Lijo Jose Pellissery Denies Joju George’s Claims; Says Actor Was Paid ₹5,90,000 For ‘Churuli’

Two days after actor Joju George expressed his dissatisfaction for having worked on Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Churuli (2019), the celebrated director has denied the charges made by the actor. The actor, speaking to The New Indian Express, claimed he was not paid for his performance in Churuli and that he was not informed of the OTT release of its uncensored version.

Lijo Jose Pellissery posted his response on Facebook, detailing the exact remuneration (₹5,90,000) he paid Joju for playing Thankan Chettan in the film, a role that took three days of the actor's time. He wrote that he was urged to write this clarification only because of the hurt it caused other producers of the film. He added that the film, which received an ‘A’ (adult) rating, had never been released in theatres and that the High Court verdict was already out allowing the film’s use of expletives.

Lijo Jose Pellissery also stated that there was no intention to misinform Joju of the film’s release and said Joju was fully aware of the film’s coarse language and the need for it. He said he would surely release the movie in theatres if given the opportunity. 

Actor Joju George, who was last seen in Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life, had said in the recent interview that the version that premiered for the public was supposed to be milder, without the use of expletives. He said, “There was a minimum decency I expected when such a version was going to be put out. I could have been informed earlier that they were going to release the version riddled with expletives. I wasn’t even paid for doing that role in Churuli. I was upset, and I have also been open about how I felt about not being told about it. When a case was filed against the film, I too was named as a part of it. But no one from the film’s team even phoned me up to ask about what I had felt about being named in the case.”

The film premiered at the 25th International Film Festival of Kerala earlier that year and was written by S Hareesh with a story by Vinoy Thomas. Despite these issues, in February 2022, the Kerala High Court dismissed a writ petition seeking the removal of Churuli from the SonyLIV OTT platform, alleging that the film’s dialogues were offensive.

The film was produced by Movie Monastery and Chembosky Motion Pictures. It was edited by Deepu S. Joseph and was shot by Madhu Neelakandan. Apart from Joju George, the film also stars Vinay Forrt, Chemban Vinod Jose, Soubin Shahir, Sajin Gopu and Jaffar Idukki.