Recently the posters of “Zid,” produced by Anubhav Sinha and Mushtaq Shaikh, came out. The film’s first look got a lot of attention, mainly because it is the debut vehicle of Priyanka Chopra’s cousin Manaara, also known as Barbie Handa.
In the poster Vivek Agnihotri was credited as the director, but Agnihotri does not want anything to be associated with the film.
“I was hired to make an intelligent psychological thriller based on a Canadian film "The Good Neighbour" for which Anubhav had taken rights. The stars and the entire crew signed the film thinking they were doing a psychological thriller, somewhere down the line after Goa schedule, Anubhav decided to promote it like an erotica and he shot few posters without informing me. I took strong objection to it and decided I don’t want to be a part of it. I clearly told Anubhav that I didn’t want to be part of a film which I never shot and he gave me an impression that he understood,” says Agnihotri.
So Agnihotri was shocked when he saw the poster. "This was a good seven months ago, we had only done the first schedule. I have no idea how the film has shaped up at all, because I never shot the key portions. I did a schedule in Goa more than a year ago in 2013. How can I let my name be associated with something I don’t even know? A Vivek Agnihotri film should mean that I own every single frame of the film. How can I own a film which I have not finished?” he says, adding that he left the film on “moral and professional grounds”.
He reiterates that his next release is “Buddha In A Traffic Jam,” which got a good response at MAMI recently, followed by a love story with T-series called “Junooniyat.”
“As far as "Zid" is concerned, it’s an Anubhav Sinha film and I wish him all the best,” says Agnihotri.