Best Mafia Queen: Raveena, Manisha or Juhi?

Bollywood has become like the stock market these days. In place of shares, the best stories and screenplays get bid on. One such good script, rather an intense book by Husain Zaidi Mafia Queens Of Mumbai, has drawn the attention of thriller filmmakers like Vishal Bhardwaj and Ram Mirchandani. Surprisingly, it's not only these filmmakers who are contending for the rights of one of the 13 stories on the lady mafias of Mumbai but also a leading general entertainment channel. The channel is all set to do a series based on Zaidi's book with 30-plus actresses essaying the part of one mafia queen each, in every episode.

The actresses who will play the parts include Raveena Tandon, Manisha Koirala, Juhi Chawla, Mahima Chaudhry. Other names are still being finalised. Confirming these developments Hussain Zaidi says, "Yes, the channel has spoken to me about it. They want to shoot a series with an episode each with actresses like Raveena, Juhi etc. I've given my approval to it.” But with this, the tussle between the film and television media for the rights of Zaidi's coveted crime chronicle has grown bigger. While the channel wants to shoot the stories of all the 13 mafia queens in the book, Zaidi has already promised one of the stories to Vishal Bhardwaj. And now there's a story to be kept aside for Lakhia's film as well.

Eros International will acquire the rights for a chapter from Zaidi's book, which will be directed by Apoorva Lakhia. Confirming this development Ram Mirchandani of Eros says, "Yes, we've Apoorva Lakhia on board. We're in discussion with him. We've zeroed down on one story from The Mafia Queens Of Mumbai that we want Apoorva to direct. We're aware of Vishal's interest in the same work but we're looking at another chapter."

But Zaidi is cool about the clamour to wangle adaptation rights. "I'm happy the women gangsters in my film are being noticed. We'll make sure both cinema and television media are happy," says the writer.

Who do you think will be the best mafia queen. Raveena Tandon, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala or Mahima Chaudhry?

Mahima Chaudhry - Bollywood Actress at LA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Raveena Tandon at Shivani Wedding Reception. Photo: FilmiTadka. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Press Conference of Bas Ek Pal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kamal Haasan pictured with Manisha Koirala in the film. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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English: (Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Onir, Arjun Mathur and Rahul Bose accepting the Best Narrative Feature Award at the 2011 Mumbai Internatioanl Queer Film Festival for the film I Am. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Karisma Kapoor and Rahul Khanna walks the ramp for Manav Gangwani (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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