The True Story Behind Ashwathama’s Shocking Closure

Why did producer  Ronnie Screvwala and his  company RSVP close down  their ambitious  true life drama  Ashwathama  after investing nearly  25 crore rupees in it?

A  source in the know  spills the  shocking beans. “Director  Aditya Dhar had made  the war  epic Uri for a mere 25 crore rupees though it looked  like  a 100-crore budgeted  film. That’s because Aditya comes from the less-is-more school of filmmaking.”

 Explaining his tight  budgetary  vision  Dhar had  told me  in an interview,  “We worked under  extremely  tight budgetary circumstances  in Uri ,and that  was  good. Because  it kept us constantly on our toes,  forever anxious.  I  think anxiety  is  a  big impetus  to productivity and  creativity. I fear  unlimited budgets  would make  me lazy as a filmmaker. I’d rather work within controlled budgets. My aim as a filmmaker is to make  a film look large,  far more  spectacular  than the  budget would suggest. I’d like to  spend 30 crores. But it should  look like  a 150-crore  film.”

About Ashwathama Aditys had said, “It will be a completely different world from the one in  Uri. But still in the real space, Yes, it is  again based on  a true-life event. And that’s all I can tell you. And  of course I can  also tell you that  my next film  too will be produced  by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP production house. The way  Ronnie, and for that matter Vicky Kaushal, stood by Uri and  believed in it, I’d  be foolish  to change my priorities.”

So what  happened to this  director who   made a 25-crore  film look like  a 100-crore  film? What happened  to his resolve to make  his 30-crore film look lik a 150 crore film?

“Oh, that was Aditya Dhar after Uri. Now his priorities have  changed. He  now  not only thinks but also spends big,” a source  close to the aborted Ashwathama  project tells me.