Ananta Jalil responses to ‘Din: The Day’ director’s allegations

Actor-producer-businessman Ananta Jalil has refuted the complaints of Iranian filmmaker Morteza Atashzamzam about the film "Din: The Day" regarding its actual budget.

He made the response in a video message posted on his verified Facebook page on Saturday.

According to the film contract, Ananta was supposed to pay all the expenses for shooting of the film in Bangladesh.

Claiming to have paid all the expenses according to the contract, Ananta said, "It is not a matter of Morteza whether it cost Tk one crore or four crore for shooting here."

He said the shooting of the film started in 2019 and completed by 2020.

"You can watch my interviews in television, newspapers and social media before and after the release of the film. Did I say that I am the only investor of this movie? I have always said that I am the only investor for shooting in Bangladesh."

On February 27 last year, Morteza attended a programme of the film 'Din: The Day' and 'Netri The Leader' at a city hotel where he told Ananta he had spent much more money on shooting than the budget he fixed.

"I announced the budget amount as Morteza said in all my interviews."

Ananta said, "I am not supposed to pay any shooting expenses abroad except shooting expenses in Bangladesh, our traveling cost and the air ticket."

"So how can he say in his post that I did not pay him as per the contract?"

"Then Morteza did not spend any money on shooting in so many countries as he said that is what I am supposed to pay."

Ananta also said the Dolby certificate is not required for film release in Iran as their post-production is already quite advanced.

"Till the release of the movie, Morteza and I never had a bad relationship. I hope not in the future. I believe that one day Murtaza will unmask those on whose interests he has done it."

Morteza recently accused Ananta Jalil of violating the conditions of the film's agreement through a post on his Instagram profile; and as promised during his initial criticism of Ananta Jalil, the filmmaker has now come forward with a post on his Instagram account to "reveal" the budget of "Din - The Day," which is USD $500,000.

This comes to about BDT 4 crore when converted in taka, which is nowhere near the more than Tk 100 crore budget earlier claimed by Ananta Jalil throughout the promotional activities of the film.

According to the claim of the Iranian filmmaker, Ananta was required to invest the entire amount for the movie in accordance with the previously signed contract between the parties. As a result, Ananta would receive 85 per cent of the movie's earnings as an investor while Morteza would gain 15 per cent as the producer.

Following that, Ananta only compensated him with USD 24,000 instead of the promised USD 200,000. According to the Iranian director, Ananta would always cite COVID and "business loss" as his excuses whenever Morteza requested further payments.

The filmmaker, showcasing all the documents, asked in the post, "How can Ananta make the claim that the budget of the film is around USD 10 million when he didn't even pay the contractually obligated amount of USD 500,000, as per our 2018 contract, to our Iranian team?"