Remembering KKKK

Kandukondain Kandukondain, the Rajiv Menon directed film was released 20 years ago. There was lot of write-ups about this iconic film and Rajiv talking about it. I was wondering what producer Kalaipuli Dhanu had to say about it as I was inadvertently a party to a payment settlement feud between the former and Rajiv. Later I found Dhanu’s talk on KKKK in OneIndia Tamil. He spoke about how for the  Royalty agreed to give their Palace in Karaikudi for the first time and the shooting of a song abroad when there was a terrorist attack. He also spoke about Aishwarya Rai telling Rajiv that she would not shoot on the final day if Dhanu did not join her for lunch. No mention of the bad blood.

It all started with an interview in Screen weekly ( I was the South Chief). The assigned person was Girija Sudheendharan , known to Rajiv and his mother Kalyani. Usually, as a policy, We do not carry any allegations as we were a trade paper. A single line in the interview let hell break loose. Rajiv said – “I have not been paid a single penny for my work for past two years of work”. Dhanu and I had a meeting. He had taken the matter with the Film Chamber. He wanted us to give his version of the story. He gave me hotel and phone bills , outdoor unit bills to show how the budget had far exceeded the estimate and along with it some photos of Rajiv partying with Tabu and Aishwarya in the pool etc to show time was wasted. I carried the expense side of the story as that was the charge and the partying and frolicking was not our lookout. Later the issues were sorted out.

I remember the audio launch. Right from Rajiv to all of cast came wearing white kurta- dhoti attire. Rahman came in his usual attire. The dhoti was a Kerala style zari one and there was talk of a Malayali touch to it. The facts given  was that Rajiv got 60% share of the business t as he would bring in the ensemble cast including Rahman on board and also his direction fee. As part of the deal, Rajiv took Madras city (considered the biggest box office earning territory), Overseas distribution and Bombay rights.

I then heard that the posters of KKKK in Bombay had no mention of Dhanu. Later this iconic movie’s screenplay was released in book form. Here too the name of Dhanu was missing. Apart from missing out on credits as a producer, Dhanu lost a huge chunk of money as outside of Madras, it was a bomb. To keep the prestige of the banner, Dhanu pulled the film to 50 days and saw that it reached 100^th day in Madras to keep his banner name. The surprise is that Mammooty who was part of the film could not bring the crowds in Kerala.

There were some interesting tit bits that were doing the rounds. One was that Prasanth flush with success of Jeans was approached to play Ajith’s role. He wanted to be paired opposite Aishwarya and Rajiv is said to have asked “Are they the RK- Nargis pair ? “

It was said that Rahman had taken a break to work with Andrew Lyold Webber and so the composition for KKKK did not come on time. Aishwarya who gave two hits Taal and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam in Hindi after signing KKKK got busy and had no dates. There was no formal agreement with her and so one had to just wait.