KAIZAD GUSTAD is in the news for fudging facts about his assistant’s death. LEO MIRANI traces his track record

Kaizad Gustad has a knack for getting himself written about. He first showed up on our doorsteps, in our living rooms and in the collective consciousness in the year 1999 with Bombay Boys, an independent, quirky and not altogether rubbish film about three expatriates who land up sharing an apartment in Mumbai.

A couple of years earlier, Harper Collins India had released Of No Fixed Address, a travelogue-autobiography-fiction sort of mish mash of 13 stories set in various cities around the world. Although the book got bad reviews more-or-less across the board, Gustad routinely made for good copy. A dreadlocked 20-something (actually 31 by the time he made Bombay Boys) with a wacky movie and a book that claims to show us the world, he was hot property.

In 2002, he was back, yet again. This time at a press conference at a suburban Mumbai hotel. Gustad, along with producer Ayesha Shroff and almost all the actors, announced his next project, Boom. Over tea and biscuits, the actors made jokes, Gustad read from the press release and threw the floor open to questions. “What sort of audience do you think you will attract for this film?” a member of the press asked.

“Oh, I think this is a film everyone will enjoy. I think all sorts of people should see it.” Later, in one-on-one mode, he was questioned about how an English film with three models and set in the world of fashion could possibly appeal to everyone. Whether a budget of Rs 4-5 crore (as it was then) wasn’t too large for what would eventually be a south Mumbai sort of film. He denied it vigourously.

He was back in the news prior to the release of Boom, albeit by association, with news of Amitabh Bachchan not being paid his full fee, pirated VCDs of Boom hitting the market weeks before the release and many rumours of an affair with producer Ayesha Shroff (better known as Jackie Shroff’s wife).

And then there was the momentous morning of September 19, 2003, when the film finally released. After more pre-release hype than the second Matrix film was able to generate, Boom, and Kaizad, generated extreme reactions of both positive and negative varieties. Mid-Day, supposedly an evening paper, carried a front page review before the first show had a chance to start. Wild accusations of personal vendettas were flung. And eventually, Kaizad faded from public memory while the press breathed a sigh of relief that after a debacle like this, no one would ever give him money to make another film.

But alas! He was back in the news last week. On May 24, incidentally a day before the death of Nadia Khan, there were reports of him meeting Mumbai’s famed dabbawallahs. The last time the dabbawallahs were in the news was when Prince Charles had a chat with them. Oh what a fall, my countrymen.