Kamal Haasan’s ambitious venture Sabaash Naidu seems to be jinxed even before the film’s release. The veteran actor was forced to take over the directorial reins midway through the film, after TK Rajeev Kumar opted out due to illness. Now Kamal finds himself in an unusual situation, due to the buzz of an ugly spat between the two ladies in his life – partner Gautami Tadimalla and daughter Shruti Haasan.
Gautami had been brought on as a costume designer for the trilingual film, which has Shruti in the lead role. Several sources from the film’s sets had revealed that Shruti was unhappy with Gautami for changing her look in the film, leading to a spat between the two of them. “There was always tension in the atmoshpere as Shruti and Gautami would constantly quabble over costumes. There would heated arguments and tiffs between the two of them. At one stage, things got so ugly that a whole day’s shoot had to be cancelled,” a source said.
As the situation was spiralling out of control, Shruti Haasan (through her spokesperson), has issued a clarification. The 30-year-old actress rubbished the rumours doing the rounds, stating that she had always had a good relationship with Gautami.
“Shruti’s role in her father’s film is that of a young, feisty gal who’s grown up in Los Angeles, who uses fashion as an expression of her quirky and devil may care attitude. Keeping this brief in mind, Gautami brought in a set of clothes for Shruti when the look test was happening in the pre production stage. Styling being a collaborative and subjective effort, needs inputs from the producer, director and the actor and giving the stylist feedback, redoing looks etc is standard procedure,” Shruti’s spokesperson stated.
“The core team mutually felt the look needed more to be added and specific feedback was shared with Gautami. Being a thorough professional herself, Gautami understood and brought in a new lot of clothes which seemed to work better. Shruti infact, added in elements from her own closet to help Gautami and to really make the looks pop given that she has lived in LA herself and is someone with a very distinctive sense of style,” she added.
Directed by Kamal Haasan, Sabaash Naidu is a comedy-adventure flick that is being shot in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil simultaneously. The film is scheduled for a worldwide release on December 1.