Madras HC directs Studio Green to deposit Rs 1 cr each before releasing ‘Thangalaan’, ‘Kanguva’

A division bench of the high court comprising Justices G. Jayachandran and C.V. Karthikeyan directed 'Studio Green’ production company run by K.E. Gnanavelraja to deposit Rs 1 crore each for the two films with the official assignee on or before Wednesday (August 14).

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday flagged the release of two big-budget Tamil movies — ‘Thangalan’ starring Chiyaan Vikram and ‘Kanguva’ featuring Suriya.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justices G. Jayachandran and C.V. Karthikeyan directed ‘Studio Green’ production company run by K.E. Gnanavelraja to deposit Rs 1 crore each for the two films with the official assignee on or before Wednesday (August 14).

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The couet ordered that as ‘Thangalaan’ is scheduled to be released across the country on Thursday (August 15), the deposit be made on August 14.

The judges also ordered that another Rs 1 crore should be deposited before the release of ‘Kanguva’.

The orders were passed on an execution petition filed by the high court’s official assignee, who had been entrusted with the task of recovering the debts due to insolvent businessman Arjunlal Sunderdas (since dead).

The official assignee had filed an application in the high court in 2016 stating that Sunderdas, accused of cheating people of several crores of rupees by allegedly luring them to invest in his finance and real estate companies, had decided to co-produce a movie in association with Studio Green in 2011 by investing Rs 40 crore.

Sunderdas had paid Rs 12.85 crore to the production house on different dates between September 2011 and October 2012, but decided to back off midway due to paucity of funds.

The production house, however, expressed its inability to repay the entire amount to him saying it was spent on pre-production work.

The insolvent got back only Rs 2.5 crore, thereby leaving a balance of Rs 10.35 crore. The official assignee urged the court to direct the production house to deposit Rs 10.35 crore with 18 per cent interest since December 2013 so that the depositors with the deceased Sunderdas could be repaid their money.

Studio Green opposed the application filed by the official assignee claiming it had offset the amount due to Sunderdas by giving him the Hindi remake rights of three Tamil movies titled ‘All in All Azhaguraja’, ‘Biriyani’, and ‘Madras’, and asked him to sell those rights using his contacts in Bollywood.

However, the production house could produce only a photocopy of the purported agreement between them to prove its claim, stating the original agreement was destroyed in the 2015 floods.

The division bench on August 29, 2019, allowed the official assignee’s application after holding that the claim made by the production house did not inspire confidence.

“In the first place, the alleged agreement between the insolvent and the second respondent (Studio Green) in this regard has not been produced. The date of the agreement had also not been stated. The value and the goodwill of the three movies have also not been stated,” the bench had said.

“No evidence has been produced to justify the stand that the remake rights of the three movies would be exactly equal to Rs 10.35 crore. There is also no oral evidence to that extent, let alone documentary proof. The documents produced are photocopies. The explanation that the originals have been lost in floods did not withstand cross examination,” the bench noted, as it ordered the deposit of Rs 10.35 crore with 18 per cent interest from 2013.

As this 2019 order was not complied with, the official assignee filed the present execution petition with a plea to attach Studio Green’s all future movies, including ‘Thangalaan’ and ‘Kanguva’, until it complies with the five-year-old court order.