STR dropped from Maanaadu; Suresh Kamatchi, Venkat Prabhu take decision after actor's delay on project

Last year, director Venkat Prabhu of Mankatha fame and STR jointly announced that they would be joining hands for a slick political action thriller Maanaadu . They also revealed that producer Suresh Kamatchi would be bankrolling the film and roped in Kalyani Priyadarshan to play the romantic interest of STR. While reports clearly said that the makers have shelved the project, Suresh Kamatchi repeatedly asked fans to not believe the rumors. However, today, Suresh Kamatchi sent out a statement to the media saying that due to unfortunate reasons, he has decided to drop STR from the project and is planning to replace him. “Greetings everyone. My beloved brother Simbu aka STR gave me a big responsibility and encouraged me to produce his film Maanaadu. I thank him for his support during the initial days. But the prolonged delay has only given me a bitter experience. I’m someone who prefers to stay honest to my profession and execute projects within the stipulated time. But in case of Maanaadu, things refuse to progress and we only lost so much time and effort with the project. So at this juncture, would like to inform you all that Venkat Prabhu and I have decided to make Maanaadu without STR. We will soon officially reveal more details regarding Maanaadu”, said Suresh Kamatchi in his official statement. [caption id=“attachment_7132341” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] STR. Image from Twitter[/caption] Earlier, in an interaction with Firspost, Venkat Prabhu said: “I wanted a star with a humongous loyal fan following to play the protagonist in Maanaadu. When STR himself called me for a possible project, I thought this character would perfectly suit him. Maanaadu will be completely different from my previous films which were mainly targeted to entertain the young crowd with fun elements. One thing I can say is that STR’s character will be very unique from the usual protagonists of Tamil cinema”. Later, he also said that the core plot of the film is set against the backdrop of a political gathering. Acknowledging Suresh Kamatchi’s statement, now Venkat Prabhu took to his Twitter page to confirm that Simbu is no longer associated with the project. “It’s very unfortunate that I couldn’t work with my brother #str in #maanaadu Everything is time bounded. Considering the amount of emotional and financial pressure that the producer is going through, I have to respect the decision taken by the producer. Thnks for all the love!(sic)”, wrote Venkat Prabhu on Twitter. So as of now, it’s loud and clear that Venkat Prabhu and Suresh Kamatchi are pissed off with STR, who didn’t show any interest to start shooting for the film within the promised time period. Though the actor has completed two schedules of the Tamil remake of Kannada hit Mufti, the film’s producer Gnanavel Raja is also said to be upset with STR for his lack of punctuality. But Mathiyalagan, producer of Hansika’s Maha in which STR plays a cameo, says that the actor is super punctual and offered one hundred percent cooperation to his film. Mathiyalagan also showered praise on STR for being humble and down to earth on the sets, saying he didn’t even demand caravan. It’s worth mentioning that Simbu has a bad track record in Tamil cinema. Gautham Menon had previously said his Achcham Yenbathu Madamaiyada team waited quite a long while for the actor to complete his work in the film. STR’s films like Kettavan and Kaan were also dropped earlier because of the actor’s personal issues with the makers. Michael Rayappan, producer of STR’s Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan met the media to convey his grievances against the actor who refused to even dub for the film. According to Michael Rayappan, STR dubbed the film in his bathroom as he felt uncomfortable to come to the recording studio. But STR earned back everyone’s confidence with Mani Ratnam’s Chekka Chivantha Vaanam as he came to the sets on time and completed the shoot without any trouble. Now, fans of the actor, producers, and film fraternities are disappointed to hear the statement from Suresh Kamatchi and Venkat Prabhu who say that they have no other option left but to replace STR with some other actor as he hasn’t shown interest to start the film and wasted their time.