'They shot erotic content in Zid behind my back'

This week's release Zid is a remake of the 2011 German film called The Good Neighbour but it has a lot erotic content that wasn't seen in the original.

Director Vivek Agnihotri, who is currently shooting his new film Junooniyat in Kashmir, is livid about his name still not being detached from the project.

"(Producer) Anubhav Sinha came to me with the proposal to remake the German film The Good Neighbour. Three directors had already left the project. Anubhav, who is an old friend, was distressed. He asked me to step in and I couldn’t say no," Agnihotri says.

“I finished the first schedule. When I returned, I got to know that they had shot erotic content behind my back. I was horrified. If you see The Good Neighbour, there is no room for erotica. The protagonists don’t even meet in the original story. How can they make love?” Agnihotri asks.

The director apparently tried to reason with Anubhav Sinha but to no avail.

“He told me that the minute the erotic content was announced, Zid was sold to the distributors because my erotic thriller The Hate Story was a hit. I have nothing against shooting erotica but it has to be part of the story. Sex and nudity are not a part of The Good Neighbour. How can they be a part of the remake?”

Agnihotri suspects the steamy scenes have been shot only for the teaser trailers. "I don’t know how or when Mannara and Karanvir Sharma shot these scenes. But this is not the film I was asked to make, and I don’t want any part of it. I spoke up about this only because they have refused to remove my name from the credits."

The Good Neighbour is a German psychological thriller directed by James Crisp.