Kamal wanted Indian 2 to be released before 2019 LS election, says Shankar

The director blames Lyca Productions for the delay of over three years in completing the project

Film director S. Shankar has told the Madras High Court that the shooting for Indian-2 was to commence in 2017 and that actor-politician Kamal Haasan had requested him to get the movie released before the 2019 parliamentary election. The project got delayed and could not be completed till date only because of Lyca Productions which desired to produce the movie instead of V. Venkata Ramana Reddy alias Dil Raju, he claimed. In a counter affidavit filed in response to a civil suit preferred against him by Lyca Productions, the director said that he had first pitched the script of Indian-2 to Lyca Productions but the company did not evince interest in the project stating that it would not be commercially viable. However, Mr. Raju readily accepted to produce the movie and so it was announced during the final episode of television show Bigg Boss-1 on September 30, 2017. At the time of the announcement, Mr. Shankar was making Rajinikanth starrer Robot 2.0 for Lyca Productions but 95% of the work for that movie had been completed. Therefore, it was decided to commence shooting Indian-2 from December 2017. However, Lyca Productions suddenly showed interest in producing Indian-2 also, the director said and added that he had to convince Mr. Raju to part with the film after promising to make some other movie with him.