Why Rajinikanth rejected Gautham Menon's Dhruva Natchathiram

Gautham Menon's ambitious movie Dhruva Natchathiram had seen many changes in the cast ever since the project was announced. Suriya had initially signed the movie but walked out later. After much delay, Chiyaan Vikram came on board and the project took off.

Now, Gautham Menon has revealed that he had also narrated the story to Rajinikanth. In an interview, the filmmaker said he pitched Dhruva Natchathiram to the Tamil superstar after producer Kalaippuli S Thanu arranged a meeting with the latter.

In fact, Rajinikanth was impressed with the script narrated by Menon. "On hearing the script of Dhruva Natchathiram, he was excited and asked me on the number of days required, budget and technicians. He also advised me not tell the news to anyone other than my family members. But in the evening, I got a call from Thanu sir that someone changed Rajinikanth's mind and told a lot of bad things about me," Sify website quotes the director as saying.

Later, Pa Ranjith bagged the opportunity to work with Rajinikanth in Kabali, which was bankrolled by Kalaippuli S Thanu.

Gautham Menon, though successful, is often blamed for failing to finish his movies on time. Notably, Suriya walked out of Dhruva Natchathiram as the director failed to come up with a bound script.

Dhruva Natchathiram is a spy thriller shot majorly in foreign countries. Ritu Varma plays the female lead in the film, which has Aishwarya Rajesh, R Parthiepan, Vinayakan, Simran, Salim Baig and others in the cast.