The Madras High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for the worldwide release of the Kamal Haasan - starrer Vishwaroopam 2 on Friday by dismissing an application filed by Pyramid Saimira Productions to stall the release of the movie to recover ₹ 7.75 crore which the actor supposedly owed to it.
Justice M. Sundar dismissed the case after Aascar Films filed an affidavit, through its counsel S. Vijayan, claiming to have purchased theatrical and negative rights of Vishwaroopam 2 from Rajkamal Films International at a cost of ₹ 40.75 crore and any interim order by the court would affect it badly.
According to P.S. Swaminathan of Pyramid Saimira Productions, it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Rajkamal Films International, in which the actor is a partner, in 2008 for jointly producing a movie titled Marmayogi . Mr. Haasan had reportedly agreed to play the lead, besides writing the story, screenplay and dialogues.
Pyramid Saimira reportedly paid ₹ 6.9 crore towards production costs and ₹ 4 crore towards remuneration for Mr. Haasan. Accusing the actor of not having rendered any services, the company filed two civil suits in the High Court seeking a direction to the actor to repay the money for not having completed the project.
However, advocate K.S.V. Prasad, appearing on behalf of Mr. Haasan, brought it to the notice of the court that the Pyramid Saimira had agreed to pay his client ₹ 15 crore for acting in the lead role in Marmayogi and ₹ 1 crore for directing it. The entire remuneration for the directorial job was paid in advance.
In so far as acting was concerned, the plaintiff had paid him ₹ 2.88 crore, as against the advance amount of ₹ 3 crore, after deducting ₹ 11.33 lakh lakh towards Tax Deducted at Source (TDS). However, neither the actor was given a TDS certificate nor was the amount desposited with the Income Tax Department.
In the meantime, Mr. Haasan completed the script of the movie and proceeded with the production by paying an advance amount of ₹ 50 lakh to musician A.R. Rahman who composed one song sung by the actor himself.
Thereafter, the shooting also commenced with a scene shot at AVM Studios here along with actresses Trisha and Shriya.
Mr. Prasad also played a video clipping of the shooting to the judge on a laptop and rubbished plaintiff’s claim that the actor did not evince any interest in completing the project.
He added that Marmayogi could not be completed since it was a big budget movie which required over ₹ 100 crore and Pyramid Saimira was not able to fund it fully.
On his part, senior counsel P.S. Raman, representing Aascar Films, said, his client was not a garnishee at all since it had purchased the rights of Vishwaroopam 2 from Rajkamal Films International on full payment of ₹ 40.75 crore and does not owe any more money to the latter.
Therefore, it was unfair to seek an injunction at this stage, he argued.
