Kamal Haasan's Sabaash Naidu delayed; will Vishwaroopam 2 release first?

Ever since it was announced, Kamal Haasan’s film Sabaash Naidu has been in the news.

Initially, it was because the actor was teaming up with his daughter Shruti Haasan for the very first time, for a film. Then, it was Sabaash Naidu’s US schedule that had fans interested.

However, in recent months, the project has been plagued by one hurdle after another.

It began with director TK Rajeev Kumar having to opt out of the project because he was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Kamal stepped into the breach and took up the director’s mantle himself.

Then, just when things were beginning to get back on track, there was more trouble — this time because Sabaash Naidu’s editor James Joseph pulled out. Joseph’s wife had an accident, and he had to rush back from the US to be by her side.

That isn’t all — reports in various media outlets suggested that Kamal was unhappy with the work of cinematographer Jaya Krishna Gummadi, because the latter was unable to deal with the simultaneous shooting of Sabaash Naidu in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

It wasn’t just the changing line-up among the technical crew that beset Sabaash Naidu — Kamal himself suffered an injury that took very long to heal.

With so many unforeseen issues, Sabaash Naidu — which was supposed to release this September — has now been pushed to a 2017 release.

In a report dated 12 July in The Hindu , Kamal said that about 42 minutes of the film — in all the three language versions — were complete, including the post-production. Kamal’s younger daughter Akshara is also helping with the filming.

The delay has prompted speculation that another long-awaited film of Kamal’s — Vishwaroopam 2 — may see a theatrical release before Sabaash Naidu. However, Vishwaroopam 2 has also been in limbo for a while as its rights are with producer Aascar Ravichandran.

Sabaash Naidu is based on the character of Balram Naidu from Kamal’s previous film Dasavatharam.