I won’t hold Kamal Haasan responsible for the failure of Uttama Villain: Lingusamy

Kamal Haasan and Lingusamy were to collaborate on a comedy entertainer in 2015, following the release of Uttama Villain.

Lingusamy; a still from Uttama Villain

Filmmaker-producer Lingusamy declared that he wouldn't hold Kamal Haasan accountable for Uttama Villain's failure to make money, even though he wants to collaborate with the actor-politician once more. His production company Thirrupathi Brothers suffered a significant loss as Uttama Villain turned out a box office dud. Since then, rumours have circulated that the movie was to blame for Lingusamy's downfall.

In an interview with a YouTube channel, he acknowledged that there is a rumour going around that the performance of Uttama Villain had something to do with the collapse of his production venture. “But I've never claimed that. I'm a huge fan of Kamal sir and I learnt so much from him.”

An artiste like Kamal Haasan wouldn't want to make a movie to give the producers undue losses, Lingusamy continued.

“Kamal sir and I recently reconnected and are getting ready to work on another movie. Never in my life would I ever blame such a brilliant artiste. He put his heart and soul into Uttama Villain. However, we intended to make a commercial movie like Vikram, but it ended up becoming something else,” he was quoted as saying.

Ghibran wrote the score for the movie, and this is widely regarded as his best work to date.

Ramesh Arvind was in charge of directing the musical comedy, and Kamal Haasan's Raaj Kamal Films International, and Eros International were all involved in its production.

The Madras High Court was previously petitioned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to halt the film's release because a song's lyrics offended the Hindu community. The writ petition was, however, dismissed by the court because it lacked merit.

In 2015, reports were hinting at one more collaboration between Lingusamy and Kamal Haasan. Hearsay was that it was to be directed by seasoned director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, who has collaborated with Haasan on notable hits like Pushpak and Michael Madana Kama Rajan.

Uttama Villain revolves around the story of an eighth-century theatre artiste and a modern-day superstar. The film featured K Balachander, K Viswanath, Jayaram, Urvashi, Andrea, Pooja Kumar, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Nassar and MS Bhaskar in important roles.

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