Director Puri Jagannath has confirmed that Megastar Chiranjeevi has ditched him with respect to his (Chiranjeevi's) 150th movie. The actor is currently looking for another director with an interesting script.
In an interview to 123Telugu, Puri Jagannath spoke about his upcoming movie "Loafer" starring Mega family hero Varun Tej. The director expressed his disappointment that Chiranjeevi should have told him about his dissatisfaction about the script instead of revealing it to the media.
"He was impressed with the first half of my script, but didn't spoke a word to me after hearing out the second part. Instead, he announced in the media that he was not satisfied with the script. I would have made necessary changes had he informed me. Even now, I am ready to do a film with him," Puri Jagannath told 123Telugu.
Chiranjeevi's son Ram Charan Teja, who is set to become a producer with his father's 150th film, revealed on his Facebook post that he had roped in Puri Jagannath as the director of the movie. On 11 May, Cherry had written: "YES It's true!!! finally dad has decided. Mega star's 150th movie director is Puri Jaganath. Excited!!!"
Ram Charan Teja took this decision after Chiranjeevi was impressed with Puri Jagannath's script, which he had written in collaboration with filmmaker BVS Ravi. Hours after the announcement, rumours surfaced on the net that writer BVS Ravi has allegedly stolen the script written by NRI Vasu Dev Varma, who had reportedly penned it for Krishnam Raju's "Okka Adugu" starring Prabhas.
Both Puri Jagannath and BVS Ravi denied the claim made by Vasu Dev Varma, describing it as a publicity stunt. On 13 May, the director had tweeted: "AUTOJAANI story is completely and originally conceived by me.Don't believe false claims and rumours made in media."
BVS Ravi had tweeted: "#150 is neither periodical nor any social problem related one nor did @Gopimohan share wid me any idea. any doubt can b cleared thru unions. It's a new age stylish storyline designed by @Purijagan Garu keeping in mind all the megafans and expectations of all the audience. All kinds of publicity stunts shud be put to rest and dealt with respected Unions."
In the second week of June, it was rumoured that Chiranjeevi was not happy with the way Puri Jagannath was announcing back-to-back projects. The Megastar was reportedly a bit sceptic about the director's commitment for his comeback film "Auto Johnny", which he wanted to be perfect.
The rumours about Chiranjeevi's plans to replace Jagannath with a new director had hit the net after the actor met director VV Vinayak on 11 June. But Puri had denied the reports. On 13 June, Jagannath had tweeted, "Just narrated 1st half to Megastar nd am happy he's thrilled..I want to work very hard to make 2nd half 10times better. "