'Randamoozham' controversy: VA Shrikumar's plea for arbitrator rejected by court

Shrikumar Menon had asked for an arbitrator after writer MT Vasudevan Nair withdrew his script for the director's much-hyped movie ‘Randamoozham’.
'Randamoozham' controversy: VA Shrikumar's plea for arbitrator rejected by court
'Randamoozham' controversy: VA Shrikumar's plea for arbitrator rejected by court
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VA Shrikumar Menon's request for an arbitrator in the Randamoozham case has been rejected by the Kozhikode Judicial Magistrate. The request for an arbitrator was earlier rejected in the Additional Munsif Court too.

Shrikumar had asked for the arbitrator after writer MT Vasudevan Nair withdrew his script for the director's much-hyped movie Randamoozham. The renowned writer who has also directed films in Malayalam, backed out of the project after the contract for the screenplay expired and the filming had not begun for three years. Shrikumar had then put up a Facebook post announcing that Randamoozham will happen.

But when Shrikumar made a plea for the arbitrator, MT Vasudevan Nair responded that he was not interested to proceed, and would like the script back.

Four years ago, after discussions, it was confirmed that MT’s novel by the same name would be made into a movie and at the time, he had handed over the screenplay to the director and the producer, BR Shetty, for a contract period of three years. The writer had told TNM that he was pulling out because “the film has not even begun shooting after four years, and the contract for the screenplay was only for three years.”

Shrikumar had written in his Facebook post that it took more time than he had expected because there was a need for a lot of international contracts and financial planning.

He also got busy with the filming of Odiyan, his first feature after directing many ad films earlier. When the movie didn’t do well, Shrikumar had blamed its female lead Manju Warrier for the film’s failure, even though it was marketed as a Mohanlal starrer. Shrikumar hinted that there was a conspiracy to tank Odiyan because Manju was once married to actor Dileep, who is now an accused in the actor abduction and assault case of February 2017. The film, however, received near unanimous negative reviews from film critics.

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