National award winning Malayalam child artist Gourav Menon has alleged that the director and producer of his 2016 movie Kolumittai cheated him by not giving any remuneration.
Kolumittai was directed by Arun Viswom, a civil police officer, and produced by Abhijeet Ashokan, had won the State Award for the Best Children’s Movie for 2016.
Gourav at a press conference in Kochi on Friday alleged that though the initial agreement said that there is no remuneration for him, the filmmakers had promised him to pay money after the movie hits the screen and after it gets satellite rates.
Gourav cried in front of media at Ernakulam press club, saying no other child artist should face such a situation.
“No one should face such a situation. First, they told me they would pay after the movie release, later they said after the satellite amount was fixed. Though I gave a police complaint, no action was taken,” he said.
He also alleged that he lost a few opportunities as the filmmakers of Kolumittai had spread rumours about him following the row over remuneration.
Gurav had secured the national award for best child actor for his movie Ben.
Speaking to Manoramaonline, the film’s director Arun Viswom however denied all allegations.
“Gaurav agreed to act in the movie, without any remuneration. The agreement also said so. All other actors in the movie also acted without any payment. We wanted to give payment to all actors, but that was not possible as we did not have money. He gave a complaint also to the police, but we had clarified that we have an agreement and we had also paid him around Rs 75,000 as travel allowance and other expenses,” Arun said.
He added that all the filmmakers were under debt even after getting the satellite rates.