Huge Blow To Puri’s Reputation After Lady Producer’s Allegations

Article by Kumar Published on: 5:21 pm, 28 September 2026

Film industry might be a glamour industry, but when it comes to the film business it has a lot of gloom and darkness. Particularly, distribution is one such grey area where there are a lot of financial disputes involved. Producers and distributors often at the loggerheads over the financials. If a film turns out to be a box-office failure, the disputes turn into fights and even lead to war of words and legal battles.

Here is the issue of Puri Jagannadh’s Double iSmart that is touted to be a sequel to his super hit film iSmart Shankar and Double iSmart is released after Puri’s box-office disaster Liger. Double iSmart too turned into a BO dud, highly disappointing Puri and Ram’s fans and critics alike. However, the film is distributed by Prime Show Entertainment, who also produced the Hanu Man film with Teja Sajja.

Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy of the Prime Show have acquired Double iSmart’s distribution rights for a whopping amount. However, they had put a pre-condition that Puri’s previous films losses (including Liger) should be cleared or sorted out for the smooth release of the film Double iSmart and all such hurdles should be cleared before August 1, i.e two weeks before the film’s release. However, the old issues were left unresolved leading to the impact on Double iSmart and the issues stayed till Aug 13th evening and Aug 14th morning, resulting in the delay in the film’s morning shows and affecting the film’s publicity drastically.

In an explosive interview, Producer-distributor Chaitanya Reddy, of Prime Show, has completely opened up about the whole sequence of events leading to Double iSmart distribution rights and how they have lost about 35 to 40 Crores as the film failed. Chaitanya revealed how Puri and Charmi had emotionally requested before the film’s release and mounted pressure on them to make sure the film is bailed out and released as per the schedule on Aug 15, 2024.

Chaitanya Reddy alleged that Charmi had “begged” before the film’s release and requested them that if they “back out then” they had no other option but to “end their careers and lives.” Charmi and Puri allegedly promised to make films in future and compensate if the Double iSmart fails to work at the box-office. When Chaitanya Reddy had insisted for rewriting the agreement ahead of the film’s release, Charmi and Puri allegedly made several false promises and gave false hopes all through words.

With such alleged drastic statements, distributors Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy had finally agreed to release the film. Here is where the whole situation has changed after the film’s release. As the film opened to poor reviews and poor opening, the negative word of mouth spread like wildfire resulting in further affecting the film’s box-office numbers, thus the film ended as yet another disaster in Puri’s career.

This is where the story turned against distributors Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy. Allegedly, Charmi has blocked Chaitanya Reddy and Puri changed his mobile number turning answerable after the Double iSmart’s failure. When a couple of attempts were made to reach out to Puri-Charmi turned out to be futile and producer-distributor Niranjan finally managed to meet Puri and Charmi in Mumbai and their proposal came even quite shocking.

Charmi reportedly demanded 15 crore remuneration, story of their choice and profit share of 50 per cent, all these conditions are to make a film with Double iSmart distributors who lost a staggering 35 to 40 crore already. They were quite shocked with the Puri-Charmi’s clauses and conditions after losing their money. Before Double iSmart’s release, Charmi and Puri had promised to compensate them if the film fails. Whereas post disaster results, all those promises fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, the entire issue has come to light from the perspective of Double iSmart distributor Chaitanya Reddy, as Puri Jagannadh and Charmee are yet to respond and present their side of the story in full. However, this explosive interview by the Hanu Man makers about the Double iSmart distribution deal has become a major talking point in film industry circles. Many feel that the controversy could have a significant impact on Puri Jagannadh’s reputation, as he has been regarded as one of the finest and most celebrated directors in Telugu film history.