While the Aamir Khan-Rani Mukherjee starrer is still running in its 22nd week, Bhatt's action could even result in its premature withdrawal from cinema halls. ``This producer has no right to remain in the industry. What he has done is absolutely wrong, both ethically and morally,'' says leading film distributor Balakrishna Shroff.

In an unprecedented move, Bhatt sold the film's cable rights to the Mumbai-based Cable Video Opera (CVO) in September just three months after it hit the big screen while Star Plus acquired its satellite rights two weeksago. CVO telecast the film on Sunday and will repeat it on November 20, while Star Plus will screen it on November 21. ``He took us for a ride. Earlier, he'd asked us to wait till the film completed its silver jubilee in December and accordingly we had slotted it for January. Suddenly we found out from newspapers that Star Plus had bought its satellite rights and would show the film in November. We were left with no choice but to change our schedule,'' says CVO Chief Executive Officer Ram Hingorani.

Star TV sources say they too were not aware of CVO's involvement. ``But the fact that they would have shown it twice before our telecast will not affect us because we have a much wider reach,'' says a Star insider.

However, it is the film's distributors and exhibitors who stand to lose the most. Distributors, who have bought the film on a minimum guarantee say they still haven't recovered 25 per cent of their investment.

``So far we haven't even covered our investments and the film is still running all overthe country. Besides the film's rights still rest with me and he has no business selling them even before I have recovered my money,'' says Devendra Shah of Girnar Films, the Gujarat distributor for Ghulam. Shah plans to lodge an official complaint with IMPDA on Thursday and demand compensation for his losses.

Says IMPDA President N N Sippy, ``What Bhatt has done is absolutely wrong. If a distributor lodges a complaint with us we will take action depending on how much compensation he demands.'' Santosh Singh Jain, president of the Film Federation of India and the CP-CI and Rajasthan Distributors' and Exhibitors' Association says he too will take ``appropriate action against the producer''.

Already, several exhibitors have cancelled their bookings for the coming weeks and the situation might worsen over the next few days. ``If the film is shown on television, why would people go to the cinema halls to watch it, and what will the exhibitor get from it,'' asks distributor D Y Patni.``These producers have gotgreedy. Now that one man has done this, others may follow suit,'' says Vinod Kakkad of Veekay Enterprises, who distributed the film in Mumbai on Bhatt's behalf.

Mahesh Bhatt defends his brother, saying while Ghulam is being perceived as a money-spinner, the producer hasn't got any overflow from distributors. ``Earlier, these very people were saying that they would just manage to break even. Suddenly they say it has so much potential. Mukesh was in the midst of a serious financial crunch and it is the revenue from Star that has bailed him out,'' he claims.

``I know he will be ostracised by distributors and will have to face a lot of flak, but he will compensate for their losses because he is bound by the rules to do so,'' Bhatt says.

But not everyone is buying his arguments. ``Ghulam was the first film in several months to register 100 per cent collections in Mumbai in the first week. Besides, it has already brought in large amounts of money from several other circuits. And since the producer himselfreleased the film in Mumbai and Delhi, it is difficult to believe he couldn't make any money from it,'' says industry analyst Amod Mehra.

Repeated attempts to contact Mukesh Bhatt failed. But the entire distributor fraternity believes that Bhatt has set a bad precedent. ``This is the easiest way to close down the industry,'' says Ramesh Sippy of Balaji Enterprises.