Chennai: P.Madan and Venkat Somasundaram, producers of Tamil films Ennai Nokki PayumThota, starring Dhanush and Megha Akash and Thuruva Natchatiram, starring Vikram and Ritu Varma, on Monday appeared before the Madras high court in connection with a contempt of court case.
Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana before whom Madan and Venkat Somasundaram appeared, directed them to appear before the court again on August 22 in connection with a contempt of court case filed by M/s Radiance Media Private Limited, which sought to punish the duo for willfully disobeying the orders passed by the Sole Arbitrator.
Applicant’s counsel Abudukumar Rajarathinam assisted by V.S. Senthilkumar, submitted that the applicant is a well known cinema production house and also in the business of providing finance for film production. In the course of business transactions, M/s PhotonKathaas Production Pvt., Ltd represented by its Director Gautham Veasudev Menon had availed a sum of Rs 1.50 crore as loan from the applicant for the production of two of their movies under film finance loan agreement dated March 24, 2015. Thereafter, M/s Escape Artists Motion Pictures represented by its proprietor P.Madan agreed to take over and discharge the loan amount of Gautham Menon and in pursuance of which, Escape Artists Motion Pictures and Photon Kathaas Production had entered into film finance loan agreement dated February 10, 2016 in and under which the Escape Artists Motion Pictures agreed to take over and discharge the entire loan amount of Rs 1.50 crore along with interest, Abudukumar added.
He said M/s White Bucket Foundation had also borrowed loan amount from the applicant and as on May 30, 2017, it was due to pay a sum of Rs 35.97 lakh towards principal and Rs 24.18 lakh towards interest to the applicant. In such circumstances, M/s Escape Artists Motion Pictures and M/s Kondaduvom Entertainment represented by its partners P.Madan and Venkat Somasundaram had approached the applicant and agreed to take over and discharge M/s White Bucket Foundation’s loan with the claimant. In pursuance of which, a film finance loan agreement, dated May 30, 2017 was executed agreeing to the same. As per the agreement, in the event of default and non-payment of the outstanding due on or before the repayment date i.e January 30, 2018, they shall not release the films “Duruva Nacchathiram and YennaiNokkiPayumThota” without discharging the entire liability due to the claimant, he added.
Abudukumar said however, they miserably failed to repay the loan and interest. Subsequently, the dispute was referred to sole arbitrator and the applicant had claimed Rs 2.87 crore towards total outstanding. The Arbitrator had directed them to pay Rs 2.42 crore in two installments i.e first installment on or before February 28, 2019 or before the release of the film ‘YennaiNokkiPayumThota’ whichever was earlier and the second installment on or before April 30, 2019 or before the release of the film “Dhruva Natchathiram” whichever was earlier and in the event of their failure to pay either of the installments there shall be an order of injunction restraining them from releasing the two movies. But they have not complied with the Tribunal's order till date and thereby acted with utter disregard to the Tribunal’s order by abusing the process of law and thus acted in violation of the order. Moreover, the applicant reliably learnt that they have taken all steps to release the movies without settling the amount due to the applicant and complying with the order of the Tribunal.
Therefore, the applicant filed the present contempt of court application, Abudukumar added.
