(7 December 2004 11:00 am)
	Manish back, Mukul out!

By Vickey Lalwani

Manish Goel has been reinstated by UTV in Star Plus' afternoon daily Bhabhi with full honours.

We mean, he is back on the company's afternoon soap 'Bhabhi'. Goel had been earlier dropped from the show after he allegedly had a physical altercation with an assistant director.

UTV however, seems to be in the mood to let bygones be bygones. The actor was called and told
that the technical unit had been changed and he need not worry about meeting the particular assistant director again. "It's great to be back. I was given a warm welcome," says Goel.

On the other hand, Mukul Dev, who had stepped into Goel's shoes in the interim, says he had some issues with UTV which the production house did not resolve to his satisfaction. "Money was certainly one of the issues," he let us in.

He continues, "They didn't even bother to inform me that I was not doing the show anymore. 'Idhar udhar se udti khabar aayi mere paas'. Never mind. We both weren't feeling comfy with each other
after a certain period of time. Continuing to act in it from my side would be tantamount to flogging a dead horse. I had taken up two shows in between- K Street, Pali Hill (where he plays Nivedita Bhattacharya's husband) and Kaalchakra (where he makes an entry fronm the fifth episode as Nausheen Ali Sardar's husband). UTV was unhappy that I was working on other shows as well.

I was shocked to learn that they had even appealed for an interim injunction to prevent that. But the judge turned it down, thankfully."

Apparently, UTV and Star don't want to experiment any further and have gone back to Goel to raise the show to the same level of popularity it had touched some months ago.

Can Goel do it? Let's wait and watch!