The letter that Shane Nigam sent to producer Sophia Paul that led to the actor’s ban is out. In the letter, it has been specified that the film’s edited footage should be shown to him and his mom and that he should be given prominence in the branding and marketing of the film. In Sophia Paul’s letter, she wrote about the shoot getting stalled because of his tantrums and the financial losses and humiliation she had to endure.
Shane has written that since his character is not getting the prominence that he was promised, the film should be promoted giving importance to his character. Even when the teaser comes his character should be given importance. When people watch the promotions they should get the impression that he is the hero of the film. Once the edit is done, he should be given prominence as well.
Based on this, Sophia filed a complaint to the producer’s association citing that her film was getting stalled. That eventually led to an action against Shane by the cinema associations.
The full text of the mail
To the attention of the respected members of the Kerala Film Producers Association,
I am pleased to inform you that my production, RDX, has finally wrapped up today. I am writing to express my gratitude for your continued support of my film on behalf of my production company.
However, I would like to bring to your attention the unprofessional behaviour of Shane Nigam and his mother towards me and my production team during the shoot.
As you may be aware, the shooting of my film, which was scheduled to begin on September 5, 2018, had to be postponed due to an accident involving one of the protagonists, Anthony Varghese. Despite having made all the necessary preparations and payments to the technicians, the shooting had to be rescheduled after the doctors advised Anthony to rest.
During the filming of a seven-day carnival and fight scene, which was a significant daily expense, Shane Nigam demanded that he and his mother would only participate in the shooting if they were given prominence in the edited footage. As the main actor in the film, I offered to show Shane the footage but not to others due to technical issues. He partially agreed but then sent an email to my production company with new demands, stating that he would only continue shooting if his demands were met and signed by the producer. The letter included demands for a free hand in film promotions and that posters should not be released without his consent.
But when I realized that it will be counterproductive to the marketing of my film, I got in touch with the association, and it is only after B Unnikrishnan spoke to Shane that the shooting could be resumed. Currently, I am not sure if he will cooperate during the dubbing and promotion of the film.
I also experienced a huge loss on the eve of the final day of the shoot. In the morning, we had made all preparations to shoot a championship and even though all the junior artists were waiting, the main artists including Shane Nigam did not arrive on time. So, we had to cancel that location and shift to another location as per schedule by noon. We had to take unnecessary breaks due to Shane’s indiscipline, non-cooperation, and unprofessionalism. And this has caused me and my production company great embarrassment and financial loss.
RDX directed by newcomer Nahas Hidayat stars Shane Nigam, Neeraj Madhav, and Antony Varghese. Due to Shane’s irresponsible attitude, the film’s shoot was stalled several times. He got into several verbal fights during the shoot and demanded that they show him the edited footage and that he should get more prominence in the film. Finally, FEFKA interfered and declared at the press conference that stars have no right to see the edited footage.
Actors Shane Nigam and Sreenath Bhasi were banned by the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) and the Kerala Film Producers Association following repeated complaints of misbehaviour on film sets.
