By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, Dec 25 (IANS) Director Prakash Jha claims the trailer of his political drama “Rajneeti” was removed from the prints of “3 Idiots” as Vidhu Vinod Chopra - producer of the just released Aamir Khan starrer - felt threatened by it.

But Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance BIG Entertainment, which is the distributor of “3 Idiots”, says they had never committed to Jha to show the trailer.

“Who in our company has Prakash Jha spoken to about the ‘Rajneeti’ trailer going into the prints of ‘3 Idiots’? He hasn’t spoken to me. And I am not aware of anyone at Reliance whom he has spoken to,” Khanna told IANS.

“How can there be any commitment on the screening of a trailer? It all depends on the paid advertisements that individual theatres have. We certainly made no such commitment to Prakash Jha.”

Starring Aamir, Sharman Joshi, R. Madhavan and Kareena Kapoor, “3 Idiots” released Friday amidst rave reviews.

“We’ve released ‘3 Idiots’ with a record number of prints, 2,000 in all. In fact, December has been a very fruitful month for us at Reliance BIG Pictures, first ‘Paa’ and now ‘3 Idiots’. Just goes to prove, quality products do have a strong market,” said Khanna.

But Jha maintains the trailer of his movie was a victim of Chopra’s insecurities and that the trailer is very much a part of the prints of “3 Idiots” that has gone abroad.

“The prints had already left by the time Vinod Chopra decided to take my trailer out. I don’t know why he was so insecure about my trailer since ‘3 Idiots’ carries such strong advance reports,” Jha told IANS from London.

“I guess my ‘Rajneeti’ is the biggest multi-starrer in recent times. We do have Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Nana Patekar, Naseeruddin Shah and Manoj Bajpai. And we have the winning pair Ranbir (Kapoor) and Katrina (Kaif). I guess I’m lucky.”

“He’s very unpredictable. When we spoke about the trailer, he sent me a sweet message about it. Then just days before the release of ‘3 Idiots’, my trailer had been pulled out. Apparently at the previews of ‘3 Idiots’ people just couldn’t stop talking about the ‘Rajneeti’ trailer after it was screened during interval,” said the director.

Jha is wondering where the trailer could be fastened now.

“I suppose my trailer would be released independently in theatres, like any other trailer. In any case, this was a 90-second teaser and not a full-fledged trailer,” said Jha.

The film is scheduled to hit the screens next year.