The countdown for Prem’s upcoming film The Villain has begun. Starring Shivarajkumar and Sudeep in lead roles, the film is slated for a mega release on October 18. Meanwhile, the director is reportedly miffed with the film’s heroine, Amy Jackson, the reason being her absence at the promotions.
According to Prem, the south Indian, Bollywood and Hollywood heroine’s presence was expected at the pre-release teaser launch, which was held early this week. But she went incommunicado, and this is not going down well with the director who didn’t see why she should have gotten an exemption from the promotions when the other actors were present.
“I respect her work, and she has done justice to the role, but to be honest, she lacks communication skills. Even superstars like Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan take some kind of responsibility when it comes to promoting their films, and acknowledging the director’s work. But here, forget being present, it takes days to get a reply from Amy to even know whether she will be present at an event,” says Prem, whose film will be released in Kannada and also in Telugu and Tamil.
The director is clear that this treatment towards a Kannada film is unacceptable. “Any actor part of a project, should take responsibility of promoting the film. We will accept this if she did the same in Bollywood, Hollywood and other language films,” says Prem, adding, “In fact owning to Amy’s busy schedule, every one in the team, including lead actors Shivanna and Sudeep cooperated and adjusted their dates to match Amy’s.
“Thankfully, nobody had any complaints about it,” he says, adding that since she was making her debut in Kannada with The Villain, people would expect to know her experience in working in her first Kannada film. “And that is possible only if she participates in media interactions. With just two weeks left for the film’s release, she has not made any kind of attempt to promote the film. This is really upsetting,” says Prem.