Director-producer Aditya Dhar, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming movie Article 370 starring his wife, Yami Gautam Dhar, has cleared the air around his ambitious film The Immortal Ashwatthama which originally starred Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal in the lead role.

Aditya spoke with the media on the sidelines of the trailer launch of his home production Article 370 which unravels the events surrounding the abrogation of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which granted a special status to Kashmir.

Why Is The Immortal Ashwatthama Shelved?

He told the media: "I'll be very honest, that film ('The Immortal Ashwatthama') has been put on hold. The kind of vision that we all had for that film, it was too big for the mathematics to work in the Indian cinema. The kind of VFX we were aiming for, nobody has tried for it yet in India. Ya toh humaari VFX technology sasti ho jaaye ya humaare number of screens baddh jaayein (either our filmmaking technology becomes cheaper or the number of screens in India are increased) so that more people can watch the film tab tak mujhe thoda sa dekhna padega. (Either the cost of VFX technology will have to reduce or the number of screen counts given to our film will have to increase so that more people can watch the film, until then we will have to wait and watch)."

Dhar Compares The Immortal Ashwatthama to Avatar

The filmmaker gave an example of James Cameron and how he made Avatar. He said: "James Cameron conceptualised 'Avatar' 27 years before it was released. He waited for the market to go up or for the technology to come up to a certain level. I'm no James Cameron but the point is that the situation has to be in our favour to a certain degree and has to work out a certain way so that we can mount a film like The Immortal Ashwatthama."

Aditya made his directorial debut with Uri: The Surgical Strike with Vicky Kaushal in the lead role. The film presented a dramatised account of India's surgical strike in response to Pakistan's 2016 Uri attack. Article 370 is slated for release on February 23.