Whether a virtual-Rajinikanth’s motion-captured movie Kochadaiyaan made the cut or not, it sure has spelt financial trouble for its producers.
On Friday, Mumbai-headquartered EXIM bank issued a notice to the superstar’s wife, Latha Rajinikanth, who stood guarantor for the funds given to Mediaone Global Entertainment Limited., co-producers of the film. She was called to repay over Rs. 22.21 crore that was due to the bank in July 2014.
The bank said in the notice that it had taken possession of a property (around acre 2.13 cents) in Kancheepuram district, Sriperambudur taluk. It had also issued notice to C.R. Devender, second guarantor. The bank had taken possession of Devender’s property at Kumara Park Extension, Bangalore. “It’s a two-storey building,” said a senior EXIM bank official.
As soon as the clipping of the notice went viral, J. Murali Manohar, Director of Mediaone Global Entertainment Limited, came out in defence of Ms. Latha, saying this is something that every company goes through. “We have been negotiating with the banks beginning December. We will pay the amount before March 31.” The issue is unnecessarily hyped because Latha Rajinikanth was the guarantor, he told The Hindu.
“We have enough stock to match our liabilities. There are some payments that we will be getting over the next few weeks. Once we get it, we will settle the dues. We are a listed company and we will be transparent in whatever we do,” he added. The firm had also borrowed around Rs. 18 crore from Oriental Bank of Commerce. “We have settled that amount,” Mr. Manohar added.
When contacted EXIM Bank Chairman and Managing Director Yaduvendra Mathur said, “This is a normal recovery process. There is nothing exceptional in this case.”
Directed by the superstar’s daughter, Soundarya Rajnikanth-Ashwin, the ‘Photorealistic Performance Capture technology’ film had set the box office ringing with a bumper opening weekend and grossed Rs. 30 crore in India and Rs. 12 crore overseas. The hype slowly faded and the film eventually bombed at the box office leaving distributors in huge losses. The budget of the film was Rs 1.25 billion.
