Murder in Bollywood (13 page)

‘And what can you tell me about Nikhil Kapoor? Because, strange as it may sound, his background is also unknown,' Hoshiyar remarked.

‘There again, Inspector saheb, we won't be able to tell you too much, as we only got to know Nikhil after his marriage to Mallika, around ten years ago. But I remember he once told us that he was from Mussoorie and had lost his entire family in a train accident when he was just a boy of nineteen,' Dr Bimal revealed.

‘And where did this accident happen, did he tell you?' Hoshiyar asked.

‘No, he didn't mention that,' Dr Bimal replied.

‘And what about his next of kin? Did he tell you anything about them?'

‘No, I am afraid he didn't.'

‘All right, Doctor saheb, did he tell you anything about his family's line of work or where exactly they lived in Mussoorie?'

‘No, Inspector saheb. All he said was that he was from Mussoorie and had lost his entire family in a train accident when he was nineteen. After hearing this, I could hardly ask him any questions about his past, background or home, now, could I?'

At this reply delivered in a raised, angry tone, Hoshiyar gave the doctor a stern, piercing glare, causing the latter to realize his transgression and quietly look away.

‘Do you at least know how you and Mallika met?' Hoshiyar then asked his final question.

‘It was at the Miss India contest in Mumbai,' Dr Rushali replied on her husband's behalf. ‘Bimal and I were both judges that year at the pageant, and Mallika was just another fresh-faced contestant. But there was something about her that stood out and made us become instantly fond of her. It was her eyes, Inspector. They were just like Chandni's. Mallika had our daughter's eyes.' She smiled.

Much later that day, in fact, in the dead of night, when all the other officers had long gone home and even the bustling Carter Road wore a deserted look, Hoshiyar, having finished his dinner, sat in front of the computer at the SCS headquarters and googled the name Chandni Seth, along with everything about her there was to know. It was then that he discovered that Chandni was Bimal's and Rushali's only daughter, who on a family holiday to Goa to bring in the new year met with a horrific accident while driving her father's BMW at great speed along a relatively empty stretch of road, on New Year's Eve. It was reported that twenty-year-old Chandni took her father's car for a joyride without informing her parents and got into a drag race with a few of her friends along that stretch of road, during which she fatally lost control of the vehicle. But the Web report also stated that during the accident, Chandni's car had hit a small child and a couple of teenagers, killing all three of them instantly. There was a photograph of the slain couple, along with their names and age; the boy was nineteen-year-old Ravindra Phogat, while the girl, one Sakshi Phogat, was seventeen, although she appeared much older in the photograph, owing to the fact that she was obese, which always makes people appear older than they actually are. There was one more photograph on display, that of Chandni herself, who came across as attractive and vivacious, a young life taken too soon courtesy her own recklessness. And in that photo, Hoshiyar could clearly see that her eyes were indeed hazel, and very much like Mallika Kapoor's. It was also mentioned that Chandni's friends, who were racing with her, ran away from the scene without helping her or the other victims. And right from 31 December 1997, which was the night it all happened, to the present day, no one had a clue as to their identity. After carefully going through that information, and saving what he considered relevant, Hoshiyar began to scour the various websites dedicated to Bollywood news, parties and events, in the hope of finding video clippings and photographs taken by the horde of media persons and even the paparazzi, who had descended upon Billimoria House last year on the tenth of December when Nikhil had thrown a grand party on the occasion of his birthday, which was graced by superstars from each and every field. By viewing the footage from the party, Hoshiyar hoped to determine the comings and goings of all the guests that evening, which he believed would give him some sort of a clue as to who among them stayed back for the after-party card game which took place much later that night, in Nikhil's private study. But a thorough examination of those images revealed nothing of significance, as the constant to and fro of luxury sedans and SUVs, coupled with the chaos unleashed by the camerapersons and photographers whenever a car entered or exited Billimoria House, made it impossible for Hoshiyar to determine which celebrities were still at the party and which ones had left. So, Hoshiyar decided to adopt a different approach. Aside from Ram Prasad Tiwari, since Nikhil had no friends that anyone knew of, the good inspector felt that perhaps investigating the people he had begun his career with, and the individuals he had worked with most recently, was the only way by which he could discover the identity of Nikhil's guests that night at his card game, who were all a part of the same clique and Nikhil's long-time friends. But it was a friendship that all of them had kept secret, the reason for which Hoshiyar believed was directly linked to Nikhil's murder. As Hoshiyar began to probe along those lines, a few essential pieces of the puzzle began to fall in place and a pattern started to emerge.

