Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
RAMYA V/S GANESH
DRAMA IN REAL LIFE
The recent high drama in the Sandalwood is another addition to actress Ramya’s controversy.
The issue of her not attending the promotion of a film ‘Dandam Dashagunam’ produced by A. Ganesh has vertically divided the Sandalwood.
The issue is a trivial one which involves the financial transaction between Ganesh and Ramya. Ramya was paid 27 lakh as her remuneration for acting by the producer Ganesh and there is no dispute about it. But the crux of the matter is Rs. 10 lakhs financed by Ramya to Ganesh. The producers do take loans from stars and this has become a common practice. There is nothing new about it.
After the production, Ganesh took to film promotion which is a new trend in Sandalwood. The Producer, Director, lead Artists etc. hold press meets, participate in chat shows in TV Channels and even tour selected cities and towns to promote their film before its release. It is all about creating hype about the film to make people see it. Except rare exceptions, stars willingly participate in the promotion.
As usual, Ganesh too held a press meets to interact with the media but, Ramya, the leading lady in the film kept herself away from the press meet. When a reporter asked Ganesh at the conspicuous absence of Ramya, Ganesh said that she has not turned up despite her promise. Desperate to have her on the show, Ganesh is said to have contacted her on the mobile and Ramya was then shopping in a furniture shop. Basant Kumar Patil, the KFC Chairman understood the situation and realised that Ramya will not turn up. He addressed the Media and shared his views about the need to make it compulsory for the stars to attend the film promotion.
All hell broke lose at this comment of Basant Kumar Patil. Ramya added fuel to the fire by stating that the producer has not settled her account. She however took enough care to avoid mentioning of the loan amount, due from Ganesh. The KFC held a meeting over the issue and Ramya to pre-empt their move, tweeted that she will not act further in Kannada films. The very next day, she attended another film promotion and shed tears over her plight. She made a statement that she had lent money to Ganesh and he has not cared to settle her account. This was enough for some of the fellow artists to rush to her rescue.
Ambareesh a leading light of the yesteryear Cinema and who is also the President of the Artists Association took up Ramya’s case. He directed Ganesh to pay Ramya her dues and apologise publicly to her that too before the media. The KFC had in the meanwhile decided to approach Ambareesh for a patch up bid. But, at the last moment, the move was abandoned as other Artists too started demanding settlement of their dues as well. Finally, the KFC and other Associations took the extreme step of banning Ramya.
In fact, Ramya was hiding the truth about the loan to Ganesh. The amount of Rs. 10 lakhs was lent to Ganesh by somebody and the loan agreement has a provision that Ganesh has to settle the loan before the release of the film. Ramya has also taken a blank cheque signed by Ganesh as an additional surety. The agreement contains the signature of Ramya as a witness and the lender is somebody else. It is another matter that Ganesh has already paid six lakhs towards loan and his dues are around four lakhs. The interest is a different story of course. Nobody lends money to the producers at a normal rate of interest and Ramya had damned the producer for not paying up this money. She is now demanding 9 lakhs as due.
Of course, Ramya could have obtained ‘stay’ from the court against the release of the film if Ganesh had not paid up by then. She could have even approached the KFC, but the matter was purely a financial transaction in personal capacity. Moreover there is also a blank cheque signed by Ganesh which she could have presented to the bank and filed a cheque bounce case in case of dishonour, which could have brought her the money in no time. But the main problem is that Ramya has not given the loan to Ganesh personally and the lender, as per records, is a different person.
Ganesh, who has invested more than 4.50 crore to produce the film, has become a discredited person with the Ramya’s episode. He has three more films which are at the various stages of completion and for a paltry few lakhs, he has been publicly humiliated and damned. Ramya will have the last laugh as she is supported by Ambareesh and other leaders of the sandalwood and the ban will not affect her in any way.
The film industry comprises of Producers, Directors, Actors, Music Directors, Technicians and Exhibitors. Entire film industry is dependent on one another and can not survive without another.
Just take a look at the behaviour of some leading stars. Sudip acted free in the recently released film ‘Kempe Gowda’ because Shankare Gowda, the producer had lost much on Sudip’s earlier film. Now that the film became a box office hit, Shankare Gowda is all praise for Sudeep. Why go far? Rajanikant’s multi crore ‘Baba’ was a box office flop and the producers and distributors suffered heavy losses. But Rajanikant called all of them and made up their losses by paying from his pocket. It is said that he paid more than 25 crores in this regard! There are many numbers of such instances. Vishnuvardhan too had helped his producers by acting in their next films if the film bombed in the box office and the producer could not even earn the production cost.
A mere financial transaction between Ramya and Ganesh has been blown out of proportion. There was no need for the intervention of KFC or any other Associations in this matter. At the most, any senior person from the Sandalwood could have been asked to solve the problem at individual level. And now, actors like Ramya are targeting the producers and directors openly. They do not care about the films or the producers or directors, but, all they want is money.
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