Young upcoming actor Amith who felt cheated by director Raghuraj of Digbayam (A horror slash thriller film) has now taken over the project from the director’s hands, and is now taking the responsibility of completing the film and releasing it.
Digbayam, which is a horror flick, has already become the source of real-life horror for actor Amith, who will be debuting with the film. He explains why the crew had to replace Raghuraj at the last minute. “The story of Digbayam is written by me and my father Loknath, who is also producing the film. Since this was my first film, I thought it would be difficult to handle the responsibilities of being in front as well as behind the camera. So I gave the responsibility to Raghuraj,” he narrates.
Amith soon found that Raghuraj had been misleading them from day one. “He took a payment of `3,75,000 for directing Digbayam, which is of course a big amount for any upcoming director in the industry. But Raghuraj was not satisfied. He began cheating us while hiring cameras and other equipment as well,” he says.
Soon Amith’s brother, who is a doctor, took over as executive producer of the film and observed some miscalculations in the accounts. They found some loopholes and realised that the director was cheating them of their money. “We had no option but to show him the exit door,” he says.
Amith, a BE graduate and an MBA, was passionate about making it in tinsel town. “I have four years of experience in theatre and have participated in many stage shows. My father insisted that I complete my education and then do what I liked. Since films were my only passion, I decided to plunge into the business. I have heard stories of such incidents in film industry and now it has happened to me as well. Thankfully, we got an NOC (No Objection Certificate) from the director, which was necessary because at one point, he took away the film's hard disk and started blackmailing us to give 50 per cent of shares from the film to him. But as a team,we did not budge and made sure to get an NOC from him and he was out by August 30,” says a harrowed Amith.
Amith also admits that his only intention was to make a good film and not necessarily make money from it. “I have other businesses to take care of,” he says and further adds, “In fact, as a director, he was not following the story I had written and was trying to present it in a different manner. Now I have to re-shoot some of the portions and a song as well, before I go into post production work and take the responsibility of releasing the film.” he adds.
Digbayam sees Amith in the lead along with heroines Kavitha Bisht and Monisha Gowda.