Much to her shock, a shrine in Kolkata refused to let the shoot of Sameera Reddy's Tamil flick take place in their premises

Sameera Reddy, who's currently in Kolkata to shoot her Tamil film, Vedi, with southside star Vishal, was thrilled to know that they would be shooting at the famous Dakshineshwari Kali Temple.

So much so that she reached there early on Wednesday morning to seek blessings from the Goddess. However, she was shocked when she learnt the shoot was stalled due to permission issues.

A unit member from Vedi attributes the sudden cancellation of the shoot to "red-tapism" by temple authorities. "We explained them that we had got the permission.

But they were adamant and said the application didn't have the required details," reveals our source.

When contacted, the production manager of the Prabhudeva-directed movie, C V Selvaraj says, "We think everything was fine until Tuesday (July 26).

However, when we reached the temple on Wednesday, we weren't allowed to shoot," recalls Selvaraj.

"It's strange that the civic authorities, which want to portray a positive image of Kolkata through the medium of cinema, is itself creating obstacles," remarks our source, adding that the sudden cancellation resulted in a production loss of at least R 5 lakh.

Another location

Fortunately, they managed to get permission to shoot at Annapurneshwari Devi Temple on Thursday despite a short notice. And as a gesture of gratitude, Prabhudeva organised a mahapuja there.

When contacted, Sameera confirmed saying, "It was disappointing to be turned away from the temple though initially the authorities had agreed to let us shoot."