Athithi, the debut film of actor Nikesh Ram, produced by his father Ramakrishna Nair, has released recently. Though the film is his debut home production in Kollywood, Nikesh is treading warily around his next projects. The reason is the problems he had reportedly faced from his heroine Ananya, during the shoot.
“She created so many minor issues on sets. The cost of my film went up due to her non-co-operation with dates, and extra expenditure for change in hotel, travel abroad, and entourage of assistants and hair and make up stylists. She didn’t even promote the film or come for the audio launch. The list is a long one but since we wanted to finish the film, we put up with it and didn’t complain,” he said.
When CE contacted Ananya, who is abroad, for her side of the story, she seemed completely taken aback by the allegations. “No complaints have reached me so far. I’m really surprised to learn of all these details from you,” she said.
When given specific details of his grouses, she refuted them saying, “I have co-operated fully with the production house and did not delay the project. I was in the city on the days allotted for shoot. If they didn’t use my dates properly and delayed things, it’s not my fault. I had dates fixed for my Malayalam films and couldn’t make changes to suit any delays. I had a fixed itinerary and its true I had booked a holiday in Kenya, which they asked me to cancel. Since I had already paid for it, naturally I asked them to compensate me for the loss! I brought my make-up and hairstylist from Kerala since I was used to their work. But I later sent them back and things were sorted out and I used the local artistes only. As for refusing to come for the audio launch, no one informed me about it! I heard about it from outside sources.”
Nikesh recalled that the actor, accompanied by husband Anjaneya, decided to shift from a star hotel in Vadapalani to a posher hotel on Anna Salai. Though she paid the difference in hotel rates, the producer had to incur high costs due to increased rates of facilities like food, limousine usage, etc. Ananya said: “It’s true. I asked for a different hotel because of privacy concerns with the earlier one. So I had to shift to another hotel which I am used to staying in. But I paid for the difference in room rates.” She refused to accept that she didn’t answer the producers’ calls or created problems on sets for small issues. “I travelled to Dubai and other places in Kerala for shooting, due to which my phone may have not been reachable. On sets, if I have a problem with something, I clearly state it, so that it can be sorted out. They may have had problems with that and are not used to it since it’s their first film.”Ananya summed up, “I’m here to do good work and not to create problems for anyone.
If anyone has mismanaged their work, I shouldn’t be held responsible for it.”