The Dulquer Salmaan-starrer Malayalam movie Theevram, released in 2012, has now courted a controversy over its dubbed Tamil version Aaththiram.
The director of the movie Roopesh Peethambaran took to Facebook and claimed that he wasn't informed about the release in Tamil and lashed out at producer V.C. Ismail. Calling the move as a 'cheap stunt' by the producer, Roopesh said that he is not planning to get into any legal battle, but just wanted to warn other filmmakers to be careful in associating with Ismail in future.
"Jus now got to know that Theevram is dubbed into Tamil as 'Aaththiram'!! Well, this is done without my knowledge and without my consent, anyways it was a cheap stunt by Producer V.C Ismail!! Since it's a waste of time I am not getting into any legal battle!! But it's worth sharing bcos i really hope nobody makes a movie with V.C Ismail in future, even if it's a Z grade film!!
But have to say that the Tamil version of Theevram is pathetic to its core!! Thank you V.C Ismail for screwing up the publicity when it was released in Malayalam and now finally the Tamil version, Kudos!!,"(sic) Roopesh, who made his directorial debut with the Dulquer-starrer, wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, talking to Onmanorama, producer Ismail accused Roopesh of causing him a loss of Rs 42 lakh.
“The dubbing was done solely with the aim of taking the movie to other languages. The movie, which was made with a budget of Rs 2.15 crore failed at the box office," Ismail said.
Talking about Roopesh, Ismail said, ''All accusations made by Roopesh are illogical. As a debut director, he received all benefits and in turn, I got nothing else but loss of money. If this was a remake, I would have agreed with his claims, but this is dubbing and as a producer, I have full rights to do that. For the dubbed version, all I have got is Rs 1 lakh. Even the producer's name is not credited to me. It is in fact Roopesh who is making a publicity stunt with his statements.
"When the movie released, everyone was in praise of Dulquer and critics blamed director for poor making. I am sure that the movie was a flop because of Roopesh. He doesn't even know direction. Before the release of the movie, Roopesh had given me permission for a remake by word. I have no complaints against Roopesh. Before speaking out, he should have tried to understand the situation," Ismail concluded.