Upen Patel out of 'Cook Na Kaho'

Cook Na Kaho host Upen Patel will be replaced by Shyan Munshi ,finds Vickey Lalwani.

Shyan (of Jhankaar Beats fame) will make his first appearance on Sunday, 13 February.Buzz is, Upen was shown the door due to unprofessionalism on his part. However, the producer Anil Naidu (Zeitgeist) shot it down by saying, "Not really". Not a very strong denial eh?

Oh, those were the days!

Upen was supposed to host the show till its logical conclusion. But Naidu defended, "That's wrong. Shyan will also be there for 13 episodes only. Every 13 episodes the channel will be reveiwing the contract".And how did Shyan's selection come about? "The channel took a call," he replied.

Upen Patel, a Brit-born Indian, who has modelled for brands such as Hugo Bos, Paul Smith and Zegna and is a global name on the fashion front, has however not been having a rosy time lately. Not so long ago, he broke off with his girlfriend Amrita Arora. Amrita and sister Malaika contributed much in pushing Upen’s modeling career ahead, after the latter returned from London to Mumbai to carve his destiny here. As the grapevine goes, plans were afoot in the industry that a film be made on Upen and Amrita, but once the lovers broke off, obviously the plan was shelved.

From Sanjeev Kapoor-Khana Khazana, Rakesh Sethi-Mirch Masala to Upen Patel-Cook Na Kaho and now Shyan in Upen's shoes, males have been trying their creative skills in preparing different delicacies. Nothing wrong in that. Are not all the best chefs, men?

Shyan who comes from a family of doctors in Kolkata has spent a major time in England doing fashion modeling, modelled quite a bit in India as well, done some music videos too. Before Jhankaar Beats happened, Pritish Nandy Communications' (PNC) were toying with the idea of making a TV serial with him. He refused, saying that he was game if they were making a film. And the next thing he knew was that they had selected him for 'Jhankaar Beats'.

And what happened to that TV serial? It was not made. As on 'Jhankaar Beats', Shyan was liked in that film but the sea has not been smooth for him thereafter. After all, Bollywood is not an easy place to be in. So here he is on the tube, when not so long ago he was quite averse to it.