Vidya Balan opts out of director Kamal’s Aami

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan has pulled out of director Kamal’s upcoming project Aami, a biopic on based on the real life of controversial writer Kamala Das. While some reports allege that the actress opted out due to political pressure from the right-wing, the actress maintains that she has backed out due to a difference of opinion with the director.

The movie was highly anticipated by the Malayali audience. Sources close to the actress reveal that she signed for the project after initially liking the story but now she preferred to opt out after reading the final script, which she did not like. They have dismissed reports about the actress opting out of the project due to the director’s stand in political issues.

It was earlier reported that Vidya Balan, who is a big supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was against director Kamal’s political inclinations. But her close associates inform that an actress of Vidya’s stature would never do that and her choice was purely based on professional reasons.

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The movie was initially scheduled to go on floors in September 2015 but got postponed many times. The actress had changed the shooting schedule twice citing inconveniences. Director Kamal pinned high hopes on the project and even recorded songs in Mumbai.

Vidya Balan liked the script initially and was willing to do the project but some final corrections in the script from the director’s side did not please her. The actress and Kamal had very different approaches to the film.

Incidentally, this is the second time the actress is opting out of a Malayalam movie at the last moment and both the times the director was Kamal. In 2003, the director planned a movie titled as Chakram with Vidya Balan, who was a debutante back then, Mohanlal and Dileep in the lead roles. But the project could not materialize and she entered Bollywood where she soon became one of the top actresses. Chakram was later directed by Lohithadas with Prithviraj Sukumaran and Meera Jasmine as the leads.