Lingusamy: ‘Uttama Villain was the reason behind my financial crisis… I asked Kamal Haasan to make many changes in vain’

Lingusamy revealed that he wanted to make a commercial film with Kamal Haasan like Devar Magan or Apoorva Sogadharargal. “At first, he told us about a super commercial film about a person like Velu Naicker rescuing his brother from baddies. Siddharth was supposed to play the brother, but the problem with Kamal is that he keeps changing his mind often. He has done that before and has succeeded in it. Had I been a director, it would have been a different thing, but I went in as producer.”

Lingusamy’s brother N Subhas Chandrabose, who was also a part of Thirrupathi Brothers, first wanted to remake Drishyam with Kamal Haasan. “Kamal called me and named two good actors and said that even they wouldn’t do it. But later, he did the same film for another production house,” he said.

Lingusamy claimed that he never interfered with the making of Uttama Villain, but asked Haasan to make several changes after the film was wrapped up. “Kamal Sir told me that whatever problem arises after the film is released, he will take care of it, but wanted to do the film as his dream project. I told him I would not interfere at all but would ask for some corrections after the film was completed. Likewise, we went with a list of corrections to him, and after listening to all of them, he didn’t correct anything.”

“If he had made those corrections, the film might have worked. It was honestly good edits, and he also agreed. But I don’t know what happened later, he changed his mind. And wanted to release the film as it is,” the filmmaker said.

It is not clear when Kamal Haasan will team up with Lingusamy for a film as he has three big releases in the pipeline. He is currently working with Mani Ratnam for a film titled Thug Life. He has currently put on hold his film with H Vinoth. On top of that, Vikram 2 is also in the pipeline. Meanwhile, he will next be seen in Indian 2, which has been in the making for a long time now.