It has been year four years since Dulquer Salmaan’s film Theevram reached the theatres. That film marked the directorial debut of Roopesh Peethambaran, who was till then noted for the portrayal of younger version of Aadu Thoma in Mohanlal-starrer Spadikam. Theevram, managed to garner good comments from the critics as well as film buffs.
Now, years later, the film is again in the news after Roopesh came out against its producer V.C. Ismail, who sold the dubbing rights to other languages without his consent. “It was when one of my friends shared the trailer of the Tamil version of Theevram titled Aaththiram that I came to know about it.”
“Till then, though I was the one who wrote the screenplay and directed the film, I was unaware about the producer’s plans to dub it into another language,” says the director, adding, “Later, I came to know that he has sold the dubbing rights to many other languages.” According to Roopesh, it is the low quality dubbing in Aaththiram that provoked him to come against the producer.
“You know what, though he was the producer of Theevram, he did not spend enough money for the film when it was released here. Even then, my film managed to survive for more than 50 days. He was not at all supportive from then. But I have not complained to anyone. It was then he came with this Tamil version. When I search for more dubbed scenes from Aaththiram on YouTube, I could find the full film there which failed to show justice to the original one. Like the dialogues, the songs too were killed in the new version,” he opens up.
Roopesh adds, “As it is a waste of time, I am not going for a legal battle. But I need to say that this is not a good move. I am still getting calls from other language producers for the remake rights and amidst these, he sold the dubbing rights to form a vulgar output. I guess this is why more directors produce their own films.”
