Lyca Movies through Mahaveer Jain, Modi’s staunch supporter in Bollywood has
signed a 5 film deal with Karan Johar to
make Hindi films. Lyca is currently the producer of Kamal Haasan film Indian 2,
which is stuck for many reasons. It is
co- producer of Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin
Selvan and has a Trisha starrer Raangi with story by A R Murugadoss ( a single
was released) and a Yogi Babu film Panni kutty . Karan Johar was named as one
of the few who were said to be part of a lobby in Bollywood that dictated terms
and favored a few. This lobby was said
to be the reason for the suicide of actor Sushanth, a matter that is under investigation
by several agencies.
The inkling
of a deal between Lyca and Mahaveer Jain came when the latter decided to
distribute the Tamil dubbed version of Mann Bairagi , a film on the life of Modi, produced by the latter. It has
been titled Karmayogi. Mahaveer Jain came to spotlight when he was in the news last year for arranging several meetings with A- listers
of B’Town and PM Modi. Producer
Mahaveer Jain, along with filmmaker
Karan Johar, initiated the move for a delegation of young Bollywood talent to
meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The delegation included actors Ranbir
Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra, Vicky
Kaushal, Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar, Rajkummar Rao, producers Ekta
Kapoor, Karan Johar and Mahaveer Jain with directors Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Rohit Shetty. Last year in October in the Capital , Aamir Khan, Sidddhart Roy Kapur,Anand L Rai and
Ritesh Sidhwani took part in the PM
meet.
Lyca had decided to move towards Bollywood and
appointed Ashish Singh as CEO . Singh was said to have taken up the several
production issues between Lyca and Kamal Haasan in his previous visit. Sabash Naidu ,a film that Kamal’s production house
that produced for Lyca, has not been handed over to them even after a gap of 2
years. After a first schedule and an accident on the sets that caused some
deaths of workers, Indian 2 shooting has not progressed. Kamal has moved on to
a new project directed by Lokesh and produced by him. Shankar who directs Indian
2 is said to have given an ultimatum to Lyca and is soon to move to helm
another project, if things are not sorted out soon. An audit
team from UK that looked into the accounts of the South India operations of
Lyca ,found massive siphoning of funds .
Lyca had hits with Tamil blockbusters Darbaar,
Kaala. Enthiran, Enthiran 2.0 ( all Rajinikanth starrer), Kaathi ( Vijay) ,
Naanum Rowdy Thaan and Kolamaavu kokila ( Nayanthara) , Vetrimaaran directed
Visaranaai and Vada Chennai ( Dhanush) and Mani Ratnam’s Chekka Chevatha
Vaanum.
The saffron
touch to Lyca through Mahaveer Jain would make strange bedfellows with Kamal
Haasan who plays a crusader in the
sequel to Indian. Lyca’s producer’s background had earlier created an embarrassment
to Rajinikanth. Subaskaran , the producer is said to be a Sri Lankan and
relative of PM Rajapaksa ( seen as murderer of Tamils in the island by many
radical groups). Rajanikanth who was to inaugurate a housing settlement colony for war ravaged displaced Lankan Tamils in Jaffna had to back off as many objected to it saying that it was built by funds from Subaskaran and it was an eye wash to show that everything was normal between Tamils and Sinhalese. Karan Johar had been in a spot after the nepotism charge
cropped up. His tie-up with Fox dried up after it was bought by Disney ,who was
not interested in film production. The tie-up will mutually benefit Johar and
Lyca.
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