Days after production house E4 Entertainments announced that it will shoot a new version of the Tamil remake of Telugu blockbuster Arjun Reddy with new cast and director, award-winning Tamil film director Bala has now claimed that he exited from the scrapped project of his own volition. The film, whose Tamil version was titled Varmaa, was meant to be the launchpad for Dhruv, son of Tamil actor Vikram. However, it now appears that the production house and the filmmaker had severe creative differences over the film.
In a statement to the press on Saturday, director Bala said that he was compelled to speak up “due to the false statement from the producer of Varmaa”. “In order to safeguard creative freedom, it was my own decision to relieve myself from this project. Please find the agreement initiated by my with the producer on January 22, 2019, along with this,” he wrote.
However, the director refused to provide more details, stating, “Considering Dhruv Vikram’s future, I would like to end this here.”
In an agreement ending the association between the filmmaker Bala and Mukesh Mehta, the film’s producer, Bala had requested, as a pre-condition, that his name is “completely removed from this project”.
“From the initial stage of this project, B Studios was given full liberty to make decisions on the changes and choices pertaining to the remake of Telugu film, Arjun Reddy, titled as Varmaa in Tamil. As the final cut of Varmaa was not acceptable to E4 Entertainment and film director, Bala is not agreeable to make any changes. B Studios hereby have no objection for E4 Entertainment to take up the project and further add on scenes or make changes to the now existing version of the film,” states the agreement.
Voluntarily waiving all balance payments due towards his B Studios, Bala also agrees to issue a no due certificate and no lien certificate in favour of E4 Entertainment after a payment of Rs 34,10,904 to Anand Cine Services, a motion picture equipment rental company
The filmmaker also agrees to handover all footage, film stills, sound tracks, IT tracks, unmixed and mixed songs and tracks from the film.
“Henceforth, E4 Entertainment has the entire rights in perpetuity for the above said film and is free to make changes, additions with the help of technicians and crew of their choice in completing the film,” states the agreement.
The agreement reveals that a discussion had taken place at Bala’s B Studios office in Chennai on January 22, in the presence of Vikram. Notably, Bala and Vikram themselves have been long-time collaborators, making award-winning films together. The critically-acclaimed filmmaker had spurred on Vikram’s career with cult hits such as Sethu (1999) and Pithamagan (2003).
In a statement on Thursday, E4 Entertainment had said that it plans to re-shoot the entire film with Dhruv in the lead, but with a different cast and crew, including the director. “Instead, we will start afresh, and shoot a new Tamil version of Arjun Reddy with Dhruv as the main lead by staying true to the soul and the intention of the original,” said the production house, adding that the “unfortunate turn of events” had cost them heavily.