It is normal to hear stories of writers complaining against producers of being cheated financially or creatively. Seldom do we hear of a director wanting his name to be totally removed from a film he made. That is what director Sourabh Shrivastava has requested his producer Prakash Jha. Shrivastava doesn’t want to take any credit for the film Fraud Saiyaan, which he wrote and directed.
What prompted Shrivastava to make such a request?
The director has alleged that the film has been completely changed from what he had shot and edited.
Shrivastava shared his grievance through a post on his Facebook page. The filmmaker claimed that despite creative differences from the very beginning, he managed to shoot the film and also edit it. Thereafter, the film got stuck as tiffs between the production house, Prakash Jha Productions, and the financers emerged, and Shrivastava moved ahead in life. Four years later, he was told that the film is set to be released. However, the screening of the film left Shrivastava disappointed as it was entirely a "new film".
“I went to watch the Film only to realize that the edit had been changed completely. The Bgm [background music] had been scored in my absence and I was merely being shown the final product. This was almost entirely a new Film,” Shrivastava wrote.
The filmmaker now wants his name to be totally removed from the film credits.
“I don’t wish to comment on whether this version is good or bad. It has been done under the supervision of such a veteran filmmaker whose work I respect immensely. I cannot and don’t want to question that. But I do want to state that this is not my film anymore. It's not what I have made or wanted to make. This was not the script I pitched and we agreed upon. Hence I would like to dissociate from the Film and have requested the Producer to remove my name from it altogether,” he added.
Efforts to reach out to Jha, his daughter Disha (co-producer) yielded no response. Shrivastava, too, didn’t respond to our queries. He has earlier directed little-known films like Oh, My God (2008) and Typcaste (2017).
Rarlier in the week, the film's makers released the first teaser of the film and it has credited Shrivastava for the story and the direction.
Fraud Saiyaan, starring Arshad Warsi, Saurabh Shukla and Pakistani actress Sara Loren, is set to be released on 18 January 2019.
Read the full statement below: