Paresh Rawal plays the part of Bhaiyyaji, who graduates from being the owner of a tabela to a top-notch narcotics don. Well, there's nothing unusual about seeing such black characters in masala films. The problem is that Bhaiyyaji looks, walks, talks and dresses exactly like Laloo. "They have shown him to be an illiterate man who looks plain stupid. How can they ridicule a national leader like this? He has the same get-up as our leader and imitates all his mannerisms," says Chandrakant Indulkar, the president of the RJD's city unit. And his allegation is not totally baseless. In one scene screened repeatedly in the film's promos, Bhaiyyaji is seated on his throne surrounded by his cronies. Suddenly hispager beeps and he looks at it from every conceivable angle before staring at the message and says, `Yeh pager-wale Bihari mein kyon nahin likte?'

However, the Dand-nayak director, Sikander Bharti, claims that Bhaiyyaji's resemblance to Laloo is `purely coincidental' and `entirely unintentional'. "Every Bihari talks with the same accent Paresh has in the film. And they all wear kurta pyjamas. The only things we have added to the look of the character are the spectacles and the hair-cut, which is just a coincidence," he says. He also claims that the film's script was written seven years ago when Laloo was relatively unknown.

The director claims that Indulkar demanded the film be shown to him and that all the objectionable portions should be cut. Indulkar says, "They told me that they would do nothing of the sort because the film has already been cleared by the censors. But that does not mean anything even in the past people have cut off offensive scenes."

The director also states that the cityunit of the RJD has threatened to launch an agitation if the film is released without the cuts. Indulkar, however, denies this. "They want their film to sell and that's why they are putting words in my mouth. They even told one journalist that we threatened to burn down the theatres where it is screened if they don't edit certain portions of the film. All we did was give them a letter stating our objection which they refused to accept, so we sent it to Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA) instead," he says.

But he does plan to see the film after its release on Friday. "We will have a meeting on Sunday and decide what is to be done," he says. Meanwhile, Pravin Shah of Time Audio-Video, the film's promoter has said that he and the film's Mumbai distributors, Dilsa Enterprises have received threatening calls. "A few people came to us and said they would not let the film be released. Dilsa has also received threatening calls, presumably under instructions from Laloo himself," he says.

AndAnjana Enterprises, the film's distributor in Bihar has run into trouble too. "They are trying to talk to `them'," says Shah. Dand-nayak has already been released in Delhi and UP and Shah claims that the response has been encouraging.