Subtitlist Rekhs has called out Lyca Productions, the producers of Rajinikanth-starrer 2.0, saying they have not paid her for working on the film.
Tagging Lyca Productions in a tweet yesterday, Rekhs said that her team had handed over all the reels of both languages in good faith to the makers, but they had not responded to her calls or mails.
can @LycaProductions pls let me know when my team & i will be paid for #2pointO we handed over all reels, both langs in good faith, trusting u won't let us dwn. Sadly my last resort but i strongly feel cast & crew shd b paid. i cn u/s delay but not this silence 2my calls/mail ?
— rekhs (@rekhshc) August 12, 2019
She told Silverscreen, “The film released 10 months ago and Lyca is yet to settle my payments. I have messaged, called and mailed them many times, and told them last week that I would go public with the complaint, but there was still no response. Lyca is a big name and I trusted them to pay me, but all my attempts were futile. I work with a team of editors, and owe them salaries as well.”
She said she has faced similar problems with other production houses too. “The manager of 2.0 was in-charge of Aarambam too, and I haven’t been paid for that film either. Also, Sun Pictures is yet to pay me for Enthiran. Enthiran was my second film, I was new in the industry then and didn’t want to blow up the matter. I’ve worked on about 500 films in the last 10 years, and have people who trust my work. They know the importance of subtitling for a global reach. I have no malicious intent in calling out Lyca, but defaulting payment is something no one should have to tolerate.”
Earlier this year, 2.0 released on Amazon Prime, and the Hindi and Telugu versions used her subtitles. Rekhs says she was not informed of this and Lyca breached the terms they agreed to. “In the job order, I had mentioned that I was agreeing to the Tamil subtitles and if they wished to use it for the Telugu and Hindi versions, we could speak about it. I remember the manager asked me to settle for a lesser amount, but I insisted that I was charging what I was paid for Rajinikanth’s previous film.”
She added that she respected both Rajinikanth and director Shankar, and did not hold them responsible for this. She is currently busy with Comali, Mei, and has a number of other films lined up.
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Silverscreen has reached out to Lyca Productions and are awaiting a response. In a report by Cinema Express, the spokesperson for the production house said, “Our company is extremely reachable, and Rekhs’ claims stating that we were unresponsive to her calls and emails is baseless and false. The executive producer felt extremely bad on seeing her tweet and has asked the production unit of 2.0 to find the payment records to prove our innocence.”
The Rajinikanth-starrer directed by Shankar released in November last year, and was said to be one of the most expensive Indian films made. The film also starred Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson, and had top technicians in the crew including AR Rahman, Nirav Shah among others.