Uttama Villain: Rs 40 crore in debt, Rs 2 crore in losses
The reason behind the delay and the damage it has caused, is finally revealed
By : suresh kavirayani
Update: 2015-05-02 23:41 GMT
Hyderabad: Kamal Haasan’s film Uttama Villain finally hit theatres on Saturday evening and there was a collective sigh of relief. “Yes, the film is screening and now there is no problem,” says producer C. Kalyan. He did not want to comment further on the the delay, but he did say the movie was a big lesson for producers here who shell out huge amounts for Telugu rights of Tamil films.
However, some interesting facts on the issue came to light. Director N. Linguswamy produced the film under his Tirupathi Brothers banner along with Kamal Haasan’s Raj Kamal International.
“But on release day, the film had nearly Rs 40 crore as debt and the financiers refused to permit a release as the amount was too high,” reveals a source. It was at the last minute that Linguswamy opened up about the debts. Then, the Tamil Film Producers Council, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and Sharath Kumar, the president of South Indian Movie Artiste Association, all stepped in to clear the way for the film’s release.
“Finally, Kamal agreed to do a film for Linguswamy,” adds the source. When asked, C. Kalyan says, “When I bought the Telugu rights, I just didn’t know about the debts.” Kalyan also lost nearly Rs 2 crore when the film failed to hit screens as scheduled on Friday. “We had worked on giving the film good publicity here and almost all the shows were showing good promise,” says C. Kalyan.