Varalaxmi Sarathkumar made her debut as a director with S Saraswathi, which was released on Friday. The film, a psychological court drama thriller, opened to mixed reviews. After the release, writer Sai Madhav Burra posted a comment on his Facebook page stating that the film started with his story but ended as something completely different.
“Not informing me, they changed whatever they liked and completely raped the story. Mine is not a revenge drama, and the soul and story are completely different,” said Sai Madhav Burra in his post.
On Saturday, the team of S Saraswathi held a success meet, where Varalaxmi reacted to the writer’s comments about the film and its story.
“I have immense respect for Sai Madhav Burra garu and I gave him credit in the film. I paid for the story and later made changes according to the sensibilities of the present generation audience, especially the climax. I could have taken full credit for it, but I still gave him credit out of respect,” said Varalaxmi while responding to the controversy.
“The story had been with him for six years, and he is a very busy person working on several big projects. Due to his busy schedule, he could not come for story discussions, but he sent audio notes and we developed the story based on them,” the actor-turned-director explained. “I clearly mentioned that I took the basic plot and developed it further, modifying the screenplay to suit the audience,” she added.
Varalaxmi also stated that Sai Madhav Burra did not attend even a single story discussion as he was occupied with other film commitments. She expressed disappointment over the senior writer’s remarks, particularly his use of the sensitive word “rape.”
“Such comments are inappropriate and insensitive, especially when the film deals with a delicate subject. One should be careful while using such words,” she said.
The actor-turned-director added that she wanted to portray women as strong and empowered. “I don’t want to show women as weak. I want them to feel empowered, and that is why I changed the climax,” she concluded.