Shankar's struggles to finalize cast and crew for "I"

Shankar is trying to give a new look to his upcoming Chiyaan Vikram starrer titled "I". A number of people signed up for the project are first timers with Shankar (Dialogues by SuBa, DoP by PC Sriram). Recently, there are some reports that Samantha is now dropped from the project. These woes have been in line with series of such things happening in the recent months as Shankar tries to nail his cast and crew members for his upcoming movie, I.

Shankar's struggle to keep all the balls in the air

It is an irony to note that it has not been easy for the #1 commercial director of India to finalize the cast and crew for his upcoming movie. Here is the Industry talk about the efforts made by Shankar to finalize his cast and crew members. But, something or the other has been falling through,

• Shankar was in discussion with Aamir Khan to make this movie in Hindi. Since it didn't materialize, he moved the project to Tamil with Vikram. One may remember similar thing happened with Enthiran when he initially planned to work with Shah Rukh Khan before break-up.

• Shankar approached Priyanka Chopra for the lead heroine. She reportedly quoted 8 Crores, even though she makes less than half of what she quoted for Hindi movie. Quoting a very high remuneration is one of the common techniques used by managers of actors to indirectly say "No" to a project.

• Samantha who was initially roped in as lead pair for Vikram is now reported to have been dropped from the project as well.

• Shankar has been in talks with Hrithik Roshan for doing a back-to-back remake of "I" after completing the Tamil version. Even though the talks were encouraging in the beginning, there are currently some date issues which are raising some questions as to whether Hrithik will play Vikram's role in Hindi.

• Ayananka Bose, Cinematographer for Kites, Dostana, etc., turned down Shankar to accept Karan Johar's upcoming Hindi movie, Student of the Year.

• PC Sriram had some opinion differences with Aascar.  PC Sriram wanted to rent cameras and other services from Gemini. Producer Aascar insisted on using a different cine equipment services. PC Sriram was at the verge of leaving the project. Last minute interventions ensured the issues got patched up.

This project has been challenging for Shankar to keep all the balls in the air. Once the project finds traction, the team is hoping everything will run smoothly.