Director explains what happened between Arjun & Sruthi in shooting
- IndiaGlitz, [Saturday,October 20 2018]
Kollywood is in utter shock as Kannada actress Sruthi Hariharan alleged that Action King Arjun sexually misbehaved with her on the sets of 'Nibunan'/ 'Vismaya' that released in 2017. The director of the film Arun Vaidyanathan has clarified on the issue on his social media the statement of which is given below.
Arjun sir and Sruthi Hariharan, both are my good friends and I know their families too very well. Regarding Arjun sir, he is a perfect gentleman on sets who is a professional when it comes to the craft of acting. The same applies to Sruthi too. I just received the statement where Sruthi has called out Arjun sir in the #Metoo movement. Am shocked to know of the same and regarding the particular scene mentioned, it was an intimate romantic scene. We did rehearse the same before the shot and discussed ideas. I edited out certain improvs offered, finalized the staging and moved on to shooting the scene. Improv is a common process in filmmaking and that's how movies happen. Sometimes , a magic happens during those kind of improvs too, which you can't deny. The shoot happened almost two years back and I don't remember the minute details of the said incident.
One more thing, I want to bring it out here. The said intimate scene was written much more intimate than what was shot finally and Arjun Sir requested me to tone it down during the scripting stage itself. He said ' I have teen daughters now and can't perform such scenes anymore'. I also understood the same and rewrote it entirely different. The above said statements regarding the shoot and the rewrite was a honest portrayal of what really happened.
What transpired between two adults outside my sets or personally between them over calls or chats, unless or otherwise brought to my attention as a complaint, I can't comment on the same and it's not right too.
Both Arjun sir and Sruthi are great friends to me personally. Its disheartening to write the entire statement since we had so much fun while making our film and we all worked as a team with one common mission of making a good film. Regarding #MeToo movement, we wish this brings a safe environment to all the women across all industries.
P.S - Please don't try to call me or message me regarding this. I don't have much to say on this other than whatever I said.