Rajinikanth’s Thalaivar 173 meets yet another hurdle as the director has almost been changed for the second time. If industry sources are to be believed director Cibi Chakravarthy has walked out of the project.
This unexpected report has surfaced ahead of the film pooja, which was scheduled for this week. Sources also add that Ashwath Marimuthu of Dragon fame will be replacing him and the shoot is likely to begin in May. To be produced by Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International, the project was initially with Sundar C as the director, who was later replaced by Cibi
DT Next learns that there were multiple reasons for Cibi to walk out of the project. “The Telugu film which Cibi was supposed to make with Nani has run into trouble after the budget shot up from Rs 65 crore to Rs 150 crore. Producer Chitturi Srinivasa has approached Tamil Film Producers’ Council and has refrained from issuing an NoC to Cibi. He even asked RKFI if he could be a part of Thalaivar 173 which could compensate him for the losses from pre-production of Nani’s film, which was rejected by RKFI.
Meanwhile, Ashwath has a storyline for Rajinikanth which the team has liked. Prior to this, Ashwath was about to direct a movie with Silambarasan for AGS Entertainment. Since, Silambarasan’s Arasan too is taking time, Ashwath and STR mutually agreed to finish Rajini’s film before their collaboration,” a source told DT Next. An official announcement on this will be made soon.