Sampath urged to cut costs?

Young director Sampath Nandi's sports drama, starring Gopichand and Tamannaah, was officially launched at Rama Naidu studios recently.

The director has been reportedly asked to cut costs to make it a bankable film with actor Gopichand, who has hit a lean trot of sorts.

"Sampath has been urged to keep costs under control by cutting down wastage and unnecessary expenditure to wrap it up in a specified budget," says a source, close to the unit.

With a slew of flops, Gopichand movies are not selling like hot cakes anymore and producers have to draw out various plans to keep the budget below Rs 12 to 13 crore.

"Even Gopichand is thinking of reducing his remuneration to make it a viable and safe project for producers because his other film with producer Bogavalli Prasad has been put on hold," the source adds.

With Hindi dubbing market crashing for action heroes, Gopichand's producers have to recover their investment mostly from Telugu satellite, theatrical and digital rights, the source points out.

In fact, Smapath was excited to do a sports-centric movie for the first time in his career. "This is the first time I am doing a sports-based film and I did a lot of research for it.

It's not just about Kabaddi, there are a lot of emotions and a strong story too," said Sampath at the muhurat. Apparently, the director roped in 25 kabaddi players for the film, who are training at a local stadium in Hyderabad.

Interestingly, this is Tamannah's third film with the director. "I wanted to work with Gopichand from a long time and now, it is happening with this film," said Tamannaah.

Nonetheless, the interesting film will be made in a shoe-string budget.