By Subhash K. Jha, IANS

Right now filmmaker Vipul Shah is undergoing very conflicting feelings. While he's elated at the response to his new film "Waqt" he's also distressed by rumours that he and leading man Akshay Kumar aren't the best of friends.

He has described as "completely false" reports that he had entered into a contract with Akshay Kumar regarding the dedication of "Waqt: The Race Against Time" to the star's father.

"There was absolutely no contract or legal document between us regarding the dedication of 'Waqt' to Akshay's father. The decision was entirely emotional, nothing official about it all.

After all 'Waqt' is all about a son discovering his father, and vice versa.

"Akshay felt very close to the project. And when he suggested that he would like to pay his deceased dad a tribute through the film, I readily agreed. I know how close one feels to a parent particularly when he has left us recently. Being fond of Akshay I saw no reason to deny him his right to remember his father through the film."

The difference of opinion between the two, if any, is in an entirely different context.

Akshay Kumar has been told by many of his friends that there are one too many songs breaking into the narrative of "Waqt". He has therefore suggested to Vipul Shah that a stanza be deleted from each song thereby automatically reducing the film's length by half an hour.

But Vipul Shah isn't in the mood to do the needful. "I accept that there are too many songs in the film. I should've put at least two songs less in 'Waqt'. But now that they are there and the film is doing so well, I don't want to cut anything and send wrong signals to the film trade.

"You know every time a big film is re-edited immediately after release people presume it isn't doing well. But why should I
perform an emergency surgery on my film when it's in fine health?"

Shah has a point. "Waqt" has had a good opening. Audiences are enjoying its Gujarati humour and the quick flow of quips.

Says the jubilant director, "By the grace of god, 'Waqt' seems to have sailed through without a hitch. Audiences love the chemistry between Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay. Every character and performance has been appreciated.

"Before the release people compared 'Waqt' unnecessarily with 'Baghban' just because both starred Amitabh Bachchan in a family film. I agree the music isn't up to the mark. But I wouldn't like to blame my composer Anu Malik for it. I think I chose the wrong tunes.

"But Akshay is certainly not forcing me to delete them. He made a friendly suggestion which I don't intend to agree to, unless there's a drastic drop in attendance in the coming days."

Akshay Kumar, shooting in Mauritius, has the last word. "Why are people unnecessarily creating controversies? 'Waqt' doesn't need such publicity."