Hrithik Roshan refused to shoot in UP for Vikram Vedha? Makers respond

The makers of Vikram Vedha have dismissed reports of Hrithik Roshan refusing to shoot in Uttar Pradesh, thereby inflating the film's budget.

In a statement, producers Reliance Entertainment said, "We have been noticing a lot of misleading and totally unsubstantiated reporting on Vikram Vedha shooting locations. We clearly want to clearly state that Vikram Vedha has been shot extensively in India, including Lucknow.

A portion of the film was shot in United Arab Emirates in October-November of 2021 since it was the only location providing the infrastructure for a bio-bubble that accomodated crew of such scale, also allowing building of sets in a studio during the preceding months of the shoot. We chose to do that out of health and protocol concerns. Any attempt to twist these set of facts are clearly mischievous and untruthful."

"Also we would like to emphatically state that at Reliance Entertainment while we welcome suggestions from creative talent, the production and budgetary decisions are a centralised prerogative", the statement adds.

Last week, an online portal reported on the budgeting issues of Vikram Vedha. The Hindi remake was meant to be shot on a limited budget. Directors Pushkar and Gayatri wanted to shoot in the lanes of UP for a gritty and authentic look, much like they did for the 2017 original, which was shot in Chennai. However, on Hrithik's insistance, the report claimed, they had to recreate UP on sets in Dubai.

Vikram Vedha is the Hindi remake of the 2017 Tamil hit of the same name which starred R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi in lead roles.

Co-starring Hrithik and Saif Ali Khan, Vikram Vedha is presently under post-production. The film will release theatrically on September 30 this year.