Rajini says he is not connected with '3' revenue generation

With film '3' distributors burning their fingers and demanding a compensation for their losses, superstar Rajinikanth, who is currently in Mumbai, has issued a statement through his office in Chennai on April 17 saying he is not connected with the revenue generation of his daughter Aiswarya’s maiden film starring her husband Dhanush and Shruti Haasan.

He has denied reports that he has agreed to compensate the film's distributors for the losses they have incurred. "There is no connection between me and the revenue generation of the film. Therefore, I humbly request the distributors not to believe such reports," he said.

Raniji's statement follows Telugu film producer and distributor Natti Kumar's interviews to a Telugu daily and NDTV channel that he had paid Rs 4.35 crore as royalty for the film and spent another Rs 1 crore on publicity and promotion material, but he had recovered only a paltry sum in his State. He also allegedly claimed that Dhanush and Aiswarya had promised to visit Hyderabad for film promotion, but they had failed to keep their word. They had also not turned up for the special screening of the film.He charged that Dhanush, Aiswarya and Shruti Haasan were responsible for the failure of the film. When his friends asked him why he had invested such a large sum knowing well that Dhanush's Telugu market is not more than Rs.10 lakh, Kumar had told them that he had great trust in the Rajini family and expected that his daughter's first film would fare very well. He also reportedly told NDTV that Rajinikanth and Aiswarya had agreed to compensate the distributors for the losses and cited 'Baba' and 'Kuchelan' and said in these cases Rajini had compensated the distributors for their losses.

According to reports appearing in an English daily, distributors have lost Rs. 20 crore in Tamil Nadu and Rs 2 crore in Karnataka. The newspaper report quoted Natti Kumar as saying, "We have approached Dhanush and his father-in-law Rajinikanth for compensation but so far we have not received any money they have promised to help."

Arul Pathy TA, president of the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors Associations, reportedly told the newspaper that distributors have complained to him of the heavy losses they have incurred on buying distribution rights of the movie. "The makers managed to generate a lot of hype with the song Why this Kolaveri Di, but the movie has not lived up to expectations," he said. In Malaysia, the UK and the USA also, the BO collections were poor, according to exhibitors. Click the Movie button below for more info:
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