, walks up casually to the corrupt politician, played by character-actor Murli Sharma, and plants a resounding slap on the corrupt glib-talking man's face.

Protesting against the buzz that he shot the slapping sequence following the real life incident in the country's capital, Rumi says, "No, no! We shot the sequence three months ago in Bhopal.

We had no clue someone will actually be doing what we had only imagined as a cinematic device to show the Common Man's anger and frustration. We even used to discuss within our crew whether the scene would offend our politicians in any way. But look at destiny! A man actually went and did it."

Rumi says, "I suppose the average Indian's tolerance power has reached breaking-point. When we started Gali-Gali Mein Shor Hai, Anna Hazare saab's campaign and all its offshoots had just started. As we completed the film we realised how deep-rooted people's resentment against corruption had become."

At the moment there's just anxiety on the director's mind: "People shouldn't think we're copying real-life incidents of protest."