After Four Years, Writer of India’s Costliest Film is Struggling to Get His Screenplay Back

This image depicts a scene from The Mahabharata

Loading…

MT Vasudevan Nair had all the reasons to be happy when it was announced that the costliest film in the history of Indian cinema was going to be made on his novel, Randamoozham. He was also asked to write the screenplay of the film which is retelling of the Mahabharata from Bheema’s perspective.

Now, after four years of the announcement, he is planning to move court to get his screenplay back from the producers. The reason, he says, is that the makers promised him to start working on the film in less than three years but hasn’t done anything substantial to keep it going.
As per a report on The News Minute, Nair said that “after four years, the film hasn’t even begun shooting and the contract for the screenplay was only for three years.”

He also said, “Even after the contract was extended for one more year, they haven’t started the making of the film.”
It was said that the film will be directed by VA Shri Kumar, and it will have Mohanlal in the role of Bheema. There were reports that Dubai-based businessman BR Shetty will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the film.
Shetty had talked to the Times of India a year back about the film. He had said, “The Mahabharata is an epic of all epics. The movie will a true ‘Make In India’ for the world. Mahabharata mesmerizes as well as brings focus on life and living.”

The book was written in 1984 and has won many literary awards since then, but will it see the light of the day anytime soon?