Several incidents in recent times reveal that Telugu female actresses are often blamed for everything that goes wrong with a film.
Just a few days ago it was reported that the shooting of a movie stopped for a day because of lead actress Sai Pallavi. This is not the first time that an actress has been blamed for something wrong. The same actress was blamed for her ‘unprofessional behaviour’ during the shooting of her earlier film MCA: Manchi Lakshanalunna Abbayi. In yet another film Kanam, her co-star Naga Shaurya openly criticised her for her behaviour, prompting the actress to apologise to him during a media conference if she had ‘hurt’ him in any way.
Lavanya Tripathi
Similarly, director Neelakanta opted out of That Is Mahalakshmi, a remake of Hindi hit film Queen citing Tamannah’s behaviour. Prashanth Varma later took over the reins while Neelakanta took to directing only the Malayalam version.
“It’s a hero-centric industry and the actor’s career span is nearly 20 years. So producers and directors don’t want to quarrel with the lead actors or go against them. Whatever happens on the sets, it is easy to blame the actresses because they are used to it. The producers and directors want to work with those actors for a long time, so they support the heroes and not the actresses,” says Madhura Sridhar, producer and director, adding, “Filmmakers can easily warn the actresses and replace them, but they can’t change the lead actors.”
Catherine Tresa
Actress Sai Pallavi has been blamed the most number of times for throwing attitude on the sets. “While shooting for Padi Padi Leche Manasu, Pallavi came so early to the sets that she had to wait for two hours! So she asked the team to inform her just one hour before the shooting commenced. However, the news spread that she was showing her attitude and that shooting had to be stopped because of her,” says a source on what really transpired. Later, both Sai Pallavi and Sharwanand clarified that there were no differences between them and the unit.
Anupama Parameswaran
Last year, actress Catherine Tresa was blamed for her ‘attitude’ and replaced with Lakshmi Rai in Khaidi No.150. Touted as Chiranjeevi’s comeback film, Catherine was supposed to do a special song in it, but the makers replaced her with another actress at the nth hour. “The designer changed her outfits without informing her, and Catherine didn’t accept the changed outfits. Differences arose and she was immediately replaced with another actress,” says a source.
Actress Lavanya Tripathi also faced blame for not doing the Tamil remake of Telugu hit film 100% Love. Though it was not entirely her fault, the filmmakers filed a complaint with the Movie Artists Association and Lavanya was eventually replaced.
“Problems may arise during the production of a film. And whichever actor or actress is in focus, the news spreads more about them. Differences come and go, they are not permanent and we have to continue and focus on our work,” says producer Dil Raju, who refuses to comment about the recent incident that happened on his film sets between Anupama Parameshwaran and Prakash Raj.
It seems the makers warned everyone against talking about it, especially since no one dares to speak against Prakash Raj as he is a senior artist. “No one knows what happened and I was not there that day,” he says, adding that even small issues are magnified by the media. “After social media has come into play, everything is news. So I don’t want to comment on anything.”
HT01/03
