Why SRK-Shankar parted ways

Shah Rukh Khan had called off the sci-fi Robot with South director Shankar owing to creative differences. Afterwards, Shah Rukh had said “Yes, we have called it off. We were not happy with a few things; Shankar’s take on the film was completely different from mine. We had worked very hard on the film and it is sad that we had to call it off. Both Shankar and I decided that we won’t make it Apparently, Shah Rukh and Shankar parted ways because Shah Rukh wanted the special effects of the film to be done in his SFX studio in Khar, but Shankar wanted to do the same in Chennai. According to our well-placed source in the film industry, “Robot had a lot of special effects. For the whole exercise of special effects to be completed, Shankar would have had to stay in Mumbai for six months at least. Shankar didn’t want to stay so long in Mumbai. Shankar argued, but Shah Rukh was adamant.”

SRK had even given a signing amount of Rs 5 crore to Shankar. Our source further reveals, “Shankar’s fee for the film was going to be Rs 12 crore. When Shah Rukh gave him the signing amount, he deducted the TDS. Later, Shankar returned the entire signing amount but without deducting the TDS - Rs 5 crore.”

We sent a message to Shah Rukh, but he did not reply. Shah Rukh’s next project will be Yash Raj Films’ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which will be directed by Aditya Chopra.

However, no one said what exactly the creative differences were. Shah Rukh had loved the script and was all set to produce the film under his banner Red Chillies Entertainment. So what went wrong?

Vickey Lalwani, Mumbai Mirror