‘This is not a piece of paper, release agreement, I suffered a lot after acting in Churuli,’ says Joju George

KOCHI: Actor Joju George has responded to director Lijo Jose Pellissery in the controversies related to Churuli film. He said that he is not against the film or the character. The makers told me that the film was made for the festival. The parts without the expletives were dubbed, said Joji while addressing the media in Ernakulam.

'I had a desire to work with Lijo and I had many films then. I did that film out of friendship. The makers told me that the film was made for the festival. Especially at that time, there was no discussion about releasing such a film with expletives in theaters or OTT. But the film with expletives came on OTT. If you have seen Churuli at IFFK, you will understand. The version with no bad words were shown there.

When they got more money, they sold the version with swear words to OTT. This movie is releasing at the most difficult time in my life. At that time, videos of me using swearwords started coming from many places. A case was filed against me. I had asked for remuneration then. Today came Lijo’s Facebook post, and before that, no one called me to ask about the difficulties I faced.

My children were admitted to a new school last month. There, a child showed my daughter a troll of me saying expletives. My daughter came home that day and said Appa shouldn’t have acted in that film. That is the opinion of a child.

A piece of paper was released today. The agreement should also be released. If it is released, one will understand about my remuneration. Please release it. I am not against the film or the character. I was made to dub the version with no expletives then. If the film had been fully screened at the IFFK, I wouldn’t have talked about it later. I only know what I have suffered because of that film,' said Joju.