Snehashish roy
Divya Khosla Kumar has made a bold move in the ongoing Savi-vs-Jigra feud by releasing a phone call recording in which she confronts veteran producer Mukesh Bhatt, pushing back on his recent claim that she fabricated the controversy for publicity. The dramatic revelation has reignited the public debate over creative ownership, and the toxic power dynamics in Bollywood.
The recording, which Divya shared on Instagram, captures a candid conversation between her and Mukesh, in which she asks him directly whether he ever accused her of staging the dispute. Mukesh denies having made such remarks, telling her, “Neither did anyone ask me, nor did I say it to anyone … this is again created by people who have vested interests.”
One emotional moment in the call comes when Divya points out that the media reports landed precisely on her birthday. She expresses how hurt she was by their timing. Mukesh responds by agreeing that there seems to be more at play than random gossip. “Somebody who wants to hurt you … intentionally planned this,” he says. He calls the row “slander,” asking her not to react to the noise, but to rise above it.
Divya’s Instagram post includes a heartfelt caption alongside the call. She says she’s “deeply shocked by this revelation” and frames it as part of a larger issue in the film industry: “hierarchy, lobbying and gatekeeping” that can sabotage talent. She writes that sharing the conversation became necessary to give public voice to a truth she believes has been manipulated — and to call out what she calls the “industry mafia.”
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The backdrop to this controversy is Mukesh Bhatt’s earlier comments, in which he alleged that Divya had used Alia Bhatt’s film Jigra to stir up noise and attention for her own movie Savi. According to Mukesh, the comparison with Jigra was not accidental but a strategy for visibility. He claimed such controversies are part of getting attention: “To get some attention in the media, you can create some controversy.”
Notably, Mukesh also defended Alia in his interview, insisting that she is “too big” and “too grounded” to engage in any such behavior.
The two films at the heart of the dispute — Savi and Jigra — have similar thematic structures. Savi follows a wife’s efforts to rescue her husband from a high-security prison, while Jigra centers on a sister trying to break her brother out of jail. Divya has alleged that the makers of Jigra inflated box-office numbers by buying tickets.
With the call now made public, Divya has shifted the conversation from mere accusations of plagiarism to deeper structural issues within Bollywood. She frames her action as a stand not just for herself, but for artists and fans who she believes have suffered under “the gatekeeping machinery” of the industry.
Whether this public confrontation will settle the Jigra-Savi row remains to be seen. But by releasing the call, Divya has made clear that she is not just fighting for recognition of her creative work, she’s also challenging what she perceives as a hostile system that silences dissent.