Ravi Sailaab Rai sure has made a name for himself through this one serial. As luck would have it, he's now got two serials, both soaps of the same genre, scheduled on two rival channels - SONY and ZEE. The serial on Sony is called Thoda Hai Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai and the one on ZEE is called Teacher. The irony is that both serials will be on air within a month of each other and both the channels have given him the same time slot! So Ravi Rai fans will either be watching one or jumping from channel to channel to catch both. Ever heard of being in competition with yourself?Mast Mast troubleThe Mast Mast Zindagi controversy continues. As reports last week of the director and others walking out circulated, the producer, Sunil Khanwalkar, held a press conference. He says that it was the arrogance and high-handedness of director, Ashok Pandit and writer Sanjay Chhel that created the problems. The show's TRPs hit rock bottom and when suggestions were made to bring in more writers, Chhel and Pandit turned abusive and threatened to walk out. Also, Chhel apparently kept on increasing his price but used to deliver the script in a "mutilated and absurd format" with last minute changes which led to the shooting schedule going haywire. "Sanjay Chhel used to ridicule and humiliate us as if he was doing us a favour," claims the producer. He also denies that payments were not made and claims that it is Chhel who owes him Rs 1.75 lakh.Mad(dy) about moneyActor Madhavan seems to be on his way out. He has left Plus Channel's Kabhi Kabhi (or is it the other way round?) apparently because he hiked his price and that price shocked the producers. It is also rumoured that Madhavan will be out of UTV's Sea Hawks for the same reason. Poor Maddy, he seems to have some unrealistic notions about his acting abilities and his popularity. So much so that he has got two mobile phones. One for general janta and fans and the other for his close friends.Unsung heroShabaaz Khan, the debonair hero of Betaal Pachisi, is the son of Ustad Amir Khansaab, the legendary classical singer who sang in films like Baiju Bawra. Obviously, although he hasn't inherited his father's musical genes, acting seems to be in his blood.Out of sight, out of mindIf you don't see or hear something you can always pretend that it does not exist. Now the rumour mill has it that Chandraprakash Dwivedi, head of programming at ZEE, is so upset by the fact that his Ek Aur Mahabharat is receiving no response at all from viewers that he's in the process of shutting down the response department at ZEE, whose job it is to ferret out such information. But doesn't this look like a case of the remedy being worse than the disease?Contributed by Lata Khubchandani and Kalpana Verma
