Tulsi was a tall, slender, good looking girl and incredibly mature for her age. Dancing at Ricado Bar was a stop gap arrangement for her. She knew she was better than that and had always harboured a secret desire to be a film actress. So when Roy and Chika met her, she was quite receptive.
In exchange of setting Kunju up, they promised to get her enrolled in Mumbai’s top actor training institute and then a role in the next ZMI production.
Tulsi’s mind was racing. She had the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. She could get rid of a major irritant in her life and start the career she had always dreamt of.
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Yet, she knew she had the opportunity for more.
“I will set Kunju up but I need you to do something else too before I do,” she said, “I want you to make a Ration Card for me in the name of Tulsi Mukherjee with a Mumbai address.”
Chika immediately contacted a tout, got him to grease the right palms and procured Tulsi a Ration Card in three days. She was now a resident of Mumbai and a citizen of India. All it cost was Rs 25,000 and the right contacts.
On receiving her Ration Card, an overjoyed Tulsi asked them “Okay, what do you want me to do?”
It was the eleventh of September, 2001. Rashid Kunju was in a good mood. All day the news channels were showing videos of the two airliners smashing into the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York and reducing the iconic power centre of capitalism to rubble.
Kunju had nothing to do with Al Qaida or its leader Osama Bin Laden. But the fact that a Muslim terror group had brought the mighty USA to its knees, made him smile.
‘Allah is great,’ he thought as he smiled; ‘now the capitalist kafirs in Mumbai will also be terrified to receive a call from a Muslim gangster!’
During the day he made calls to half a dozen targets as they watched the news in horror. He even succeeded in making a few deals.
That evening, he strode in to Ricado with an exaggerated swagger. As usual, he had couple of his henchmen with him.
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Half a bottle of whiskey and a more than usually flirtatious Tulsi swelled his chest and shrunk his common sense.
At around midnight, when he was holding her hand and trying to pull her to him and paw her, she coyly whispered in his ear.
“Not here. Hotel Highway, Room 302. The room is already booked. Wait for me there, I will finish up and reach in an hour.”
Kunju couldn’t believe his luck and strutted out happily with his cronies.
But as soon as they reached Hotel Highway, they were surrounded by Kaviraj and his squad and taken into custody. They were bundled into a police van while one of the constables followed in the trio’s Maruti Omni.
An infuriated Kunju cursed and swore to kill Tulsi, little knowing that dead men don’t kill.
Next day, the newspapers reported that dreaded gangster and extortionist Rashid Kunju and two of his henchmen Anwar Khan and Abdul “Kutta” were killed in an encounter with the Police in Yeoor Hills of Thane.
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The Anti-Extortion Cell had got a tip off that the gangsters had made an appointment to collect Rs 1 crore from a prominent builder from his bungalow in Yeoor Hills.
The police led by ACP Kaviraj Chavan had laid a trap. The gangsters had fired four rounds when challenged, injuring a constable. The police party had retaliated and killed all three gangsters.
Roy and Chika kept their word and enrolled Tulsi in the leading Actor Training Institute in the country helmed by a renowned character actor and National Award winner.
They also got her a rented 2 bedroom apartment in the upcoming Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri which somehow had become a hub for aspiring actors. The apartment was shared by three other female actors who were finalists of ZMI’s televised and much publicised star hunt.
Though she was a fish out of water in the beginning, Tulsi soon adapted and became adept in the role of a glamorous and typical Bollywood starlet.
She was a natural actor and she learnt fast but most of all she had a hunger that her
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contemporaries did not have.
What’s more, armed with her Ration Card, she also opened a bank account for herself. She had cut off her Bangladeshi ties completely and had become an Indian citizen.
She started getting offers for small roles in films and also as one of the leads in a TV series, but Roy advised her to not take on any of those.
“Once you get branded as a character artist, it is very difficult to get main leads,” he told her, “Be patient, and wait for the right break.”
Her champagne dreams were at last taking concrete shape even if the foundation was set in the blood of Rashid Kunju.
She often had nightmares of Kunju coming after her, but even she realized that it was justified collateral.
