Martin director AP Arjun responds to VFX scam ‘commission’ allegation

Sunil Reddy, one of the accused in the cheating case filed by Martin producer Uday K Mehta, had named the film’s director AP Arjun as a beneficiary of commission for getting the work allotted

AP Arjun's next with Dhruva Sarja is the much-delayed Martin

Rs 50 lakh is what director AP Arjun is said to have pocketed as commission for getting a graphics company the VFX work of his next, Martin, starring Dhruva Sarja. The much-delayed film is currently in the news, after producer Uday K Mehta filed a complaint against graphic designers Satya and Sunil Reddy, who had taken Rs 3 crore from him for the work on Martin, but failed to deliver.

Martin VFX cheating case: Director AP Arjun in trouble?

After being arrested, Sunil made a statement to the police, claiming that of the Rs 3 crore, he made a payment of Rs 50 lakh to Arjun, and several other smaller amounts to other film team members. Responding to this allegation, Arjun, who was called by the Basaveshwarnagar police to clarify this, spoke to the media and denied any dealings with Satya or Sunil Reddy.

Arjun stated that if there was an under-hand dealing, there should be proof of some sort for the transaction, like, phone calls or messages exchanged between him and the Reddy duo or a money trail. Sunil has not provided any, said the filmmaker. He then went on to elaborate that the Reddy duo was initially only meant to work on the climax of Martin.

However, based on the quality of work, it was then decided to give the VFX work of the entire film to them. For the climax alone, they were to be paid around Rs 4 crore, which was later revised to Rs 7 or 8 crore for the entire film, a decision that came from producer Uday. But after agreeing to work solely on Martin, Satya and Sunil Reddy then took up Kaatera and 2 other films, and took money from all of them, but did not provide deliverables.

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In the course of his media interaction, though, Arjun admitted that there have been issues between him and Uday, which the duo had earlier denied, when rumours came up about discord in team Martin. The filmmaker said that he did not speak to Uday for 15-20 days, and, hence, did not discuss the allegation that has come up now.

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