Malini Ousts Director Puri; Will Helm 'TMOK' Herself!

It had been snowballing into a major mess. And in an unexpected turn of events, Hema Malini, producer of 'Tell Me Oh Khuda', has given the big royal boot to Mayur Puri who was until now helming her Rs.14 crore opus, a relaunch vehicle for her daughter Esha Deol. Following Puri's ouster, Malini will take up the directorial reins herself to complete 'TMOK'.

As per reliable sources, Puri and Malini had been having "major creative differences" and matters soon came to an ugly closure when Malini booted out Puri from 'TMOK' at the IMPPA ( Indian Motion Pictures And Producers' Association) and IFTDA ( Indian Film And Television Directors Association) meeting convened to resolve the prickly issue.

An IMPPA source squealed to the media about the resultant solution that was adopted stating, "Quite a few portions of the film will be reshot. Mayur Puri's name will not appear in the film's title credits, though his money issues will be settled. Hema Malini has directed 'Dil Aashna Hai' and she has a good knowledge about direction."

A source close to Malini states in a media quote, "Puri overshot the film. Nearly 1.5 lakh feet of footage had been shot, which took the budget much higher. Hema bore it all, but she practically fell off the chair when she saw what he'd filmed! Forget the script, Puri hadn't even shot the basic storyline that he had sold Hema when he was appointed director."