Not too long ago, producer Ronnie Screwvala had said that he has decided to delay his sci-fi project, ‘Ashwathama’. “In the last draft of the script, the ambition of the movie and the budget did not match and the overall uncertainty fueled by COVID, did not help. So all of us – Aditya (Dhar), Vicky (Kaushal) and I – decided that we need to put this back for another six to nine months,” read his statement. Ronnie had then also said, “Sara (Ali Khan, the leading lady), also agreed. We will have to work more on the budget and circle back when things look better overall for the magnum opus which ‘Ashwathama’ is being planned as.”.
Later, reports kept trickling in that the film has been aborted and will not happen. What ETimes has now is that the film is indeed not happening. But we now get you an exclusive sneak into what exactly transpired BTS (Behind The Scenes).
So what transpired? Well, it so happened that after much deliberation Ronnie realised that the budget of this film cannot be curtailed, one of the reasons being that Aditya Dhar (director) had written it in such a way that its cost was crossing the Rs 200 crore mark (that’s the figure). The film which was supposed to be shot on a green screen required a humongous add-on of VFX. What Ronnie wanted was something maximum to the tune of Rs 125 crore.
In today’s times of COVID (the pandemic is far from over, we now hear more buildings being sealed in Mumbai) where leave aside full, even a partial release is uncertain, Ronnie felt that recovering, err, earning from this project on even an OTT platform would not be certain. The script was beautifully written and the kind of producer that Ronnie is, he did not want to do half-justice to it.
So there you are, barring a massive turnaround, the Vicky Kaushal – Sara Ali Khan ‘Ashwathama’ stands as a closed chapter.