A decade ago, Ishan Malhotra, the adopted son of the late movie mogul O.P. Malhotra, debuted as a film producer under his illustrious father's banner, Karma Films, with a small-budget movie called
Pyaar Kar Ke Dekho
, in which Nikhil Kapoor, as director, Sameer Ali Khan, as actor, Kiki Fernandez, as fashion stylist, and Ram Prasad Tiwari, as secretary, also made their debuts. But after that successful first outing, only Nikhil and Tiwari continued their association, while the rest of them strangely went their separate ways and never worked together again. But in 2013, they collaborated once more, when Ishan produced a big-budget action film, titled
Raka
, which Nikhil directed, Sameer Ali starred in, Kiki did the styling for and Tiwari, as usual, was around as Nikhil's secretary. But this time, however, there was no Mallika Kapoor opposite Sameer Ali Khan. Instead, Ishan had selected a young, rising star, Nyra Oberoi, as the heroine. Now, although trade pundits unanimously agreed that Mallika was not the right choice for
Raka
's leading lady, because she had become too big a star to be used as a prop or the glam quotient in a big-ticket masala film, where all the heroine had to do was look gorgeous and dance around trees, they were left stunned by the casting of Nyra Oberoi, because, back then, she wasn't big enough to even be considered for a walk-on in the hottest project to come out of Bollywood in years. In fact, leading up to
Raka
, her filmography was promising, but not explosive. It was rumoured that she had caught the eye of Sameer Ali Khan when she debuted on the ramp at Kiki Fernandez's fashion show, after which Bollywood's number one star had used his clout to help her bag two films, both of which did reasonably well at the box office. But in spite of a promising start, no one in their wildest dreams expected her to be selected as the leading lady for
Raka
, firstly because she wasn't an A-lister as yet, and secondly, on account of everything that was going on behind the scenes. Now, it is a well-known fact in Bollywood that while most leading men tend to get along with each other just fine, the leading ladies, irrespective of what they say in their interviews and how they behave if ever brought together on the same chat show, can't stand the sight of one another. In fact, it's not uncommon for even established heroines to go to war if one feels that the other is trying to poach her hairdresser or steal her designer. And leading ladies are also known to be extremely territorial about certain film-makers with whom they've shared a successful professional relationship, even if it is just over a single film. So much so that if any such lady even gets a hint that some other actress is making moves on
her
director, to get him to cast her in his next movie, this act isn't just considered a grave violation of territory, but an open declaration of war, which will, undoubtedly, put the hapless director smack in the middle of the action, with the warring damsels firing at each other off his shoulder. And God forbid, if the director ever chooses the Jenny-come-lately over his former leading lady; the spurned actress, when quizzed about this betrayal in an interview or on a talk show, will simply smile sweetly and say that both she and the director are professionals and both of them are free to work with whoever they want to and if the right script comes along, then of course, they will work together again. But hard-core Bollywood watchers who can read between the lines will tell you that what the lady really means is that she is hopping mad at the director for his betrayal and the only way he can make it up to her is by writing for her a role to die for. Now, this happens in Bollywood on a regular basis, with leading ladies competing with each other for your run-of-the-mill big-budget films. But when it came to
Raka
, the stakes were ten times as high, for Nikhil Kapoor, Sameer Ali Khan and Ishan Malhotra were teaming up after all those years, making it the most happening project in Bollywood history; so needless to say, every A-list leading lady was ready to get as low-down and dirty as need be to worm her way on board. In other words, the moment it was announced that the search for
Raka
's heroine had begun, all the top actresses swung into action immediately, first up with the direct approach, which was by picking up their cellphones and calling the three men in charge, namely the producer, the director and the hero, telling them how badly they wanted to be a part of the project, and how they'd do ‘anything' for the heroine's role. After this, the ladies dropped by to meet the men in question, with some of them landing up at their offices unannounced, while the rest fixed meetings with them at some coffee shop or the other, in order to impress upon them in person their absolute need to be a part of their magnum opus. Once the ladies had done their bit, it was time for their publicists and PR people to take over, who went to town splashing the news about the meetings in every entertainment supplement worth its salt, in which each heroine's camp claimed that their actress was the front runner for the coveted role, but very smartly had the papers credit all of this news to unofficial sources so that the makers of
Raka
could not blame the actresses for any premature announcements. The aftermath of this news predictably triggered media frenzy, during which the actresses were questioned by the press whether they were actually in the running for the heroine's role, to which all the ladies very cleverly downplayed the news spread by their own people, by saying that their meetings with the makers of
Raka
were mere courtesy calls, but they would consider it a great honour if they got the chance to be associated with the biggest film ever made in Bollywood. With this said, the ladies rounded off their interviews by praising Nikhil, Ishan and Sameer to the skies. With this accomplished, the ladies moved on to the final step in bagging that dream role, which was cutting each other out of the running, by the use of the tried-and-tested underhand tactic, which involved having their PR people supply the newspapers with negative bits of gossip about their rivals. But unfortunately for the lovely ladies, their behind-the-scenes manipulations and overtly aggressive lobbying backfired, because the powers that be associated with
Raka
wisely decided not to get caught up in a catfight between Bollywood's A-list actresses; so they stunned the entire film fraternity by choosing the lesser-known Nyra Oberoi, who was regarded as strictly B-plus and so, many believed, too small a fry to play the female lead opposite Bollywood's number one superstar Sameer Ali Khan, that too in a film produced by Ishan ‘Midas' Malhotra and directed by the one and only Nikhil Kapoor. The naysayers said that her casting was a monumental blunder and it could, in all probability, sink the mighty ship named
Raka
. But
Raka
smashed box office records and created Hindi cinema history, becoming the first Bollywood film to cross the 400-crore mark, earning great praise not only for its director and leading man, but also for its heroine, catapulting Nyra straight into the A-list and into the reckoning of people as Bollywood's future queen.

