Director ameer loses Rs. 2 crores!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Finally, Paruthi Veeran, Karthi's (Son of Sivakumar) debut film will be released by the end of this month. It is being speculated that Surya along with few of his family members threatened ameer with the help of a powerful person in the government and grabbed the film at the lowest rate. ameer, the Producer and Director of the film stands to loose more than Rs. 2 Crore, thanks to his 'noble' intention of introducing Karthi as a Hero!

ameer had in the year 2005 decided to launch the film under his own banner 'Teamwork Productions'. He met the press at Siva Kumar's residence to announce his new hero Karthi, who was then working as an assistant director under Mani Rathnam.

After the launch, director ameer decided to complete the film at his own pace. Since it is a period film, ameer chose to concentrate more on quality and perfection. The entire unit had camped in and around Madurai &Theni area for more than six months. Apparently, Siva Kumar's family also extended their warm support to ameer at every stage. Jyothika participated for the first time after Marriage as a Chief guest along with her husband Surya and released the audio of Paruthi Vaeeran. The songs scored by Yuvan Shankar Raaja did well in the chartbuster list.

Initially, ameer planned this film for a pongal 2007 release and hence also announced the theatres at which the film will be showcased. Unfortunately for ameer, the distributors stepped back as they thought that the film did not have enough commercial values. Since the hero was also a new face, they thought that the price fixed by ameer is extremely high and doubted its potential at the box-office. Though ameer rushed to Surya to seek his help to release the film on his own, Surya did not relent.

Recently, ameer got a phone call from Siva Kumar who asked him to arrange for a preview show of the film at Four Frames, the preview theater owned by director Priyadharshan in Chennai. After the preview, Siva Kumar and family were completely satisfied with the film. However, they wanted to release the film in their own Banner. ameer accepted immediately, but the rate fixed by them shocked him. According to sources, Surya's cousin K.C.Gnanavel Raja (Known as the producer of Sillunu Oru Kadhal) offered Rs.3 crore for Paruthi Veeran as the outright price. Since the production cost of the film crossed Rs. 5 crores, ameer refused to give the film at such a low rate.

This was when ameer got a phone call threatening him to agree to their demand. Knowing completely well that even if he refuses the deal, he will not get the theatres, ameer tearfully agreed.