Madhavan gets Rs.10 mn for small part in Jaya-starrer

MUMBAI - R. Madhavan, who had opted out of Revathy Varma’s film “Aap Ke Liye Hum”, is back after he has been paid a whopping Rs.1 crore (Rs.10 million) for a small part in the women-centric film that has Jaya Bachchan, Ayesha Takia and Raveena Tandon in lead roles.

“But what to do? It’s very difficult to get male stars for female-oriented films. We’ve paid Maddy Rs.1 crore out of which he has already received Rs.25 lakh. He has already shot for five days with us,” Varma told IANS.

The film was earlier titled “Chaassni”, but Jaya wasn’t too happy with the title. “We called the film ‘Chaassni’. But Jayaji put her foot down, said the title was too sweet. So we’ve a new title ‘Aap Ke Liye Hum’,” said Varma

The director had launched her women-centric film on Jaya’s birthday in April but family matters kept the senior actress away from her rare film assignment. The senior started shooting for the film Saturday. “It would have started two days earlier. But my cast got busy with Ganesh Chaturthi,” said Varma.

Ayesha, who for a while seemed unsure if after her marriage, honeymoon and other related activities she would be able to do the film when two schedules had to be cancelled, is back and will be seen as Jaya’s daughter in the film.

Varma says she was insistent on having Ayesha. “I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing that role. If you remember Jyothika has done the part in the original (Tamil movie ‘June R’). And Ayesha has the same childlike warmth and a nurturing quality to her personality. I couldn’t think of anyone else,” she said.

“Aap Ke Liye Hum” is about an ‘adopted’ mother abandoned by her wretched son, played by Ranvir Shorey who was the last to join the cast.

But wasn’t Genelia d’Souza the first choice? “Yes, we did think of her. But Genelia is a very busy and a big star. It wasn’t the money, we’ve paid all the actors their market price.”