'The Rising' Story So Far 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, November 18, 2003 - 02:58 IST
With Aishwarya's exit from 'The Rising', all fingers pointed towards Ms. Rai's rising demands.
But her international manager, Simone Sheffield of the US agency, William Morris and Co. blamed producer Bobby Bedi over the matter, clarifying Ash's side on the story so far. The Company said that the director of the film, Ketan Mehta, gave a brief outline of the story to Ash in November 2002. Ash liked the concept and agreed to do the film but also asked for the final script. But no documents were received till May 2003 when Ash said that she would do the movie on mutually agreed terms and conditions. And though Bedi sent a deposit to reserve her dates, Ash didn't receive any final script. But when the company learnt that 'The Rising' was to be made in both Hindi and English, thus becoming an international project (much different from what was originally conceived), they demanded for a higher remuneration considering Ash's international appeal. Also the company claimed that in the past year, Ash's international value had risen significantly (approx. $1-3 million). But Bedi had no upfront money for Ash. At this juncture, the company offered to accept fees on the back-end for UK/USA territories to which Bedi replied that Aamir was the only one to get back-end. Moreover, Bedi wanted to finalize the deal at the last minute, just days before filming and even threatened to blacken Ash's name in the industry.
On the other hand, Bobby Bedi claims that Ash is a victim of her US agency. She was offered Rs 75 lakhs in the start which was later finalized to 1.5 crore. They even gave her an advance of Rs 15 lakhs but her company wanted to renegotiate the deal just before Ash left for Cannes. They demanded for Rs 3 crore (of which Rs 50 Lakh was for her agent) which was unacceptable to Bedi and his partners (Yash Chopra and Manmohan Shetty). Finally Ash returned the advance money just 2 weeks ago.
Meanwhile Amisha Patel has been finalized for Aishwarya's role in the film.
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Aishwarya at no.9
