The Madras High Court today gave its nod for the release of Tamil movie "Kadavul Irukan Kumaru" as it vacated the stay granted against its release with a condition to deposit Rs 35 lakh in the court within four weeks.
The court had yesterday granted interim stay for the release of the film for two weeks, when film distributor R Singavadivelan filed a suit for recovery of Rs 82.38 lakh from producer Senthilkumar of G&7G Films.
Singaravadivelan had submitted that he had entered into a contract with producers of Tamil film "Lingaa", starring Rajinikanth, for exhibition and distribution rights in Trichy-Thanjavur area. He was authorised to deal with theatre collections.
However, Senthilkumar did not pay Rs 61.25 lakh in December 2014. The petitioner paid the money to the producer after Senthilkumar assured that the amount would be paid as soon as possible. The suit was filed after he heard that Senthilkumar was about to release "Kadavul Irukkan Kumaru" featuring G V Prakash and directed by M Rajesh on November 10.
Referring to Senthilkumar's letter dated June 18 giving an undertaking that he will not release the film without clearing dues of Singaravadivelan, the latter said, "Contrary to the promise, Senthilkumar abruptly, with a view to defraud the petitioner, has fixed the date of release of the film as November 10."
Vacating the stay today, the court said, "While permitting the movie to be released by way of an interim order the G&7G Films is directed to deposit Rs 35 lakh in the court within four weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this order without prejudice to the contention of the parties which should be taken note of while disposing of the application."
The G&7G Films is granted further four weeks of time to file counter affidavit and posted he mater for further hearing after six weeks, it said.
After hearing arguments on behalf of the two plaintiffs --
Amla and Dinesh -- and Shemaroo as well as the three defendants -- Gitanjali Shaily Shailendra, Riddhima Shaily Shailendra and Priyanka Shaily Shailendra -- who had assigned their one-sixth share in the copyright to the company, the court listed the matter for framing of issues on April 12, 2017.
Gitanjali is the wife of late Hemant Shaily Shailendra, the eldest of Shankar Shailendra's children, and Riddhima and Priyanka are their daughters.
According to the suit filed by Amla and Dinesh, prior to his death, Hemant used to get the royalties for the use of the film.
In their plea, they have sought total damages of Rs 1,00,01,000 from all the defendants, including Shemaroo and Maru.
Amla Shailendra Mazumdar has claimed that she came to know about the violation of her copyright in the film when she saw that the movie was being offered as in-flight entertainment on an Emirates flight.
When she contacted the Dubai-based airline, it said it had got the right to show the film from Shemaroo which, according to the suit, has uploaded the entire movie on YouTube and also sells its DVDs on Flipkart.