Hoshiyar surveyed all of this information on the computer, then looked away, somewhat sceptical of all this. Although, all the information on the screen seemed plausible enough, there was a method, a sequence of events attached to it that could not be ignored. It all began ten years ago with Ishan, who in his debut film as producer launched the careers of Nikhil, Sameer and Kiki, while Tiwari also got his break. After that film's release, the men went their separate ways, only to reunite a number of years later for a big-budget action film, in which Ishan, Nikhil and Sameer cast a relatively new, non-A-list actress named Nyra Oberoi as the heroine, giving her what people called a dream break. Now, this same Nyra Oberoi had started off as a ramp model for none other than Kiki Fernandez and was first seen at one of his fashion shows by Sameer Ali Khan, who started promoting her and even got her her first two films, before she landed
Raka
. And according to Bollywood gossip websites, these days Nyra Oberoi was extremely pally with socialite Shanaya Raichand, who was just weeks away from launching her own talent management agency, Glam Corp, and had already pulled off a coup by managing to convince both Nyra and Sameer to come on board as her clients.

Along with all of this information, Hoshiyar also discovered certain details about their backgrounds, which he found quite interesting and a trifle bizarre. According to the Bollywood gossip website, Ishan, who had lost his parents in a car accident, was adopted by film producer O.P. Malhotra when he was thirteen years old. Sameer Ali Khan, on the other hand, was a Mumbai boy, whose parents divorced when he was very little and left him to be brought up by his aunt, who passed away when he was twenty-two, leaving behind no other family. Kiki Fernandez, the grapevine suggested, came to Mumbai from Goa after his conservative family disowned him for openly being gay, while Nyra Oberoi—who Hoshiyar noticed, spoke flawless Hindi without even a hint of an accent—claimed to be a London girl, hailing from a very low profile and media-shy family; she came to Mumbai to become a model and films happened unexpectedly. Then, there was her BFF, Shanaya Raichand, who was said to be the daughter of one Diwan Raichand, a wealthy NRI from New York; she left her daddy's plush Park Avenue penthouse and came to Mumbai to open her own Bollywood talent management agency, but not before she got her doting father to rent her a four-bedroom apartment in Bandra and give her enough money to throw around, which granted her easy access to the city's party circuit and its most happening people, and soon enough, she had networked her way into becoming a hip socialite and a regular fixture at A-list events around town. Apart from this lot, there was Ram Prasad Tiwari, who had been disowned by his deeply religious family when he fled Mathura and came to Mumbai at the age of eighteen. And finally, Nikhil Kapoor, who came to Mumbai from Mussoorie at the age of nineteen, after his entire family died in a train accident.