Why Producer Nammalvar Lingusamy Has Filed Complaint Against Kamal Haasan With Producers' Council
Uttama Villain was written by Kamal Haasan and directed by Ramesh Aravind.
Director and producer Nammalvar Lingusamy, along with co-producer Subash Chandra Bose of Thirrupathi Brothers, have filed a complaint with the Producer’s Council against Kamal Haasan for violating their contract. They collaborated on the 2015 film Uttama Villain, which caused financial difficulties for Thirrupathi Brothers. Despite Kamal Haasan assuring them of another project after Uttama Villain, they haven’t worked on any film together in the nine years since.
Lingusamy disclosed in a statement released on May 2 that Kamal Haasan’s constant changes to the script made the film tanked at the box office. He also stated that they asked him to be part of the Drishyam remake, but he chose to do the film with a different producer.
After the setback of Uttama Villain, Kamal Haasan reportedly promised to star in another film for the production house, with a budget of Rs 30 crore, as compensation. However, he allegedly did not fulfil his promise.
Subash Chandra Bose has reached out to the Producers Association for assistance in resolving the matter. However, the council has yet to respond.
Lingusamy said in a video, “At first, Kamal Haasan talked about a big commercial movie idea. It was about a character like Velu Naicker, played by Kamal in the movie ‘Nayakan’, saving his brother from bad guys. Siddharth was supposed to play the brother. But Kamal changes his mind a lot, which makes things difficult. He’s done this before and it worked out. If I was the director, it might have been different. But I was there as a producer.”
The official Thirrupathi Brothers account stated in mid-April refuting claims by a YouTube channel that Uttama Villain was successful.
Uttama Villain is a comedy-drama written by Kamal Haasan and directed by Ramesh Aravind. The plot follows an actor who learns he has a brain tumour and is approaching the end of his life. He turns to his mentor to direct his last film and address his challenges.
In the 2015 movie Uttama Villain, Kamal Haasan, K Viswanath, K Balachander, Jayaram, Andrea Jeremiah, Pooja Kumar, Nassar, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Urvashi, and others were seen in important roles.