I came across this article.

I can't say I find it likely. I mean why would Johnny ask for a price so high that it would force the film to be shelved when he's producing it and is clearly really excited about the project :rolleyes: Nor does he seem to be that kind of star (he's done too many independent films to make it sound in any way likely).
But somebody wrote this, it's been published on-line and I haven't seen this elsewhere on the board so I thought I'd pass it on...

I don't believe this report as it's been reported repeatedly in reputable industry publications that the project has been halted by the WGA strike. It has nothing at all to do with Johnny's salary---he's one of the producers on the film! This sounds like an Indian publication trying to place the blame on someone, so they 've picked Johnny. I feel this report falls under tabloid journalism similar to our National Enquirer. What facts do they give to support their claim?

-Donna

The claims in this article are so out of line. And the reason it's not here is because, while it's "out there" we know it's not accurate. We've tracked Shantaram for a long time now. It's so frustrating to read this sort of article. The author should have done their research. Warners bought the rights to Shantaram in 2004 for Johnny and Infinitum Nihil along with Initial and Plan B . He is one of the producers. This project has been floating around for over three years now and Ms. Nair is the second director to have been hired on this project. She replaced Peter Weir when he left the film back in June of 06. Johnny's salary was not just negotiated.

Variety reports sale of Shantaram and film deal here.

More from Variety here.

Yeah! So there!
He's got a vested interest.
Purchased rights to do the movie,
and is not known to request high payroll.

I feel much better now.
I too beleive the Show will go on.
Just a matter of being patient and waiting.

Thanks for the article roz.
I found the same thing just now,
and would have posted it to check it's validity too.

Thanks for all the comments :)

That article is frustrating and infuriating! :upinsmoke

This type of reporting does not bode well....is it the communication/language barrier?

I don't think it's the language barrier. The Indian /Bollywood press have been covering this project since day one. They know what's gone on. This is how they choose to report it. Ms Nair appears to be the injured party according to the press coming from her country. Hmmmmmm one has to wonder. :unsure:

I don't think it's like that... I mean it's not as if they spare their own stars and directors from this sort of press. I don't think there's a major Bollywood star who hasn't had this sort of press sooner or later. Shilpa Shetty actually got horrible press in India after her Big Brother win. She was really hurt by it - she was getting terrific press in the UK, even the US and pretty much all over the world and whilst this was happening the Indian tabloids were slamming her (the Big Brother win is her only achievement, her last big hit was in 1993, she's a no talent actress - that sort of thing).
And pretty much every time a big project falls through or seems like it might fall through the Indian tabloids jump on it and report that either one of the A-list stars wanted too much money or that two of the celebrities on the project had some sort of fight or whatever. In this case I think they chose Johnny rather than Mr Bachchan because they thought that would be the story that the Indian audience is more likely to buy into (simple logic - although Bollywood stars get payed a lot, their Hollywood counterparts get a lot more). Besides that they've recently been going after Bachchan quite a lot anyway - there's the farm land story and the remake of Sholay being the biggest flop in Indian history story and the he should stop taking parts where he's being paired up with younger actresses because he's clearly got some sort of age complexes story... You get the picture, right? ;)
I mean even amongst the Indian articles about Mr Bachchan that other people have posted on these boards there's been some in this vein - the one about Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta fighting for Mr Bachchan (a scheduling conflict that doesn't exist), the one about Mr Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan having issues with each other (they've done 6 films together - two of which have been films produced by Shahrukh where he specifically invited Mr Bachchan for a special appearance, one of which was this year).
This sort of thing happens every day in Indian tabloids and actually this one hasn't received that much attention. I visit quite a few different Bollywood news sources and I only found this story on one. There are quite a few Indian tabloid stories that seem to be getting more attention at the moment. I think one of the bigger ones is that for some reason they're suggesting that Shahrukh Khan went to watch some cricket matches because he wanted to promote a film he starred in which was about field hockey (I'm not sure how they arrived at that conclusion but there you go). The other thing that's getting a lot of coverage is the "Om Shanti Om" versus "Saawariya" match up, though I guess that's a little less tabloid'y.

Aside from which, I get the impression that Mira Nair isn't considered "their own" because she makes films in a non-Bollywood tradition and they're produced in the West. So I'm not sure that the Hollywood vs Bollywood interpretation even works that well for this story (it works much better for "Om Shanti Om" vs "Saawariya" I think).

So my advice is just take the Indian press with a pinch of salt - it is what it is :) If you can keep your distance to what they write, it can actually be rather funny ;) (I probably have a very strange sense of humour, but for some reason the Indian tabloid press is so silly that I enjoy reading it even though I can't say the same for American, British or Polish gossip columns :lol:)

The sad thing is that these reports are going out into the world as fact and we know they aren't fact based at all, but lots of people believe them.

It's a long shot, but we can hope the international press is as savvy about Indian tabloid reports as Roz is! :crossfingers
I don't think it will hurt the project, or Johnny. Non-Indian readers aren't likely to make a judgement call based on one article, and Indian readers apparently know this sort of distortion goes on all the time.

It's not the international press that I wonder about, it's the regular people who are trashing him all over the net on blogs and forums. :(

That's the downside of the internet. A terribly inaccurate story like this spreads like wildfire across the net. The really sad part is, we'll see some so called "reputable" publication picking it up and printing it as "fact". It appears that some have emailed this paper and their responses are posted at the site now.

-Donna

I read those comments Donna. They are right!

If it's the 'regular' people on blogs who are making all the trouble then it's up to our own very good selves to be letting them know they should be changing their minds and not be taken in by such very bad gossip, isn't it? :)

I've not really looked around blogs, but I think anybody who has any idea about Johnny's filmography or about the Shantaram project can see straight away that the story is fishy.
Besides that, the writers' strike version of events has received wider publicity, so I think the majority of people who come across this tabloid version came across the true version too.
So IMO if anybody is trashing Johnny because of this article then they were probably trashing him before this article came out as well. I may be wrong of course, but that's what it seems like to me.

I'm not sure how the people in India will react to the report - mainly because I'm not sure how popular Johnny is in India. I mean he's definitely known and I think POTC was one of few Hollywood films that did really well in India (you can see Jack Sparrow as well as Charlie & the Chocolate Factory referenced in this song ;) ), but I'm not sure if his less commercial stuff has been released in India and if yes, how widely. So there is the possibility that perhaps Indian readers will be easier to fool, although I'm not at all sure that's the case...