The price of infamy
Noreen Aslam

BOMBAY—Ameesha Patel has been brought down many pegs! She has paid severely for her past mistakes. The biggest being that she took her parents to court. Her mother begs to have her back at home. She is willing to overlook everything but Ameehsa Patel still holds a grudge and will not return home to her parents. There are two sides to every story so one will never know the truth but Ameesha at present has chosen to have no family support. She should take a tip or two from Kajol who even now says that mothers play the most important role in a child’s life. Even at this age, when she has any problem she puts her head in her mother’s lap and feels comforted.
Yes Ameesha’s mother did not approve of Vikram Bhatt but which mother would give her immediate approval to a once married man for her young and single daughter? Asha, Ameesha’s mum felt that he was the type that would take her for a ride and never marry her. Her mum has been proved right. Ameesha finally broke off with Vikram. Her career went down the drain and today she is paying the heavy price of having been Vikram Bhatt’s girlfriend. No other producer was keen to sign her on and Vikram did not push her career either, even though he could have.
Ameesha had one other minus point, her arrogance. She felt she was better than all the other actresses because she was so intelligent. But in this industry that has no power. Either you are a great actress or you have great connections and Ameesha had neither. She totally forgot that Rakesh Roshan is the one who launched her and gave her a name in Bollywood. The film was an overnight hit, but Ameesha forgot to say thank you. Her ungratefulness has also gone against her. After she split with Vikram Bhatt she was given a fresh start by Priyadarshan. He was good enough to give her a role in Bhool Bhulaiyaa but at the time of promoting the film she acted tough with him, as is her usual practice.
Then suddenly out of the blue she struck gold! She was cast in a Shah Rukh film Billoo Barber, opposite Irfaan Khan. The producers had recommended her. But somewhere, something went wrong and suddenly Ameesha was replaced by none other than, Juhi Chawla. Priyadarshan had mentioned to Shah Rukh that he was not sure about Ameesha playing a village belle and Shah Rukh who was in a bad mood that day agreed and told Priyadarshan to immediately replace her with good friend Juhi Chawla. This upset Ameesha no end but what could she do? She should not have acted smart with Priyadarshan at the time of his film’s release.