‘I’ll finish the film only when I want to’ - Kannada movie star Darshan

Kannada challenging star Darshan is faced with a big challenge indeed in his stalled project, Boss.

Kannada star Darshan says “In my entire career, I’ve had only one film that was dropped just after the muhurat. And now, Boss is the other film that’s been totally messed up,” he says.

Holding producer Ramesh Yadav responsible for the delay, Darshan says, “We still have to shoot two songs, besides completing dubbing for the talkie portions. When we gave Ramesh our dates, he didn’t complete the songs. But now, when we are committed to other projects, he tries to act smart by asking us to finish only the dubbing — so that he can release the film without the songs. But the ball is in my court now. I’ll do the unfinished songs and dubbing for the film only when I wish to.”

In fact, Ramesh hasn’t even settled the payment dues of several cast and crew members yet, alleges Darshan, wondering how on earth the producer issued a statement saying he’d release 100 prints of the unfinished film. “Let him first clear the payments to artistes and technicians, including heroines Navya Nair and Rekha, director Raghu Raj, Harikrishna (who has scored wonderful music), and supporting actor Rangayana Raghu,” fumes Darshan, adding, “Ramesh is all talk. If he thinks he knows the industry inside out, he should also be aware that I knew about the same industry when I was in my mother’s womb. My father, Toogudeepa Srinivas, was an established actor back then.”

After all this, the actor has quoted a higher remuneration than he would charge otherwise. “Not only that. I’ll complete the film only after the others’ payments are cleared. It’s everybody’s bread and butter, and if Ramesh is not going to pay everybody, then he won’t see the film release,” asserts kannada movie actor Darshan.

Though miffed with the delay of Boss, the actor’s excited about his other projects. Talking about his next release, Abhay, Darshan says, “It’s not the usual Darshan in Abhay. You will see me as a lover boy.” And the climax sequence for Porki is another reason for his excitement. “It was the biggest climax I’ve ever done. We had 10-12 scenes in the sequence, of which five were shot in Bangalore and the rest in Chennai,” says Darshan, who’ll next star in another Telugu remake, Shouryam, under Sadu Kokila’s direction. Defending himself doing remakes of non-Kannada films, Darshan says, “There’s nothing wrong in picking up something that’s good. Though I’m not opposed to remakes, all my films are not remakes,” he maintains.