Chennai: The ghost of Lingaa, a box office failure film starring Superstar has returned to haunt Rajinikanth two days prior to the release his much-awaited film Kabali.
The Madras High court ordered notice on a petition filed by a distributor of Lingaa who faced severe loss due to its release two years ago, seeking to halt the release of Kabali.
In the petition, R. Maha Prabhu, partner of M/s Sukra Films, Koyambedu, submitted that Sukra films has been engaged in distributing and exhibiting films.
The film Lingaa, featuring Rajinikanth and others, was produced by Rockline Venkatesh. His company obtained distribution rights for Coimbatore region for Rs 13.25 crore.
Lingaa was released on Rajinikanth’s birthday, 12.12.2014 with much celebration. The movie performed very poorly in the box office despite the assurances made by the producer, director and Rajnikanth.
‘Sukra Films’ was subjected to financial loss of Rs 7.45 crore, leaving our partners stranded on the streets without even a single penny left in their pockets”.
Many distributors incurred a heavy loss and addressed the issue to the Eros International, Vendhar Movies, Rockline Venkatesh (Producer) etc, to make good the loss suffered by them. The news regarding was published in newspapers, quoting the poor performance of the movie.
According to the petitioner, Rajnikanth and Rockline Venkatesh collectively accepted to compensate Rs 12.50 crore for the distributors and theatres owners in Tamil Nadu. “An amount of Rs 2.59 crores was allotted for the Coimbatore region and of this Rs 1.70 crore paid to the Coimbatore, Erode, Nilagiri, Tiruppur Theatre Owners Association. The balance of Rs 89 lakh is yet be settled to our firm.
The president of Tamil Film Producers Council, Kalaipuli. S. Thanu, who is the producer of the film Kabali, has not verified whether Rs 89 lakh was paid to the company or not”. As president of the council, it his responsibility to settle this issue before releasing Kabali. Hence, he sought interim injunction to restrain Thanu from releasing Kabali until Rs 89 lakh is paid to him.
Justice M.M. Sundresh, before whom the petition came up for hearing, has ordered notice to Rajnikanth, Thanu and others and adjourned the matter to Thursday.
