Rahulramakrishna vs Mitai film dir

[chicken60five]

A bitter Mithai with Rahul Ramakrishna

Now that Mithai is on Aamzon Prime & I have moved on to my next project, I found it necessary to completely close the chapter on Mithai by addressing the allegations made against me by Rahul Ramakrishna and his dissociating himself from Mithai prior to its release. What follows is as per timelines.
May-December- 2017 
I first met Rahul during the making of Arjun Reddy. He has stayed at my place a few times, and we regularly met over a drink. I considered him a friend, as we shared confidences, including his admission that he is depressed & has suicidal tendencies. I really empathized with him & cared for him. So when the Arjun Reddy mania was in the air, the idea for Mithai came to my mind. I told him the story which he loved. I told him no matter what happens, I will start shooting from Jan end 2018, to which he had no issues. He assured me that all his dates are mine from mid Jan till I finish, stating that I am his brother, used to call me Saheb then. He helped me fix a meeting with Vivek Sagar & later on with Priyadarshi. He would call me or come over in the middle of the night, using my shoulders to cry on many a time, as he was going through a very bad phase in his life. He was my only friend in the entire Mithai crew, and he knew everything about the finances and more. I thought of it as his film as much as mine.
January- September- 2018
It was decided that on 14th January I will have the poster & the website release and the film will be announced. Although we would meet almost everyday, never once I was told that there will be any issue with Poster release function. On 8th January, I asked him to come for a photoshoot for the posters on 11th Jan, for shoot with Priyadarshi, the blue car & him. He refused to come for the photoshoot saying he can’t take his beard off as it will be a continuity issue for other films he is doing. I understood it and never insisted, although I must admit I was hurt about him not informing me earlier as we have been meeting almost everyday. I came up with idea of a radium goat head poster at the very last minute. The poster became popular, and what came as a limitation I turned it into a strength, so I let things pass. 
By then scheduling was done, and I thought there wont be any issues further. Shooting was supposed to start from 31st January, but on 16th or 17th the bomb was dropped saying he wont be able to shoot as he is busy shooting for bigger films and I will have to postpone my film by 2 months. I was mad at him, as he was the first one who was informed in October & has okayed the shoot to start from Jan in principle. I was also personally very hurt that the guy who was my friend is asking me to push the project by 2 months, the economics of the film didn’t allow me to do that so I FIRED HIM FROM THE PROJECT. I roped it actor Shafi to do his part. 
I started rehearsing with Shafi. Then a mutual filmmaker friend fixed up our meeting in his office, saying we should meet once & that since the role was written with Rahul in mind, it is better to have him on board again, if he gives you reasonable dates. I was also informed that Rahul has stopped eating and I knew since he had  suicidal tendencies, I should give him one last chance. When we met he expressed desire to work and gave me reasonable dates,  so I took him back. He assured me there won’t be any date issues. And yes everything got sorted, we hugged each other. With a heavy heart I called up Shafi & informed him of the latest, the gentleman he is, he didn’t have issues. We remain great friends.

