Why did producer Ronnie Screvwala and his company RSVP close down their ambitious truelife drama Ashwathama after investing nearly 25 crore rupees in it?
A source in the know spills the shocking beans. “Director Aditya Dhar had made the war epic Uri for a mere 25 crore rupees though it looked like a 100-crore budgeted film. That’s because Aditya comes from the less-is-more school of filmmaking.”
Explaining his tight budgetary vision Dhar had told me in an interview, “We worked under extremely tight budgetary circumstances in Uri ,and that was good. Because it kept us constantly on our toes, forever anxious. I think anxiety is a big impetus to productivity and creativity.I fear unlimited budgets would make me lazy as a filmmaker.I’d rather work within controlled budgets.My aim as a filmmaker is to make a film look large, far more spectacular than the budget would suggest. I’d like to spend 30 crores. But it should look like a 150-crore film.”
About Ashwathama Aditys had said, “It will be a completely different world from the one in Uri. But still in the real space, Yes, it is again based on a true-life event. And that’s all I can tell you. And of course I can also tell you that my next film too will be produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP production house. The way Ronnie, and for that matter Vicky Kaushal, stood by Uri and believed in it, I’d be foolish to change my priorities.”
So what happened to this director who made a 25-crore film look like a 100-crore film? What happened to his resolve to make his 30-crore film look lik a 150 crore film?
“Oh, that was Aditya Dhar after Uri. Now his priorities have changed. He now not only thinks but also spends big,” a source close to the aborted Ashwathama project tells me.
