Chennai, Feb 1 : Ace director Gautham Menon has now clarified that a statement of his on his film Ennai Noki Paayum Thota, featuring Dhanush in the lead, had been misconstrued and that the film was indeed his.

It all started with Gautham Menon, during an interview to a YouTube channel, joking about his film Ennai 'Noki Paayum Thotta', which he had produced and directed. When asked about the film, the director responded by saying, 'I forget that film. What film was that? I remember a song from that film.' When reminded that he was the one who had made it, he, in a lighter vein, replied, 'No, not me; somebody else did it.'

However, his comments were taken at face value and several people on social media arrived at the conclusion that the director had disowned his own film.

Now, Gautham Menon, in another interview to another YouTube channel, has clarified and set the record straight.

'I had made that statement as a joke. It was my film. See, it was the only film that I couldn't make it to the extent I wanted to. I jokingly said that because I had to finish shooting in five to 10 days what I had to shoot over a period of 20 days. But people misconstrued that and thought Gautham Menon is saying that it is not his film at all,' Gautham explained.

'If another producer had produced this film and if I had made that statement, then that would be wrong. However, I was the one who produced that film. Of course, Escape Artists Madan was the producer, but I took over from him and got that film to release and as a result, got associated with Ishari sir, who asked me to direct three films for him. So, my statement was made in a lighter vein and not one of disownment,' Gautham explained.

To another question on whether he was not satisfied with the film, Gautham replied, 'Yes. Definitely not satisfied. I only made the first half of the film in a proper fashion. I could only make the first half in exactly the same manner as it was on paper. We faced a lot of problems while making the second half. I did not get the dates of the hero as he went off to shoot for Vada Chennai. There was a problem between the producer and the hero and I was caught in between. I looked for ways on how it could be completed. I could have left it and gone but I believe any film should release and therefore worked for its release.'

/IANS