News Tamil Nadu

“The Hard Disk Went Missing, We Lost 21 Days’ Footage”, Says Lal Salaam Director Aishwarya Rajinikanth On Not Being Able To Deliver A Good Film

March 13, 2024
The Commune

In a recent interview with Vikatan, Aishwarya Rajinikanth opened up about the challenges faced during the shooting of her latest film, ‘Lal Salaam’. 

Beginning the interview by acknowledging the response of the public to her film, she claimed that her directorial vision was not what the people liked and much similar to our review, the film was a confusing mess. 

She revealed that they encountered a major setback when they lost 21 days’ worth of footage, leading to significant reshoots and compromises in editing. “We were shocked as we lost 21 days of footage. It was a huge irresponsibility. It’s unfortunate. During the shooting, we had 500 junior artists almost every day. As a team, we were 2,000 people. We had a 10-camera set-up to shoot a cricket match. Since we didn’t have enough days, we brainstormed on camera angles to shoot a match. The entire cricket match footage was lost. It went missing,” Aishwarya said. 

Despite completing the shooting, Aishwarya explained that they faced budget constraints and logistical issues preventing them from opting for reshoots immediately.  “The shooting was completed – Appa [Rajinikanth], Vishnu Vishal, and Senthil had changed their getups. We couldn’t go for reshoot because of budget constraints and logistical issues. Then we re-edited the film with the footage we had. It was a huge challenge. Rajinikanth and Vishnu Vishal then suggested going for a re-shoot as they didn’t want me to compromise on the quality. We couldn’t completely shoot, but took a few shots and managed the rest. It was a huge compromise. Maybe, it was meant to happen. We need to be more careful. The hard disk went missing,” she said.

When asked if the film could have conveyed better to the audience, she said, “100%, we could not reshoot 2-3 important scenes. The film shooting got delayed by a few days because of rain. Then it became difficult to get the dates. Because of that, some other things were a big compromise.”

Netizens view this statement from Aishwarya as a stupid excuse for making such a poor film. 

(with inputs from India Today)

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.