Hiren Kotwani (DNA; December 13, 2018)

Since their first collaboration, Go Goa Gone, over five years ago, director duo Raj Nidimoru-Krishna DK and filmmaker Dinesh Vijan hit it off. On various occasions, they even postured as if they were good friends.

Following the success of the zombie comedy, they collaborated on the romcom Happy Ending (2014) starring Saif Ali Khan and Ileana D’Cruz. Earlier this year, the three of them had a sleeper hit in the horror-comedy, Stree with Rajkummar Rao. Everything seemed hunky-dory between the three guys because they even announced Go Goa Gone 2 with Saif and Kunal Kemmu returning to the sequel. However, it looks like something has soured.

If various media reports are to be given credence to, Raj-DK (as they are popularly known) are highly upset with producer Dinesh Vijan over the issue.

When we reached out to the two directors, they were unavailable for comment. However, a source close to them told After Hrs, “Raj & DK are the creators of Stree as they not only wrote the story, script and screenplay, but also put the film together. Amar Kaushik, who directed it, was their assistant on Go Goa Gone (2013) and they were the ones, who encouraged him to helm the horror comedy. Moreover, they were already underway with producing the film when Dinesh contacted them and convinced them to let him be part of the project.”

Their production house D2R Films produced the movie as an equal partner with Dinesh’s Maddock Films and the understanding was a clear sharing of profits. It was a passion project for Raj & DK and apart from writing and putting it together, they were also leading every process of its making, right from casting, to finding the crew, doing the recce, overseeing the shoot in Chanderi and Bhopal to the entire post-production, final prints and release.

“Given that they were so involved in every aspect of the making of Stree, it’s extremely unfair that their share has allegedly not been paid to them,” added another source.

It is being said that despite several follow-ups, Dinesh has allegedly not paid them a single penny over the Rs 20 crore that was due to them for their contribution.

Like we contacted Raj and DK, we also got in touch with Dinesh and his office for their side of the story.

However, we were told that the Raabta filmmaker, who is getting married tomorrow (December 14), was busy with the preparations for the shaadi.

A source associated with his company stated that Maddock Films and Raj & DK were to make Stree with a studio. “The actors whom Dinesh approached had previously refused Raj & DK when they had met them. Moreover, the studio, with which the movie was to be made, backed out as it didn’t have confidence in Raj & DK’s track record (Happy Ending and A Gentleman),” says the informer, adding, “Dinesh funded the film with full confidence. As per the contract, they were supposed to contribute too, which they didn’t.”

The source associated with Maddock further said that the filmmaker duo has has only written Stree, while Pawan Soni has penned the original story and Sumit Arora has penned the dialogues. Our informer continues, “Dinesh was willing to more than compensate Raj & DK. They also tried to sideline Sumit and didn’t want to give him credit. They tried the same with Amar too, but Dinoo stood by him and Sumit. That’s why Amar is doing another film, Bala, with him, which was announced recently. They also put out an article stating Amar will not direct the film’s, but Dinoo is clear that he won’t make Stree 2 without Amar. Raj & DK are currently in default of their contract, and upset with Dinesh for supporting Amar. They were shooting an Amazon show at the same time, so couldn’t be present for most of the production and post production.”

However, the informer close to Raj & DK maintained, “Dinesh has been giving this story, but fact is that he’s not paying Raj & DK their due profit share from Stree.”

The Maddock insider sums it up saying, “We have always honoured our contractual obligations, both in letter and spirit. The track record of the counterpart speaks volumes. Unfortunately, they have fought with everyone they have worked with. They are just unethical to defame Maddock, but the truth always comes out and it will in this case too.”