‘Just because you live in the gutter, it doesn’t mean you can’t look at the stars…’ she consoled herself.
In the meanwhile, once Rita was back from the European tour, she immersed herself in her NGO work. Because of the ZMI connection, she could get a lot of endorsements and support from the film fraternity which gave tremendous publicity and gathered lakhs of rupees as donations for the good work being done by the organization.
Rita herself became a mini celebrity with her photographs being featured regularly along with film stars in the Page 3 society columns of leading newspapers.
Zasha was almost 10 and though not a bookworm was extremely smart. Slim and tall for her age, she was also a born athlete who excelled in almost every game she played.
Roy enrolled her for tennis training at the nearby Chembur Gymkhana.
“I want Zasha to study and settle in either USA or Canada,” he confided in Chika, “India is far too violent a place and she has already seen her
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fair share. If she excels in tennis, she will easily get admission in top universities there.”
Zasha took to tennis like fish to water. Soon she was winning every local tournament in her age category and her coach, an ex-international doubles player, was very bullish about her future.
“Indian women are finally making a mark in Tennis. Look at that young Mirza girl from Hyderabad. She has a forehand like a rocket. If she has the right attitude, I tell you, she will end up as the greatest Indian female tennis player ever,” he added.
Back in ZMI, the shooting of MumBhais was going on in full swing. Six months after the televised Muhurat of the film, it was 50% complete and already behind schedule by two months because of a strike by the film artistes’ union and later a bout of deadly Dengue that struck down the director Biju Mahajan for a month.
As it happens, the snake bit the production of MumBhais just as it was hit by lightning.
Despite ZMI’s code of conduct that said no late night partying till the shoot was over, Divya
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Rishi, one of the main leads in the movie and immensely popular in the SMS voting during the star hunt, decided to break the code and went out to celebrate her boyfriend’s birthday.
Her boyfriend, Bunty Sharma, was the scion of Sharma Group of Industries with considerable interests in power, infrastructure and cement industries. His father K. K. Sharma was also the Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur district of Punjab and the incumbent Government of India Minister of State – Corporate Affairs (Independent charge).
After pub hopping all over South Bombay, an inebriated Bunty got into an argument with a friend on whose car was faster.
A race ensued at Marine Drive at 3:00 am. Egged on by the girls, Bunty’s BMW hit 180 kms an hour before he lost control and hit the divider on a swerve. The car flew 20 metres in the air and smashed right into a road roller parked on the other side of the road.
The impact was so severe that the BMW was crushed beyond recognition and even the best safety equipment built into the car could not help save the passengers.
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The bodies of Bunty, Divya, and two of their friends had to be cut out of the car.
The crash made headlines, and the huge public outcry forced the Home Minister to instruct the police to immediately start a DUI prevention drive.
Divya was loved by everybody in ZMI and the entire MumBhais unit got together and gave her an emotional farewell.
But the fact remained that MumBhais already beleaguered schedule had received another setback!
In a meeting with the core crew, financers and ZMI, they discussed several options including one to cut losses and scrap the project. Another option was to reshoot Divya’s role with another actor. But finally they decided to modify the script and have her character die in a similar car accident and introduce a new lead actress as her sister.
“This is Divya’s first and only film. We did not want her dream to die with her by reshooting her role. The death of her character in the film will also send a social message to the youth of India how dangerous it is to drink and drive.
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We will be introducing a new lead in the film,” announced Roy in a press conference called soon after.
It also meant that Tulsi got her first big break in the movies.
Unknown to Roy and Chika, there was trouble brewing in ZMI. Ballu was feeling restless. He was feeling that Roy and Chika were making all the important decisions without taking his views seriously.
Till now he did not mind because neither Roy nor Chika were the type to lust after young tinsel struck starlets by using their position as Producers. Ballu on the other hand… lived, breathed and slept on the proverbial casting couch.
When Divya died tragically and suddenly, Ballu had promised her role to one of his ‘compromising’ starlets. His recommendation was struck down by Roy and the role went to Tulsi.
“The fuckin’ bar dancer” He swore to himself, “I wonder what Roy sees in her!”
