Ram’s film with Lingusamy in trouble as Gnanavel Raja files complaint against the director

On Thursday, Ram Pothineni announced amid much fanfare that he’s all set to begin shooting for his upcoming film with Tamil director Lingusamy. A Tamil-Telugu bilingual project, the film marks Lingusamy’s debut in

Telugu

cinema, and

Ram

feels it’ll be a special film. “Final Narration Done & How!!! @dirlingusamy love you sir!! Super duper kicked!!! Roll that camera I say!!! (sic),” the actor tweeted on Thursday. However, Ram’s excitement might be premature. Soon after the actor announced that his film with

Lingusamy

is all set to start rolling, producer

Gnanavel Raja

has filed a complaint with the

Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce

, alleging that Lingusamy has taken payments from him in the past, and is yet to honour the commitment he made.

Speaking to

Hyderabad Times

, Gnanavel Raja says, “Director Lingusamy has taken huge payments from us and has promised to do films with our production house. However, he has failed to keep his promise. He has not returned the money and has not started our films. He has instead gone ahead and started a film with Ram Pothineni. This is unacceptable.”

On Friday, Raja filed a complaint against Lingusamy with the Telugu Producer’s Council, Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce as well as the South Film Chamber of Commerce. “Our demand is that Lingusamy must first fulfill the commitments he has made to us before starting any new project. We have no issues if he does a film with Ram, but he must keep the promise that he made to us first, especially since he has taken huge payments in advance already,” Raja added.

Meanwhile, officials from the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce said that they are not authorised to take any action against Lingusamy or stop his upcoming film with Ram. N Shankar, President, Director’s Association, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, says “We have received a complaint from Gnanavel Raja. However, since he is not a member of our association, we will not be able to act on this complaint. It is up to the Tamil Film Chamber or the South Film Chamber to take necessary action on this matter.”

Despite repeated attempts, Lingusamy was unavailable for comment till the time of going to press.