Everyone is wondering why Ram Gopal Varma suddenly decided to move forward his Rakhth Charitra (RC) sequel from November 19 to December 3 after making a noise about taking on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish.

The official explanation is,RC2 was not ready on time. That according to a source is, pure hogwash.

The real reason why Ramu, the master of marketing manipulations has chosen December 3 is so that he could pitch his Vivek Oberoi starrer against Abhishek Bachchan’s prestigious historical release Khelen Hum Jee Jaan Se.

Says the well-informed source, "Ramu likes to create an extra buzz around his films. When Phoonk 2 was released with Chance Pe Dance Ramu tried to pitch the crow in his horror film against Shahid.Abhishek and Vivek are seen to be at loggerheards . Ramu intends to play up their rivalry. Although both actors have worked repeatedly with Ramu the filmmaker is not averse to deliberately pitching them against one another."

Ramu feigns ignorance about his marketing manoeouvre. "The reason Rakht Charitra 2 was delayed is because the post-production took longer than we thought it would. I didn’t even know our film was coming on the same day as Abhishek’s.Not just that, both are based on true stories. Vivek and Abhishek play real- life characters in the two films.Having said that,let me also add that a lot of our marketing focus for RC2 would be on the Tamil superstar Suriya whom I regard as next only Rajinikanth in popularity. Since he’s making his Hindi debut we’re trying to figure out ways to bring him in front of the Hindi audiences."

This,according to the source,is exactly why Ramu has chosen to peg his sequel on the old Abhishek-Vivek rivalry. Says the source, "After the rejection of Rakht Charitra in the Northern belt Ramu can’t take a risk with the sequel .Suriya may be a superstar in the South. In Hindi even Rajnikanth doesn’t have a market.RC2 has no songs and items to promote. At most Suriya can do some interviews before its release. He can’t create an excitement around the film."

Ram Gopal Verma has now finally decided to shelve his sequel Sarkar 3. Well, there are many sides of why it has been decided so. RGV was very keen and all set to go ahead with the movie, but things did not work out.

As per an insider, “Ramu was not getting the right script and the star cast too. Also, his rapport with Bachchans has gone a bit sour.”

“Though they have done movies together, but we don’t have an exact idea of what is currently going on between them. RGV was in tension for, and how, to go ahead with Sarkar 3. He could not find any option, so thought that it’s better to drop the idea,” informs our little birdie.

It was also reported that Ramu was planning to rope in Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone for the same.

Well now that the project is gathering dust on a shelf, we can safely put all speculations to rest.

There’re two films on newsroom activities being readied right now. But neither Ram Gopal Varma’s  Rann nor Shamim Desai’s Raftaar 24x 7 can use the stand-alone title 24×7 because that’s a title patented by NDTV.

Although Sanjay Dutt has finally agreed to let the Big B have the title India for Rann, the title problem remains unsolved. Percept Pictures not only owns the title India 24 x 7 but also is going ahead full-throttle with the completion and release of their own media film Raftaar 24 x 7.

While Ram Gopal Varma is busy putting together his own film on a media war, there’s a war of another kind brewing on film from behind the scenes. Debutant director Shamim Desai’s Raftaar 24 x7 is Ready for release. It stars Aditya Pancholi as a suave media baron while Emraan Hashmi plays his favourite protégé

Rann features the Amitabh Bachchan as the media baron while Riteish Deshmukh plays his protege. Both the films are about the conflict between bona- fide news and sensationalism in contemporary times. And Percept Pictures seems determined to make the best of the interest generated by the media theme in Ramu’s Rann.

Interestingly Aditya Pancholi, who plays a pivotal role in Raftaar 24×7, was also meant to be part of Rann. Pancholi was replaced by Mohnish Behl in Rann. Could it because Ramu wanted to avoid any overlapping between the two media films?

Says Pancholi, “Yes I was part of Rann. But I’m not in it. Ramu’s film takes a panga with the media. Raftaar 24×7 is something else altogethe