‘Din – The Day’ budget was BDT 4 crore, not 100: Director

Ananta Jalil starrer "Din - The Day" was released last Eid. The film is co-produced by Iranian filmmaker Morteza Atashzamzam.  Recently, Morteza took to social media, accusing Ananta Jalil of breaching the terms of agreement for the movie. Now, the filmmaker has come forth, with a post on his Instagram account, to 'expose' the budget of "Din – The Day", as he had promised during his initial accusation of Ananta.

Morteza revealed that the actual budget for the film was USD 500,000. When converted to taka, this amounts to around BDT 4 crore, which is in stark contrast to the BDT 100 crore previously mentioned by Ananta Jalil.

The Iranian director mentioned that, according to the agreement, Ananta was supposed to provide the entire budget for the film as an investment. Thereby, as an investor, Ananta would take 85 percent of the film's profits, while he would take the remaining 15 percent as the producer.

In the post, Morteza stated, "When Ananta didn't pay the full USD 500,000 to our Iranian team, how can he say that the budget of the film is around USD 10 million?"

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Morteza Atashzamzam (@morteza.atashzamzam)

The director also mentioned that they did not see eye to eye regarding the movie's script, causing it to be constantly changed. "Since 85 percent of the film takes place in Bangladesh, Ananta would constantly disagree with my vision of the movie, on the pretext that he better was aware of what the Bangladeshi audience wants in a movie than me."

Morteza also claimed that Ananta Jalil would often delay shooting, using excuses like 'work pressure' and prior 'business arrangements'.  The director also added that during the shooting in Turkey, they captured a scene which shows a woman dancing 'indecently'. This was apparently a violation of their agreement, which made Morteza relalise that Ananta had no respect for the laws of the two countries.

Aside from these issues, the shooting cost for the film was also apparently increased due to negligence on part of the actor. Ananta also allegedly did not make proper payments to the crew, which resulted in Morteza stopping shooting. However, after speaking to a few well-wishers, and a promise from Ananta to pay all the dues, the director resumed shooting.

The post also stated that on two occasions, Ananta summoned Morteza to Bangladesh and India, but only paid him USD 24,000 instead of USD 200,000.  Anytime Morteza asked for further payments, Ananta would give the excuse of COVID and 'business loss', according to the Iranian director.

In response to criticism of why he was silent for so long, Morteza said that he had shared a meal with Ananta and Barsha at their house, and was simply extending an olive branch out of respect."

The director also posted pictures of the agreement signed, which stated that Ananta Jalil would pay for the budget of USD 500,000 in six installments. The agreement also stated that the film was supposed to be released within 8 months of the contract signing—the contract was signed on October 18, 2018.