- Sunday, May 05, 2024
By: Mohnish Singh
News that RSVP Movies’ much-awaited production venture The Immortal Ashwatthama has been shelved has come as a huge shock to not just the industry but to all those fans also who were excited to see Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan together for the first time. Buzz has it that producer Ronnie Screwvala has decided to put the high-profile film into cold storage due to the heavy production cost.
A publication reports that shelving The Immortal Ashwatthama has burnt a hole in Screwvala’s pocket as the producer had already spent millions on the pre-production work of the film.
Sharing more details, a source in the know tells a publication, “Ashwatthama has been in the prep stage for over two years now. The team did multiple recces, worked on the entire pre-visualisation, did multiple meetings with the VFX team, got an international action unit on board to train Sara and Vicky for their action-packed role over the last one year. Producer Ronnie Screwvala spent over ₹30 crore (approximately £ 2,964,575) to get everything in place, and now, the entire investment has gone for a toss.”
The source goes on to add that the producer took the decision to shelve the film as he was not on the same page as his director Aditya Dhar. “After investing a considerable chunk, Ronnie realised that the final budget of the film was going out of control and it would be difficult to recover the money even in the non-Covid times. The film was initially planned to be made within a certain amount of budget, but as the pre-production work kicked off, the budget kept on increasing by the day. Finally, he felt that it is better to let go of the investment of ₹30 crores, rather than burning his pockets in the longer frame of time. He had a meeting with his investors, actors and director and finally took the tough call of shelving the film,” divulges the source.
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