The liberation song shoot
The Liberation Song was my dream song. I was willing to spend whatever it took for it. The plan was to shoot the song in Vikarabad, in a resort. The entire crew went to the resort on 21st as it needed a big set and shooting was supposed to start from 26th Feb. I had roped in one of the best choreographers, Annie, for it, and the sequence required tap dancing. The Liberation song also needed a lot of energy. Rahul agreed to come to the resort on 23rd itself and stay there and practice tap dance and stay till the shoot is over. I assumed that this time around there won’t be any issue. I was then informed by my EP that Rahul can only come the night we are shooting and then again go back & shoot for his other film and return back, repeating that for 3 days. I went mad. I lost it. I was like, how is it possible, the sequence needs so much of energy, and daily trips to and fro from Vikarabad to Hyderabad, shoot for another film in the day & then come over all the way in the evening and shoot for mine, it was just not possible! Where will he have energy, and when he will learn tap dance. Big money was already spent in erecting those sets & getting the crew. I called up Rahul and literally threatened him. In hindsight I regret doing that, but I was pushed to that limit! This film was life and death for me and this guy was playing around with it being completely unprofessional. He called up the film maker friend who brought truce between us earlier saying he is scared. That friend was holidaying in Goa, so from there he took me on line and three of us along with his manager had a conference call. I told for threatening him and he agreed to come one day before the shoot and be there till it gets over. I was not convinced but I had to swallow the bitter pill as with 4 days shooting already over in the first schedule I now didn’t have luxury of firing him. Now whatever happens I had to finish the film with him. 
As expected, the shooting went awful. He had a fight with a senior pro like Annie, and there was zero energy in the shoot. Later on he told me if Annie remains he won’t shoot. So I had to somehow convince Annie that she is not required the next day and that I can manage. While shooting if I would ask for retakes, he would refuse to do more than two, saying it is embarrassing.  Later on as it turned out, I had to turn around 50 percent of what I shot in Vikarabad, because of lack of energy, into 2D, and that costed me loads of money & the film released got postponed many a time as the CG was not ready. 
Post Liberation Song
• I carried on but little did I know what was still in store. During the shoot, he would call me in the middle of the night, saying he was drunk and depressed, asking if I can postpone the shoot. I stopped answering the calls as I wanted my shoot to be over and done with. At times I used to send my people with butter milk to bring him on the sets.  
• After 10 days of shoot I saw the bills of food for Rahul & his team, it was around 70k. This guy fully knew my finances. My younger brother who has just started his career, his savings were over by then and he was borrowing from his doctor friends and also took some personal loans from the banks and here the guy who is supposed to be aware of all this was giving me these bills, and refused to eat the unit food which I was eating.
• Once we had a night shoot, with a lot to catch up. Everyone was on time and I see Rahul is not there. I waited for four hours, but I lost it when his manager called up my AD asking me to speak to Vijay and get him released, as he was shooting for Geetha Govindam, how could I do that ? calling an actor asking him to release another actor ? why clash of time at first place?
• Another time, he turns up for the shoot clean shaven, knowing very well that he had stubble for my shoot. I had to cancel the shoot, and pay for the crew and equipment, and ended up causing issues for others dates as well. It caused a long delay and a huge loss on an already tight budget. I was too shocked to even react, how could an actor who delayed my project because of beard can come clean shaven when he knows it’s a stubble.
Yet, the ordeal he put me through wasn’t still over. The worst was yet to come.
Oct 2018-Feb 2019
This was the worst phase, as he did whatever he could to harm the film. By October, there was no trust between us as by now he was talking nasty stuff about me and the film to all and sundry. Things reached a nadir when he had a free-wheeling talk session with his fans, where he said “There are only two mistakes of his life, one is doing engineering and another doing Mithai”. When the fans said the trailer is fantastic, he categorically said don’t go by the trailer, it’s a bad movie. My film editing was still going on, and although Rahul & me were not talking, I called and asked him how can he say that it’s a bad film without even watching it, and the film is not complete yet and editing is on. To this he said he has done N number of films, and he can say what’s a hit and what’s a flop. He did this despite us having a professional agreement to promote the film, as there were many other people’s hard work involved in the film, and an actor & director are supposed to bury everything and move on for larger good of cinema & respect for team . I was all set to take him to court for this, but one of the actors from the film, who himself was surprised about it,  promised me that I am taking the guarantee that he wont spread anything more about the film. So after that guarantee I didn’t go to court which in hindsight I now really regret.
As he admitted himself, he more or less withdrew from the publicity of the film in a social media post on the day of the release of the film. I tried my best, begged & pleaded to get him on board, but he would find some excuse, then I send him a nasty message, as things were going worse. A day after my audio launch event for which he didn’t turn up, while I was in Chennai doing my sound design, he called me up in the middle of the night and was crying like a kid, Vivek Sagar & Sachin(Sound designer for sync cinema) were also there. He went on to say how much he has screwed me over, and that he is really a bad person. He was too drunk , and with so much difficulty was able to form sentences. I got scared, knowing his past & suicidal tendencies. In the middle of night I called up Priyadarshi & his manager Sitaram asking them to please take care of him as he was feeling so and was so drunk he might commit suicide. They reached out to him, thanked me and confirmed me that they will take care. 
Next day he sends these messages again:
17th February dated, time 12.25 pm to 12.26 pm Five days before the release, screen shot can be provided for request.
Rahul: I really regret my behavior with you.
Rahul: Sure we had our differences, but it is no excuse for what I’ve put you through.
Rahul: I am extremely sorry, I am not doing well emotionally.
I still couldn’t believe him, as by now there was a buzz around Mithai, and I felt he was again manipulating, so that I wont get back to him after the film is hit, which I have threatened him to. But still I asked him to come for the premiere, which he again never turned up after promising. And as it turned out, yes, he was manipulating, no sooner the first show was over on Friday he put a message on digital space dissociating himself from the film, and it affected bookings all over, film got rejected without even a proper viewing by audience. In that message, he writes “WE” tried to save the film, after all he put me through! He didn’t give me one date which I wanted for reshoot of one of the most important scenes of the film, that guy is saying “WE” tried, the guy who didn’t care to come & even watch the edited film used the word “WE”. What hurt me most was he used Mithai buzz to fix an interview on TV channels and talked about a Hollywood project called Silkroad, that he will be a part of, which in fact is not even a Hollywood project, it’s a small English film, which is as uncertain as frogs raining from sky . He could have used that time to promote Mithai, but was too selfish for that.
I find Rahul a pathological liar and a manipulator, with a nasty habit of bitching about people behind their back. From saying things like Mahesh Babu personally trimmed his role in Bharat Ane Nenu as he felt insecure with Rahul overshadowing him in acting, really ! He wanted me to believe that Mahesh Babu is scared of his acting skills. He also talked bad about other filmmakers and actors, list is endless. 
I would like to end by saying that Rahul is a good actor and has acted well in Mithai as per my requirement, but is easily the worst human being I have ever met. His behavior sabotaged my dream project, and his unprofessionalism has cost me dearly. 
I sincerely wish he becomes a better human being, and no producer or director has to go through what I went through.
Mithai from the beginning was an experimental film & I implemented exactly as I wrote the script & am very proud of it. I take that satisfaction from Mithai, even when I would have given few hits down the line Mithai will always have special place in my heart & mind, I will try my best to forget what Rahul did to me and move on. There will be no reply after this, as this is just my side of the story & I want to move on. My next project is all set, it’s a hostage drama & will be announced soon. Looking forward to it.

[LadiesTailor]

aagi poyuna pelliki bhajantrilu enduku ani... intha sollu rasadenti flop movie ki..

[mettastar]

no time for this panchayathi