Topic started by chittan (@ 210.187.9.234) on Mon Dec 1 21:29:00 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
It is big-time war between Bala and Vikram. The latest turn of events seems to emphasis the fact that the rift between the hit-director and the superstar is getting wider and wider. Once thick friends, Bala and Vikram are now taking potshots at each other. And there seems to be no room left for either professional harmony in the future, or even personal courtesy.
Trouble started brewing during the making of Pitamagan, as Bala came to the sets with a one-line script! Bala wanted to tell the story of a Vettiyan (undertaker) in his typical dark and dreary way. The producer V.A Dorai rang the alarm bells and said that there were no commercial elements in the film and cancelled the shoot.
Later Vikram was forced to sit with Bala and expand the story and make four characters with three of them having shades of grey. It seems Bala wanted the character Chittan played by Vikram to start speaking after the interval, but the superstar put his foot down.
And while Bala was sulking on the sets, Vikram completely took over and even shot the climax. This badly hurt the ego of the director and on Diwali day, when Pitamagan was released Vikram went from one satellite channel studio to another promoting the film aggressively to make it a huge hit and the film was touted as “Vikram’s Pitamagan” and not “Bala’s Pitamagan”!
Suddenly the producer took a U-turn and poisoned Bala’s ears with stories of how Vikram had insulted him. He is reported to have done this so that he need not pay Vikram the Rs 60 lakhs that he owed him! A badly bruised Bala started working overtime and at every given opportunity, he tried to play down the involvement of Vikram in the film’s success.
Sample this- “No hero hereafter, only subject is hero”, “Vikram is a limited actor, Surya is more flexible!” .
Now the latest we hear is that Vikram is out of all the print publicity of the film and Bala and larger-than-life posters of Surya are appearing with the tagline- “Bala’s Pitamagan”! The Vikram supporters meanwhile are asking a very simple question –“Can Bala turn out a hit without Vikram?” We will have to wait and see, as Surya has given bulk dates to Bala for the next film with most likely V.A Dorai being the producer.
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