'The Immortal Ashwatthama': Vicky Kaushal's superhero saga shelved after financial loss?

After Uri: The Surgical Strike, actor Vicky Kaushal’s next outing The Immortal Ashwatthama with director Aditya Dhar was much talked about one. The two had started working on the highly anticipated project. However, according to Bollywood Hungama, modern-day mythology is getting shelved and it’s a major shock to the entire film industry. The reports stated that producer Ronnie Screwvala decided to put the film featuring Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan indefinitely on hold due to budget issues. According to reports, the team of the film has suffered massive losses because of the film being shelved. 

The Immortal Ashwatthama shelved by makers after a financial loss?

A source close to the development told Bollywood Hungama that the forthcoming film Ashwatthama has been in the prep stage for over two years now. The team did multiple recces, worked on the entire pre-visualisation, did multiple meetings with the VFX team, got an international action unit on board to train Sara and Vicky for their action-packed role over the last year. The source also informed that producer Ronnie Screwvala who was bankrolling the project under his RSVP productions had spent over Rs. 30 crore to get everything in place. With the film being shelved, the entire investment has gone for a toss.

The source revealed to Bollywood Hungama that the decision to shelve the project was taken by the makers after the producer and director were not on the same page. The source shared that Aditya Dhar was keen on taking the budget and creative aspects a little high. However, after investing a considerable amount in the film’s pre-production, he realised that the final budget of the film was going out of control and it would be difficult to recover the money even in the times after pandemic.

The film was initially planned to be made within a certain amount of budget, but as the pre-production work kicked off, the budget kept on increasing by the day. After a meeting with the investors, Ronnie along with the entire team took the final call of shelving the entire project. At last, while concluding, the source informed the leading entertainment portal that the makers have asked all the talents to find another script. However, the industry is unpredictable and he may just revisit the script a couple of years down the lane if he feels confident enough to invest the money in it. Ronnie, Vicky, and Aditya have worked on URI: The Surgical Strike, which is among the biggest blockbusters of Hindi cinema in the last few years. The film had also won the director a National Award for his impeccable direction.

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