Known for speaking his mind, cinematographer, Manoj Paramahamsa, has once again landed himself in the eye of a controversy.


The grapevine has it, and if it is to be believed, Manoj was signed up for Ram Charan Teja's new film. However, our man demanded a long list of equipment for the venture and the producer, Dil Raju, took umbrage at his attitude and unceremoniously threw him out.

Earlier, while he was still to complete Gautham's Nadunisi Naaygal, he is believed to have left the filmmaker halfway through to accept Shankar's offer of Nanban.

Sources suggested that Gautham was in no mood to repeat Manoj for his next trilingual Tamil-Telugu-Hindi project titled Neethane En Ponvasantham in Tamil.

When Manoj was contacted by this newspaper he dismissed all rumors saying that he came out of Dil Raju's production on mutual consent.

"When he approached me for Ram Charan's film, he asked me to come up with a list of equipment for the film. But when I gave him the list, he was unhappy and felt that I had overshot the budget.

They wanted a grand film, yet did not want to spend the money for it. I don't care even if they don't pay my remuneration, but I cannot compromise on quality. So, I opted out on mutual understanding," he asserts.
As far as Gautham's film is concerned, he says, "I did not walk out of his film. I had some personal work and wanted a break but he went ahead and completed the work with someone else.

Apparently, he started NEP when I was doing Nanban and hence could not join him again. But he has called me for Yohan — Adhyayam Ondru with Ilayathalapathy Vijay, which I have agreed to.

" He was quick to add, "But the sad state of Kollywood is that here no bigwig filmmaker, including Shankar or Gautham Menon, waits for a cinematographer even if he is sick or cannot make it due to personal reasons.

As long as they have the star's dates they finish the movie with Mani Ratnam being an exception."