One day during the shoot when Roy and Chika were not around, he made his way into her green room on some pretext and made a pass at her.
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One thing that Ricado Bar had taught Tulsi was how to deal with lecherous men.
She smiled at Ballu sweetly and asked him “Don’t you have a wife to go home to Mr Balwinder?”
“A man can’t be happy with one woman,” he replied.
“And he can be happy with many women, Mr Balwinder? I have seen too many men like you. Will you please excuse me? I have to get ready for my shot.” She dismissed him.
Furious at the snub, Ballu grabbed her hand.
She looked straight into his eyes and said softly, “Do you know what I did to the last man who tried to force himself on me? I got him killed!”
Ballu froze under the cold gaze and let go of her arm and walked out without uttering a word.
A couple of weeks later a gossip column of a local paper carried an article about how the lead actress of MumBhais, Tulsi Mukherjee, was an erstwhile dancer who performed in a shady bar called Ricado in Chembur. The article had interviews with the bar owner and some staff members too.
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Roy read the article and was upset. They called Tulsi to the office and prepared her for the questions she may face from the fourth estate.
“Don’t lie,” Chika told her, “Just say it is true. You are not privileged enough to be a daughter of a Star or have some godfather in the industry.”
“You had to come up the hard way. You have higher morals than most of the rich, high society starlets in the industry.”
“I am not at all worried,” she replied with a smile, “There is only one thing worse than shit being written about you, it is not being written about!”
“That girl was born to be a star!” Roy told Chika after she left.
“Yeah, she has more balls than half the men I know,” concurred Chika.
“But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t find out who leaked the information to the press!” Roy concluded.
A few calls to the right people and the cat was out of the bag. A young production executive by the name of Amit Yadav had spilt the beans to the scribe.
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Amit was summoned to the office and though he vehemently denied the accusation at first, he later broke down and confessed that Ballu had made him do it.
Immediately, Roy summoned Ballu to his cabin and gave him a dressing down and asked him to pack his stuff and leave.
Seeing how angry Roy was, Ballu buckled and apologized profusely and even agreed to apologize to Tulsi.
Though Roy was in no mood to relent, Chika cooled him down. Ballu, despite his vagrancies, was an important cog in the ZMI wheel and losing him in the middle of a production would have caused problems.
They decided to keep it between the three and let off Ballu with a stern warning. Ballu was thankful that he did not have to eat humble pie in front of Tulsi.
MumBhais was released in early 2004 with great fanfare but tanked at the box office. The film was considered too slow and too dark by the masses. The film received good reviews and did reasonably well in Mumbai but the rest of India could not relate to the film and the story as much and the realistically slow pace killed it.
Tulsi’s role was well appreciated and one of the racy songs set in a dance bar became quite a rage. The news that she was actually a bar dancer, in fact, worked in her favour.
ZMI did not lose much money though. The film was shot on a reasonable budget and the distributors had paid good money for the film. ZMI called all the distributors for a meeting and assured them that their losses would be adjusted in the next film.
In the same meeting, ZMI’s next project “Pyaar ka Khel” (The Game of Love) starring Tulsi and the new super star Hriday Tandon was announced.
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In the next year, ZMI produced three low budget movies, two of which did well in the box office. The third one was an attempt at alternate cinema which flopped.
Then in 2005, they decided to up the ante and do something really big. They entered into a joint venture with a top Hollywood animation studio, DreamToons, who wanted to set up shop in India. DreamToons chose India because of the abundance of cheap graphic art talent available and the fact that outsourcing their own work to their Indian outfit would save them millions of dollars.
A ten thousand square feet office was taken on long term lease in New Bombay to set up the ZMI-DreamToons Studio. And since voice was an integral part of animation, the set up included a state-of-the-art Hi-Fi Audio/ Dubbing Studio.
Their current office was getting too congested so Roy and Chika decided to relocate ZMI also to the same building.
“It will be easier to manage if we centralize operations,” Roy told Chika and he readily agreed.
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They had 3 months to do the interiors of both the offices because the idea was to move in by May, before the rains set in.
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