The shoot of the Vadivelu-starrer Imsai Arasan 24am Pulikecei, directed by Chimbu Deven, went on floors in August 2017, but came to a halt because of differences between the film’s team and the comedian.
While the filmmakers alleged that the actor’s interference and non-cooperation was the reason for the shoot being stopped, the impasse reached a difficult stage when director Shankar, the producer of the film, went and filed a complaint against Vadivelu with the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC). This was in November 2017.
Now, after over three years, Vadivelu and Shankar have managed to sort out their differences. “Following Shankar’s complaint, we had passed an order stating that Vadivelu can act in another film only after clearing the dues he owed Shankar. The director was actually producing the Pulikecei sequel on a first-copy basis for Lyca Productions. Now, Vadivelu has agreed to act in two films for the production house and compensate for the loss they have incurred because of the sequel. Following this, we have withdrawn the order banning him from working in films,: reveals a TFPC source.
The first reason for the friction between Vadivelu and the film’s team happened when the actor allegedly demanded that his fee be raised. This was sorted out, but then the star comedian apparently wanted a portion of a song’s tune to be changed, even though he had approved of it initially. Next, he had allegedly started refusing to work with supporting actors that the team had in mind. Finally, Vadivelu is said to have stopped it again saying that he wanted his own costumer as he feels comfortable only with him. Shankar’s side had claimed that from August to November 2017, the team had shot only for 10 days, and for the rest of the days, they had been paying rent for the sets that were put up for the film without any shoot happening on them, leading to unnecessary loss.
It is now expected that Vadivelu, one of the biggest comedians in Tamil cinema, will make his comeback soon. We hear the current resolution came about mainly because the comedian has made a five-film deal with the production house. Among the five films, the first will be directed by Suraaj, and is a spin-off of the director’s 2006 film Thalai Nagaram, and will revolve around Vadivelu’s hugely popular role, Naai Sekar.
