When Shruti Hassan walked out from Vamshi Paidipally's bilingual film, it sparked off a controversy with filmmakers accusing her of unprofessional conduct. Sangeeta Yadav speaks to the executive producer about this incident and its repercussions
Actors backing out of the movie mid way is not a new thing in the entertainment industry. While some say they have date issues, other actors give any excuse under the sun to walk out of a film. But when Shruti Hassan pulled out from a bilingual Tamil and Telugu movie directed by Vamshi Paidipally and produced by Picture House Media limited, the actress had to face a lot of flak. “We were working on an adaptation of a French film titled The Intouchables and approached Shruti Hassan to play the lead in the film opposite Akkineni Nagarjuna and Karthi. After reading the script, Hassan signed the contract in December 2014 and gave us full commitment about dates and marketing activities for 45 days in between March to July 2015 for the completion of this project. Even the first installment was duly paid to the actress,” Rajeev Kamineni, executive director, Picture House Media ltd says.
Everything was running as per schedule before Hassan decided to call it quits and that too after the initial few days. “Almost after the completion of the first phase of this film, on March 21, we were shocked to receive a mail from Shruti’s manager saying that she is opting out of the project as it was not possible to work out dates with other producers. We called her many times and sent emails asking her to resolve the matter, but we did not get a response from her. Everything came to a standstill for us and many others who have been associated with this project,” Kamineni says, adding that the actress was supposed to start her shooting for this movie in the second phase in March end.
The story spread like wildfire and the entire film fraternity was up in arms with the actor. “It was an embarrassing situation for us because the co-stars started asking us awkward questions. They are all stars in themselves, we couldn’t have kept them hanging much longer. After Shruti went out to the media declaring her exit from the film, matters became even worse,” Kamineni states. As of now, the Indian court has barred Hassan from taking up new projects until the next hearing which is on April 8. But the film industry is plagued by this nonchalant attitude of some celebrities. “Such things are common in the industry but it shouldn’t be the case. The most unfortunate part is that the written contract has ceased to have any meaning. It is looked down upon as just a piece of paper in regional cinema,” Kamineni says.
The court has also initiated civil and criminal proceedings against Hassan and police had been asked to probe the matter. Shruti’s backing out at the last moment resulted in significant cost to the production house and scheduling hassles for the other crew members, co-actors, costume designers and many others. “We’ve already spent crores of rupees on this project. The third phase of the shoot was scheduled to take place in Europe and all the arrangements had already been made. We have suffered a huge loss. The project’s viability has been put at risk,” Kamineni says. Moving on, the producers have started their hunt for a new actress for this movie. Grapevine has it that Tamannaah, who is busy shooting for the film Arya, may replace Hassan.
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