'Talwars sold rights to 'Talwar' makers to express their viewpoint'

"Rahasya" director Manish Gupta claims that Talwar family received a huge amount of money from the makers of "Talwar" for the rights of their story which is completely their viewpoint of not being guilty in the Aarushi murder case.

"They (Talwar family) signed a deal with the other filmmaker and received a huge amount from them and provided them the rights of the story. And that's when this film has now been made, where the viewpoint that they are innocent and that they have been implicated, has been shown. That's the basic difference between the two films," said Gupta at a press conference to queries about the difference between his "Rahasya" and "Talwar" directed by Meghna Gulzar, both based on the brutal murder of Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj in Noida in 2008.

"Their family name 'Talwar' is also there. The Talwars didn't raise any objections to this and filed no case against them. It's a matter of thought as to why they didn't file the case.. was it because they're shown as not guilty in their film. There's no doubt that their permission was taken and that's why their name has been used," he alleged.

He also says that the Talwar family had filed a case against his film despite his statement that it is a fictitious story, and it got stuck in court proceedings for 11 months.

Gupta claimed that Vandana Talwar, Aarushi's aunt, had given them two booklets written by her regarding the case, and told them to use the content in their film.

"In them, its written that the Talwars are innocent and the CBI has framed them in the case. I refused the offer and told them that I was making the film for entertainment purpose and not for building a case for the prosecution or defence or to influence the public perception of the case. They wanted us to show them innocent in the film and couldn't digest this refusal," he said, adding despite these odds, "Rahasya" was critically acclaimed and worked for 100 days at the box office.

"Talwar", which has a bigger starcast with Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma and Tabu among others, will hit the screens on October 2.