Did Khushboo target Shruti Haasan?

Tempers are flaring up in Chennai where Khushboo, one-time diva of southern cinema and wife of director-actor Sundar C lambasted Shruti Haasan for dropping out of the colossal Tamil-Telugu production ‘Sanghamitra’, proposed to be directed by her husband.

As far as launch goes, the Sundar C directed ‘Sanghamitra’, a historical venture with a Rs 400-crore budget could not have had it better, with a grand splash made during the recently held Cannes International film festival. Starring svelte Shruti Haasan with ‘Jayam’ Ravi and Arya alongside her, the film was to be bankrolled by Thenandal Films with its musical score under the able baton of the ‘Mozart of Madras’ A R Rehman.

Everything was proceeding smoothly for a brief while, till the Haasan girl backed out of her project touting out excuses like not being happy with the script and having to give a long call sheet for two years to be associated with the project. It sent shockwaves across the industry as there seemed nothing wrong with the project till the time Shruti walked out.

A few weeks after all this happened, with the multi-lingual heroine talking about her quitting to all and sundry, Khushboo, erstwhile heroine and currently a prominent politician in Tamil Nadu took to Twitter to counter Shruti. As reports in Tamil media go, in an indirect manner, the ex-heroine of Shruti’s father Kamal Haasan during the ‘90s said: ‘ A few people have been saying that ‘Sanghamitra,’ as of now the costliest film to be made in Indian cinema has been taken up without proper planning and without even a proper script.

These people should know that in films of this genre, the pre-production work itself is 70 per cent while the actual shoot is just 30 per cent’. Tweeting further, Khushboo blasted Shruti by terming her as one ‘who hails from a traditional filmi family and who should not use public forums to cover up their mistakes and blame others’. In a word of advice, the erstwhile siren raised the pitch that ‘it would be better to come to terms with your mistakes as it would help you in the long run’.

With just one film- a home production ‘ Sabash Naidu’ under her belt, Shruti surely has something to introspect upon for sure, given that her father Kamal Haasan is battling a different onslaught from the local politicians elsewhere. ‘Baahubali’ with its two versions has raised the bar for sure as far as production budgets are concerned in Indian cinema. While Hindi cinema world has its own target audiences and creative values, southern cinema is also racing ahead with mega investments in a few of its forthcoming projects.