Ananta claims ‘Din: The Day’ director conspired against him

The much-talked-about Ananta Jalil-starrer film ‘Din - The Day’ director and Iranian filmmaker Morteza Atashzamzam on Monday revealed the actual budget of the movie, as opposed to Ananta Jalil’s previously mentioned budget of more than Tk 100 crore - and the actual amount is not even close to the aforementioned budget.

Morteza recently accused Ananta Jalil of violating the conditions of the movie’s agreement through a post on his Instagram profile; and as promised during his initial criticism of Ananta Jalil, the filmmaker has now come forward with a post on his Instagram account to “reveal” the budget of ‘Din - The Day,’ which is USD $500,000.

This comes to about BDT 4 crore when converted in taka, which is nowhere near the more than Tk 100 crore budget earlier claimed by Ananta Jalil throughout the promotional activities of the film.

According to the claim of the Iranian filmmaker, Ananta was required to invest the entire amount for the movie in accordance with the previously signed contract between the parties. As a result, Ananta would receive 85 percent of the movie’s earnings as an investor while Morteza would gain 15 percent as the producer.

Sharing the pictures of the agreement signed which stated that Ananta Jalil would pay for the budget of USD 500,000 in total six instalments as the first party, Morteza stated that the film was supposed to be released within 8 months of the contract signing, which was signed on October 18, 2018.

Morteza stated that the actor’s irresponsibility increased the film’s overall shooting costs, and he allegedly stopped filming because Ananta failed to pay the team in a timely manner. However, the filmmaker began filming after speaking to a few well-wishers and receiving a guarantee from Ananta that all outstanding debts would be paid.

The filmmaker, showcasing all the documents, asked in the post, “How can Ananta make the claim that the budget of the film is around USD 10 million when he didn’t even pay the contractually obligated amount of USD 500,000, as per our 2018 contract, to our Iranian team?”

The script for the movie has been constantly changed because, according to the director, both the parties could not agree on it. He said, the contract of the film clearly mentioned that the film will be made with the financing of Ananta Jalil as this type of film is not appreciated by the people of Iran, and also his name is clearly registered as the investor and actor of the film while Morteza’s name is registered as the producer and director.

“Ananta frequently and unprofessionally ruined my interpretation of the story under the justification that he knew the Bangladeshi audience and their demand better than I did, and I had to believe him as 85 percent of the film is made in the Bangladeshi context.”

A breach of contract has been specifically pointed out by the director, as he mentioned that the storyline was shifted from IS and terrorism of the extremists to the drug smugglings and mafia curtails; and the setting of the film was shifted from Lebanon and Syria to Afghanistan and Turkey.

“We allegedly found that he even shot a portion of the film in Turkey while addressing himself as the producer and director, and also filmed Turkish dance with women in such a way that was a clear violation of our contract, which made me realise that he does not respect the laws of neither of the countries (Bangladesh and Iran). This also made me realise that directing this film is the biggest mistake of my life,” Morteza stated.

In response to all these allegations, Ananta Jalil did not issue any official statement as of this reporting but verbally told the media that he is suspecting a deep conspiracy against him. “The director cannot write in Bangla, so it is clear that someone is misleading him from the country and I will share my response after talking to him.”