Shruti Haasan withdraws defamation claim against the producers

Chennai: A city-based company has withdrawn the case of cheating against actor Shruti Haasan, which was filed in Hyderabad following the intervention of cinema industry bodies.

The actors have been asked by the respective associations to adhere to contractual agreements. "Picture House Media Ltd has withdrawn its case against Shruti Hassan after Tamil Film Producers Council (TPFC) and South Indian Film Artists Association (SIAA) intervened," a release here said. Office-bearers of TPFC including its President 'Kalaippuli' Thanu and R Sarath Kumar, President, SIAA, held discussions with Picture House Media Ltd and "suggested a way forward to settle the contentious issues," it said.

"Picture House Media Ltd has decided to put various issues behind and decided to move forward keeping in mind the cordial relations in the industry and to ensure that the clout of Council and Association is respected," said the agreement. Further TPFC and SIAA reiterated that artists should "adhere to the agreements that they enter into and producers should not suffer losses due to their irresponsible acts."

A case of cheating was registered against Shruti last month for allegedly reneging on the contractual obligations and pulling out of an upcoming bilingual film. The case seeking criminal investigation against her was filed by Picture House Media Ltd which alleged that the actor missed her shooting schedules for the untitled multi-starrer being directed by Vamsi Paidipalli.

Shruti, daughter of actor couple Kamal Haasan and Sarika, has acted in a number of Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. She has been tied up with several projects this year hence chose to opt out of Nagarjuna-Karthi’s starrer remake of ‘The Intouchables’ over date issues.

An official statement issued on behalf of Shruti says, "In light of the case filed by Picture House Media Ltd against Shruti Haasan, the case was dismissed this afternoon at 3pm at the Hyderabad District Court and the producers withdrew the case themselves. Shruti is very thankful for the intervention of SIAA on the matter as the lawyer sided with her cause due to harassment meted out to her. Thanks to the support of the industry bodies, she has also decided to withdraw the defamation claim against the producers for misrepresentation and revealing misleading facts to the media"