From 65 cr to 105 cr, Natural Star Nani project is on hold

Some time ago, a film was planned with Natural Star Nani as the lead, to be produced by Srinivasa Chitturi. Tamil young director Cibi Chakravarthy was brought on board for the project. Nani liked the initial idea narrated by Cibi and referred him to the producer, who also approved the concept and asked him to develop it further. For this, an office was set up in Chennai and a team was arranged to support the director. At that time, Cibi reportedly promised to complete the film within a budget of ₹65 crores, excluding remunerations.

After a while, Cibi Chakravarthy completed the full script and narrated it to Nani, who gave his approval. However, during the process of developing the story in detail, the budget on paper reportedly went up to ₹150 crores. On learning this, producer Srinivasa Chitturi was shocked. He felt the project would not be feasible with Nani at that scale and decided to drop the film. His concern was that if the budget had already reached ₹150 crores on paper, it could escalate even further by the time the final copy was ready. He informed Nani and put a full stop to the project.

It has now been nearly two years since this happened. Recently, Srinivasa Chitturi approached the Tamil Film Producers Council, seeking recovery of the ₹5 crores he had spent on the project from director Cibi Chakravarthy. The director, however, is said to be ready to return the advance he received. Meanwhile, Srinivasa questioned who would compensate for the additional expenses incurred over two years for office maintenance and staff salaries.

Interestingly, despite the dispute between the producer and director, Nani still liked the script and is reportedly interested in making the film with another producer.