Chennai, Sep 11

First-time director Revan Yadu is upset that actor Shivaji is taking all the credit for the success of his latest Telugu release "Boochamma Boochodu". He says directors also deserve some laurels.

Shivaji plays the lead in Yadu-directed horror-comedy "Boochamma Boochodu", which released Sep 5. The film has been adjudged a sleeper hit.

"In all his recent interviews, Shivaji has been talking as though he's solely responsible for the success of the film. He didn't even care to mention my name anywhere. I'm deeply hurt by that because as a director, I deserve to be credited too," Yadu told IANS.

"I'm not an established director. People don't even know me. If Shivaji is taking away all the credit from the success, how will people even know that I directed the film? My friends have started to ask me if I really directed the film," he said.

Yadu admits filmmaking is a "team effort", but says there's a reason why a director is called "captain of the ship".

"It's the director's vision that gets translated into a film. I don't mean to say only the director should be credited for a film's success, but it's very important that he's recognised," he added.

"Boochamma Boochodu", a low-budget film, opened to very good numbers. It also features Kainaz Motiwala, Srinivas Reddy and Brahmanandam in lead roles.

In his defense, Shivaji said: "If people associate the success of the film with my popularity, I can't do anything about it".

"Ask those people who called me to congratulate for the film's success. Why didn't they call the director? I never stopped them from calling him. I was only celebrating the success of the film and was sharing my reaction on it," he said.