The fallout between two directors, Gautham Menon and Karthick Naren, has been garnering a lot of attention lately. The association comes from Karthick’s upcoming film Naragasooran, for which Gautham Menon is the producer. In a series of back and forths, Karthick has now responded to Gautham’s recent letter in an interview with the Hindustan Times.
In it, he has said, “It is great that he apologised and I also did the same from my side if what I said was wrong. However, I wouldn’t agree with everything that he has mentioned in the statement. Especially the fact that he did not invest in the project.”
This response comes following Gautham’s letter that was published on Facebook yesterday. In an earlier interview to Sify, Karthick Naren had claimed that although Gautham Menon had promised to fund his film, he hadn't invested any money, and allegedly used the title of producer to get funds for his own films Enai Noki Payum Thota and Dhruva Natchithiram which were announced a long time ago and are yet to hit the screens.
Gautham defended himself in his letter stating, “We’ve spent a lot on the film through investors for which I’m liable and the business is not big enough to divert funds to another film like Dhruva Natchathiram, which is seven times bigger in size and is produced by someone else. I’ve not asked for 50% share of the profit on Naragasooran and I know I have no share on the film.”
However, Karthick has refuted Gautham’s statement in his recent interview and has said, “We are currently calculating how much he has invested in this project and we will release the information soon.”
Karthick has also revealed that there is a stay order on Naragasooran’s release from Gautham’s financiers. “This is not something that is mentioned in the statement. But we are also preparing documents to defend ourselves in the court,” he added.
On Wednesday, Arvind Swamy, Naragasooran’s lead actor, also came in support of Karthick. Responding to Gautham Menon’s post in which he asked young filmmakers to "grow a pair” instead of just “whining”, Arvind tweeted "Yes we all can grow a few things, a pair of eyes that sees what we do to others, a pair of ears to hear the truth, a conscience to tell us when we are wrong and a pair of whatever to accept our mistakes and apologise...instead we grow our list of commitments that we can't keep.”
In his interview to HT, Karthick has said that the project would've been dropped if not for Arvind Swamy’s help. “Gautham sir has quoted that Arvind Swami was not ready to dub for the film until he was paid, in reality though if it were not for him, this film would have been dropped. He was supposed to be paid an amount before the shoot began, but that did not happen. My entire team was in Ooty preparing for a shoot and he called me to tell me that the payment had not come across. But he said he would come for the shoot and we could figure it out later.”
He also added that he was forced to speak out now since his finances have all dried up. Karthick went on to add that it was not fair to “kill 10 lives” on the way to the “temple”. “Right now, the problem is not that we want our film to be released in a couple of weeks. No, it is about the way we were treated and how Gautham sir had abandoned us in the middle of the project,” he was quoted.
The director also plans to take this up with Tamil Film Producer’s Council after the strike. It is to be noted that Gautham Menon is the Vice President of TFPC.
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