Aditya Dhar’s highly anticipated sci-fi film The Immortal Ashwatthama may never see the light of day. The film which was announced back in 2021, has been officially shelved. Not just that, buzz is that the film has also suffered Rs. 30 crore loss in its pre-production stage owing to its casting and other technicalities. While Vicky Kaushal was dropped from the film, Ranveer Singh walked in but was confused between Shaktimaan and Ashwatthama. NTR Jr and Yash were also not keen on doing a superhero film. Amid all this, the production company also switched from Ronnie Screwvala to Jio Studios.
A source close to Pinkvilla revealed that Jio was not keen on signing Vicky Kaushal for the project as the film required a star and not an actor. “Jio felt Vicky Kaushal can’t carry a film as expensive as The Immortal Ashwatthama as the film warrants the presence of a star and not an actor. Samantha on the other hand had to back off from the project leaving the subject without any sort of cast. Once Jio came on board, Aditya Dhar decided to go ambitious with his casting.”
Aditya Dhar had then decided to approach NTR Jr, Yash and Ranveer Singh. Because of the massive fan following of pan-India films, Dhar approached NTR Jr. to lead his film, who was not interested. The same idea then went to Yash, who again was not keen to do a film with a superhero genre. When Ranveer finally walked in with an interest, he had to make a choice between The Immortal Ashwatthama and Shaktimaan. He chose to go with the latter reportedly.
The source revealed, “For Ranveer, it’s about the script. While he is excited to play Shaktimaan, the team of the film is yet to crack a screenplay. He had not said a no to The Immortal Ashwatthama, but it was not a yes either. Eventually, Jio decided to shelve the film thinking that the budget recovery is not possible.”
Now, the film’s pre-production stage, has come to a halt. It was going on for three years and has now suffered a Rs. 30 crore loss. “The pre-production work has been going on for the last 3 years. Ample of monies have been spent on recce, pre-visualisation as also the story board. But all of it will be wiped off as the stakeholders believe that taking a hit of Rs 30 crore is better than investing 300 to 350 crore on the project in the long run.”
Back in 2019, after the success of Uri, Aditya Dhar was working day and night on his ambitious superhero film. The film was initially announced with Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan in the lead roles. With the pandemic, the film got delayed, and once things were back to normalcy, the makers had decided to replace Sara Ali Khan with Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
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