Bollywood: Director Sujoy Ghosh Ousted from Kahaani’s Sequel
Mumbai Mirror reports that PEN and Jayantilal Gada, co-producers of the movie, scripted the ouster of Sujoy Ghosh after he allegedly demanded 35 crore (INR). They also found him unreasonable when he asked that music right as well as satellite rights of the sequel be with his company, Boundscript.
Responding to the demands, Pen India had asked for the script of the sequel and also a confirmation note from Vidya Balan that she has agreed to be part of the movie.
"Sujoy never sent any reply to Gada's mail and after contemplating for a while, PEN CMD decided to go ahead with the project and replace Ghosh with Shah," Mumbai Mirror quoted a source close to Mr Gada.
To Mumbai Mirror, Gada confirmed the recent development. He said, "Movies are made with teamwork and not greed."
The new director Mr Shah told Mumbai Mirror that he is happy to direct the sequel. However, he clarified that his movie will not take forward Vidya Bagchi's story. He said, "the story is entirely different than that of Sujoy's film."
"I had a woman-oriented script, which I took to Gada. He loved it and decided to make Kahaani 2 with it. I plan to put it on floors sometime next year."
Released in 2012, Kahaani, directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh, gained both critics' praise and commercial success. Made at a budget of 1.4 million (INR), the movie turned out to be one of the surprise hits of 2012, making nearly 750 million (INR) worldwide.
The Bollywood thriller, starring Vidya Balan, Nawazuddin Sidiqqui and Parambrata Chatterjee, is one of India's few women centric movies. In the movie, Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) comes to Kolkata to find her missing husband and Parambrata's character helps her in that. But, there is big twist in the end that reveals that missing husband story was just a facade to accomplish something else.
Reacting to the news, Sujoy Ghosh tweeted: "yo KAHAANI fans.. you have no idea how much love you gave to our film & us. so whatever i make next.. will honor that love. i promise you :)"
: "and if you believe everything that you read.. then let me tell you.. i just saw a pink elephant fly past.."
He told Mumbai Mirror that "anybody can make a woman-oriented film-be it Kundan Shah or Jayantilal Gada himself. Let them do what they want."
"As far as the story of Vidya Bagchi is concerned, nobody can take that story forward except me. At this point I am not sure when I will start on it, or if I will work on it at all. But it is only me, who has the right to work on that story."