MUMBAI: Sajid Nadiadwala is the first film producer to actually take the much-needed step against stars putting up information about under-production films on social networking websites.

This especially applies to one microblogging site, which according to one producer, is the “souten of all confidentiality clauses in film contracts.”

While other producers and directors have only been talking about it, Sajid Nadiadwala has belled the cat. He has contractually forbidden his cast and crew from going on any social networking site to write about his new film Anjaana Anjaani.

This critical decision had to be taken after Nadiadwala saw a constant inflow of pictures and information being put up on the said site. Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor are both on the site. The former is especially active on the network.

Sajid had a closed-door meeting with his director and decided enough was enough.

Says Sajid, “I actually took the decision to forbid my cast and crew from putting any information on websites after an incident that happened with Sajid Khan, my director of Housefull. We were doing a photo-session with the film’s stars. We weren’t even finished and Sajid Khan had already put one of the pictures on the site. I was horrified. That’s when I decided it was time to make the confidentiality clause a legal issue in all my contracts.”

Sajid Nadiadwala laments the lack of privacy among stars today. “I remember when my father produced JP Dutta’s Ghulami, we’d stand outside Dharmendra’s van for hours waiting for him to emerge so we could see what he wore, how he styled his hair, what watch he had on, etc. Today the stars volunteer all this information on the social networks even before the director takes his first shot. I think all of us need to make confidentiality compulsory for every film."

Sajid says the internet syndrome started to affect him during Kambakkht Ishq. “But then it wasn’t so bad because the fad hadn’t become an epidemic in our film industry. Kareena and Akshay Kumar were not on such sites,” observes Nadiadwala.

Needless to say, Priyanka Chopra’s ceaseless tweeting prompted Nadiadwala to take the decision to forbid his films from being discussed minute-by-minute on the internet.