Madhu Mantena and Namit Malhotra have a BIG FALL OUT over Ramayana; shoot unlikely to begin this year

Over the last 2 years, the Nitesh Tiwari directed Ramayana has been the talk of the town due to its casting. The film at first was supposed to be made with Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Hrithik Roshan as Ravan. However, right after the failure of Vikram Vedha, Hrithik Roshan backed out of the film as he didn't wish to play another negative character. The makers then went on hunting for an actor to play Ravan. They knocked all doors, and finally it was Yash who expressed interest in the film.

It has been on and off for Yash ever since then, and the actor is still in a confused state regarding his decision to play Ravan in the film, keeping the team of Ramayana hanging about his decision. While Yash continues to have confusion about Ramayana, Sai Pallavi had backed out of the film making way for Alia Bhatt, who again backed out of the film, resulting in re-entry of Sai Pallavi at the request of Nitesh Tiwari.

And now Bollywood Hungama has exclusively learnt from our discrete sources that all is not well at producers level for Ramayana. "Ramayana was being produced by Madhu Mantena with Namit Malhotra and Allu Aravind. Over the last 2 years, there have been several conflicts between the team. While Madhu has not been able to get a cast locked for the film as yet, Namit now wants to have complete control over the project as he is deeply involved on the VFX front. He feels, if Madhu cannot not get the celebs on board, he should forsake his a share of revenue on Ramayana," revealed a source close to the development to Bollywood Hungama.

Madhu on the other hand believes that he has got the entire Ramayana project together - right from the script to the story board - and it's not his fault that actors are not willing to take up Ramayana due to the debacle of Adipurush. "Actors backing out of Ramayana is circumstantial due to the failure of Adipurush. That doesn't take away the efforts put in by Madhu to bring in actors on board and bring Ramayana to the big screen. Both the producers are strong headed in their thought process and at the moment are not willing to budge," the source told us further.

The tussle between Madhu and Namit has put the prep work of Ramayana on the back burner, delaying the shoot dates. The film was slated to start in 2021, however, there has been a two year delay already due to casting conflict. Now, the producer conflict has already delayed the shoot timelines by at-least three more months. "If the conflict is resolved, the makers would hope for a yes from Yash and then take the film on floors. It's all wait and watch for now as the team is busy fighting among each-other," the source concluded.

Ramayana will be directed by Nitesh Tiwari with Ravi Udyawar and has Ranbir Kapoor to play the part of Lord Ram.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: “Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana will be a 3-part epic,” says Taran Adarsh; gives crucial details, watch