No producer should give films, No actor should give dates to Atlee: Producer T.Siva slams Mersal director Tamil Movie, Music Reviews and News

No producer should give films, No actor should give dates to Atlee: Producer T.Siva slams Mersal director

PUBLISHED DATE : 28/Mar/2018

No producer should give films, No actor should give dates to Atlee: Producer T.Siva slams Mersal director

At a recent discussion for a Youtube channel, producer T. Siva of Amma Creations was asked his view on whether or not cinema is a profitable business these days to invest in. Being around in the industry from the late 80's, T. Siva had views on how the the industry's business model had changed over the years and how the current scenario isn't that profitable to the producers. He further added,

"Take films with top stars with a budget of Rs. 100 Crore. Will it be profitable in today's date? No..I have come for open discussion. Take Mersal for example, the film was a mega hit...for all the distributors. Those who bought the film and those who worked on the film made money. But it was a loss to the producer (Thenandal Studios Limited)."

Later when the discussion steered towards what aspects were the producers facing losses from - actors' exuberant salaries or fake collection reports or something else, T. Siva was prompt to say,

"Why was Mersal a loss? It was Atlee's (director of Mersal) mistake. The reason I'm talking about this is because the public and the next artiste who gives him (Atlee) his call-sheet should too know. The production has all details of how much he spent, what all he did without planning and how much he wasted. Why so much cost? Was the film worth the cost there?"

On pinning the loss over Atlee alone, T. Siva justified, "A producer cannot go and talk about these issues to a star actor. I cannot go and discuss this with a mass actor like Vijay, if I do a misunderstanding will be created (between the producer and the actor) and call-sheet problems will start arising. There were many attempts to convince Atlee but he didn't budge. How can a bill of Rs. 4.5 crore for an outdoor-shoot be justified? I am talking all this to bring awareness to my fellow distributors, technicians and artistes. No producer should give films and no artiste should give dates to Atlee. He should realise that punishment."

It is worth mentioning here that ever since Vijay starrer Mersal hit theatre screens, everyone but the producer has been talking about the 'losses' that were incurred by Thenandal Studios Limited. Late last year, S.Ve. Shekhar too spoke about Mersal's loss and Atlee's remuneration when he stated, “I have heard that Mersal has suffered a loss of Rs 60 crore. All the issues are over. The actor has received money. The director, who received Rs 3 crore in the last film has now got Rs 13 crore. If a director gets Rs 3 crore, he should get Rs 5 crore in the next film. How did he get Rs 13 crore? There should be some reason for the expenses spent on a film.”

Later when producer Suresh Kamatchi and actor-directorPraveen Gandhi too spoke about Mersal's loss, producer Dhananjayan slammed everyone with a tweet where he said, "Shocked to read such exaggerated statements that #Mersal incurred huge loss. Looks like a motivated campaign. When the Producer is not talking about it, how come others are quoting such figures? On what basis? My calculation is it's a profitable film. Truth may be out soon."

The actual producers of Mersal, Thenandal Studios Limited may have maintained silence the last time over, but to the recent developments, their director Hema Rukmani sent out a tweet that many consider a reply to the said allegations.