Shruti Haasan's double act throws filmmakers in a quandary

19 Jul 2013

Kamal Haasan's daughter Shruti has unknowingly triggered off a war of nerves in the film trade. This Friday, she appears in two Hindi films simultaneously. While in Prabhu Dheva's Ramaiya Vastavaiya she plays a nice sweet innocent girl in love, in Nikhil Advani's D-Day she plays the hard-hitting role of a prostitute.

Quite a culture and moral shock for the audience, and a clash that the team behind both the films desperately wanted to avoid.

Says Nikhil Advani, "They were supposed to release on a different date. When I heard they were coming on the same day, I immediately messaged the producer. However there was no response. More than anything else, audiences are going to be shocked to see Shruti transform within one Friday so drastically. I guess audiences are mature enough to take that king of change. I remember Gulzar Saab's Koshish and Parichay were released within months of one another. In Koshish, Jaya Bachchan played Sanjeev Kumar's wife. In Parichay she played his daughter. Both succeeded." While Nikhil maintains that the Shruti Haasan clash was precipitated by the Ramaiya Vastavaiya (RV) team. Prabhu Dheva the director of RV has another story to tell.

Says Prabhu, "We tried to talk to them. But nobody was willing to listen. They've worked as hard on their film as we have. I am praying for both the films."