HYDERABAD: Actress Sridevi, who missed out on the chance to play a part in SS Rajamouli’s blockbuster film Baahubali, has found herself involved in a fresh controversy.
The makers of her recent Tamil-Telugu fantasy drama Puli, claimed that the actress owed them Rs 20 lakh, contrary to her claims.
Sridevi, who plays an evil queen in Puli, had filed a complaint at the Mumbai Producer’s Council that the producers owe her Rs 50 lakh.
Lashing out at the actress, the producers insisted that they didn’t ‘owe her a single penny’.
In a four-page statement, producers Thameen and PT Selvakumar said they agreed to sign the actress for their film ‘out of respect’ and agreed to pay Rs 2.7 crore as her salary along with Rs 30 lakh as service tax.
“We were paying her as per the agreement she had signed at the beginning of the film. However, in the final stages of production, Sridevi’s husband Boney Kapoor asked us to pay her extra as we were planning to release the film in other languages too,” read the statement.
According to the statement, Boney Kapoor told the filmmakers that Sridevi would come to the shoot ‘only if she was paid extra.’
“After much deliberation, we decided to pay her 20% of the film’s Hindi satellite rights, which was Rs 55 lakh, and Rs 15 lakh for the dubbed Telugu version,” the producers claimed.
Expressing their displeasure, the filmmakers insisted that they had compromised all along the film’s production for Sridevi. It was at the behest of Boney Kapoor, who convinced them that Sridevi has very good market in Hindi, that the makers decided to release the film in Hindi.
“We had hired three costume designers for Puli, but Sridevi insisted that we sign Manish Malhotra, and we paid him Rs 50 lakh. She also convinced us to pay Rs 8 lakh for the marketing designer for the film’s Hindi version,” read the statement.
The makers said they spent crores just for the sake of Sridevi. Despite doing so much, she didn’t even come for the film’s audio launch.
“She owes us money,” the statement concluded.
Ironically, Sridevi had rejected a plum-role in Baahubali to be a part of Puli.
Directed by Chimbu Deven, Puli also features Vijay, Shruti Haasan and Hansika Motwani in the lead roles. The movie released in October.