The dark side of the fame

PART - THIRTEEN

MM entered his house as the servant opened the door for him. "Madam study room me hai," he informed and left.

MM hesitated for a moment and then headed towards the study. As he entered, he saw alia standing by the window, with a glass of drink in her hand. She looked lost in her thoughts, forehead deeply furrowed. MM coughed lightly to make her aware of his presence.

Alia immediately turned back and glared at him. "What happened manik? I thought you were supposed to return next month," asked alia.

"The schedule changed, so I came back," replied MM, without looking at her.

Alia stared at him for some moments and then spoke, "What is it manik? Do you want to tell me something?"

MM looked at her but shook his head and turned back to leave. "Who is it MM? That heroine of your film? Have you slept with her already? Is she pregnant? RItik bhaiya told me everything, everything you had been doing behind my back!!" shouted alia from his rear.

"What the hell alia? No!! She is not pregnant!!" snapped MM as he glared back at Alia.

"Then why manik? Why did you do this to us?" shouted back alia, as tears rolled down her eyes.

"Us? Do you know the meaning of the word us' alia? We have stopped being us' years ago. We are just two entities, having the same permanent address for the past five years," snapped manik.

"How dare you blame me for this manik? I know I have been busy with my career, but so were you!! Still I managed to make out time for our birthdays and anniversaries.."

"Life after marriage is much more than birthdays and anniversaries alia. I do not enjoy being a workaholic. I do it to keep myself occupied, to stop getting my sanity engulfed by alone!!" said MM.

"And that's why you let that bitch come to you and get in your bed, isn't it?" retorted alia.

"Don't you badmouth nandu. She has nothing to do with this. She did not force herself on me," said MM, while trying to keep Nandini out of this mess.

"Oh, so she is not just a mistress anymore!! The great MM of Bollywood defending the enchantress Nandini against all accusations!! That means she is closer to you than I imagined!!" replied alia with sarcasm in her voice.

MM was fuming with rage, but he knew this conversation could not be any more logical than this. "Alia, I am tired and so are you. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

"No manik, this has to be ended today itself. I want all my answers right now!!" cried alia.

"What answers do you want? That I am having a relationship with nandu? Yes, I am. I have started developing feelings for her in my heart and would not deny that anymore!!" affirmed MM and turned towards the door again.

"Wait Manik! Don't think I will let you go so easily. Not so soon manik, not so soon," hissed alia, as she came round and blocked MM's way. Her tear stained eyes looked cold, and vengeful. "Did you forget Mr. Manik Malhotra how my father opened up the door for you in this glamour world? How he pull you up the ladder of success which you could never have dreamt of in your struggling days? Today everyone goes gaga about MM's movies. But did anyone ever try to see when no one in this industry was ready to finance your so called "out of the box" movie concepts, it was my father and my cousin ritik bhaiya who stood by you. You were nobody, manik!! All this name and fame is because of my family!!"

"You do not have to remind me of my past alia!!" roared MM, "As a token of gratitude I had agreed to marry you, when I clearly knew you never had time for anything but your career."

"Do you think you did some charity to my father by marrying me?" "No, but I had always hoped this arranged' matrimony would turn into love someday. But with time my hope changed to despair, and made me a workaholic robot," said MM and paused for few moments when he could feel Alia's glare piercing him through.

"I am sorry alia, this could not be any excuse for infidelity, and trust me, I fought a lot with myself before I surrendered to it," said MM, while fisting his hair in exhaustion. There was pin drop silence in the room as no one spoke for some time.

Then Alia spoke, "My family has goodwill in this industry manik, and I am the sole heiress of my father. I cannot let his name be tarnished like this. Before you call for it, I want separation from you. I cannot let people know that that you left me because of some other woman." She spoke the last words with great difficulty, as her voice had choked already.

Without waiting for MM's reply, alia ran out of the study room. MM stood there like a statue, unable to think of anything ahead.

Nandini's landline was buzzing from the morning. The news of tiff between MM and madhyam in the film set had spread like wildfire. Nobody knew the reason, and as both MM and Madhyam denied commenting anything about it, the reporters tried to extract scoop from the other members of the film unit.

Nandini asked her maid to disconnect the phone for the next few days. After her meal, she sat in her living room and switched on the TV. There was nothing interesting coming up and she kept on surfing through the channels. Suddenly one headline in a news channel caught her attention. It said "Ritik Singh walking out of MM's dream project." Nandini gasped as she took in the news piece.

"Why is ritik doing this to MM?" whispered Nandini and took her phone, dialing MM's number. After trying for a couple of times, finally MM picked up her phone.

"What is it Nandu?" "MM, why is Ritik refusing to produce your movie? Is he angry with me? I won't do this film MM, but I cannot see your dream project getting ruined for me," sobbed Nandini.

"Shut up nandu!! This film is only about you, and I will make it only when you are in it!! I don't care if ritik backs out. There are many other producers who will be willingly producing this film. You stop worrying about it. I will not let this film to stop," barked MM.

*

Mr. Sharma's PA was waiting for his boss in his office. As mr.sharma entered, he sprung up from the chair and told him, "Sir, MM sir had called about three times for you in the morning. Should I give him a call back now?"

"MM called me?" a loud Mr.sharma, "I know what that Sob wants from me now. Let him call for another week, and then I will receive his call." As planned, he received MM's call after a week.

"Arrey MM, what a big surprise!! What can I do for you?" said Mr. Sharma with fake warmth in his voice.

"I had a good proposal for you, Mr. Sharma. My movie Mughal-E-azam is on the floor and I am looking for a producer.."

"Arrey beta, you should not have taken up such a grand movie in your hand. It does not suit a reality-maker like you. As for me, my hands are tied with two big budget movies you know. Why don't you ask alia to produce your movie? She has her father's heirloom which is quite huge I believe. Oh, I am so sorry MM, I should not have given you that suggestion, as I learnt only recently that she has filed a divorce case against you. I feel so bad for your MM. But rest assured, I will wait and watch your trip to bankruptcy which will come very soon I suppose," said Mr.sharma and hung up.

MM and Alia's separation was the biggest scoop of the year in the industry. As they had quoted it to be a mutual agreement, no one knew for sure the reason behind the separation. The media postulated a number of possible reasons, and one among them was MM's secret affair with nandini, although it ranked much below than the other hypotheses in ranking.

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IS MANIK ABLE TO SHOOT THE FILM; THEY WILL ABLE TO STAY TOGETHER FOREVER?

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