D-Day war – Protect Shruti Hassan and my interest, Nikhil Advani tells DAR Motion Pictures

The D-Day distribution issue has just escalated to a new level with DAR Motion Pictures clarifying their stand and pinning the blame on Nikhil Advani for washing dirty linen in public. For those who came in late, a couple of days back, Nikhil Advani had accused Dar Motion Pictures of distributing D-Day, a movie that Nikhil co-produced with DAR, in regional markets without his knowledge or permission. The other bone of contention raised was DAR allegedly changing the title from D-Day to Dawood. Joining hands with Nikhil on this issue was actress Shruti Hassan who had starred in the movie. When we connected with Vivek Rangachari, Business Head, DAR Investments & Commissioning Producer, DAR Motion Pictures, the soft spoken honcho told us that Nikhil was well aware of the distribution MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which created legal rights for the distribution of D-Day in Tamil and Telugu languages. “We have not indulged in anything that is dishonest or unfair,” said Vivek and mailed us their detailed official statement which we have reproduced as below: DAR’s official statement- Nikhil Advani’s statements to the press regarding the irregularities in the Tamil release of the film D-Day are completely misleading, ill-informed, irresponsible and defamatory in nature. Being a co-producer of the film and based on the below, he and his company were completely aware of not just the distribution deal but also steps already initiated by DAR to rectify the situation a) D-Day’s distribution MOU for Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages across India was shared with Nikhil Advani and his company Emmay Entertainment vide email and via multiple conversation (both face-to-face as well as telephonic). There have been no-objections to the said MOU from either Nikhil Advani or his company from then till now b) Telephonic conversation between Nikhil Advani and the DAR team on 29 January 2014 where all these issues were clarified with him and he concurred with the same. c) DAR had provided the distributors with the approved creative used in the Hindi campaign of the movie d) As soon as the irregularities were brought to DAR’s notice, DAR immediately addressed the issue with the distributors and worked with them to ensure that all the said inappropriate posters were pulled out of the market and the title of the film restored to the original ‘D-Day’. Nikhil Advani was made aware of the fact that the right channel to address the issue was through the Distributors and that DAR was working with them to resolve the situation. The situation has been resolved as of yesterday e) Regarding the breach of Artist contract (i.e. Shruti Hassan in this case), DAR is in no way legally obliged to go through any consultation with them as all Artist contracts, esp lead actors, was directly entered into by Nikhil Advani, his company Emmay Entertainment and the said artist. It was thus legally binding and the prerogative of Nikhil Advani and his company Emmay Entertainment to ensure compliance to any actor obligations. It was also imperative that he make DAR aware (in written) of any considerations and/or clauses in such artist agreements that DAR would need to take into consideration while entering any further exploitation agreements. No such communication was received by DAR Thus it is evident that this entire public acquisition vide media articles made by Nikhil Advani against DAR Motion Pictures is not just inappropriate, incorrect and misleading but also a) Makes evident Nikhil Advani’s mala fide intentions of maligning DAR’s image in the public b) Points towards false allegations made by Nikhil Advani against DAR. Nikhil Advani as per contractual obligations would need to first clarify the facts with DAR and resolve such an issue amicably with us. c) Has seriously compromised the commercial prospects of the film that has been made and released with large investments. DAR not just deplores this very public outburst by Nikhil Advani but is also in the process of taking legally recourse to this defamatory action and breach of contractual terms by him. On the issue of D-Day being released as Dawood, DAR’s official spokesperson told us that the name Dawood was misleadingly used by some locals down south without the knowledge of DAR and the same was immediately remedied as soon as it was brought to notice which means D-Day will now be released as D-Day in all southern markets. We sent a detailed mail to Nikhil Advani on the above clarifications issued by DAR. And this is what Nikhil had to say in his reply – “Rather than prolong this discussion with replies, we are glad to learn that steps are being taken by the concerned persons/ entities to restore the original art and title of our film D-DAY. This reassurance must turn to action so that the creative interests of talent like Shruti Hassan and the film's creators are respected and remain protected.” But DAR looks far from pleased with this response of Nikhil Advani. “Nikhil is an experienced filmmaker and rather than hastily approaching the media, he should have behaved in a much more mature manner. He has falsely leveled allegations against us and that has maligned our good reputation. So the defamatory issue still stands. Now we will consult our legal team to decide on the further course of action to be adopted,” said Vivek Rangachari. Looks like this issue is far from over for Nikhil Advani.