Meltdown hits Mani? By Moviebuzz | Friday, 21 November , 2008, 11:28 Reliance Big Pictures (RBP), which has struck deals with Hollywood studios was said to be making four films in Tamil- Mani Ratnam's bi-lingual Ravana in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Cheran's Autograph- 2, Hari directed Surya's Singam to be produced by Studio Green, and a Fazil film with Pritviraj. Due to world wide recession and economic meltdown, the grapevine is abuzz that they have put three of these films for which shooting is yet to start, on the backburner. Meanwhile sources in the industry say that they have sent a letter to Mani Ratnam to cut down his budget, from the originally signed Rs 120 crore to Rs 60 crore! This has come as a major setback to Mani who was shooting his film on a lavish scale in the forests of Kerala. The meltdown has hit Mani the hardest, as his action adventure film, a modern day 'Ramayan' a bi-lingual has top stars like Abhishek Bachchan, Aiswarya Rai, Govinda, Vikram, Prabhu, Pritviraj, Karthik, Priyamani and so many others. Reliance Big Pictures it seems has told Mani that his film is not commercially viable at the rate they purchased due to global meltdown and recession. Mani will now have to either look for a new producer or do some cost cutting if he has to continue with Ravan. The corporate theory now is that all top actors and directors in Bollywood are willing to slash their salary, and bring down production cost. So why can't Mani do some drastic cost cutting. However when contacted the COO of Big Pictures Mahesh Ramanathan, refused to comment. Mani Ratnam also was not available for comment. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14802820 Regards MANAF
