Film producer K.E. Gnanavelraja has accused actor D. Sivakarthikeyan of having suppressed various facts while approaching the Madras High Court with regard to payment of remuneration of ₹15 crore in full for playing the lead role in the 2019 flick Mr. Local.
When the case was listed before Justice M. Sundar on Thursday, the producer’s counsel Vijayan Subramanian submitted a counter affidavit to the case filed by the actor. After taking the counter on file, the judge adjourned the case to April 7.
In the counter affidavit, the producer said Mr. Sivakarthikeyan’s first movie, Marina, got released only in February 2012. During that period, he had approached the producer on many occasions expressing his desire to act under the banner of Studio Green Films.
On March 3, 2013, the production firm signed an agreement with him for making a movie. His remuneration was fixed at ₹1 crore and ₹10 lakh was paid in advance. However, that project did not take off because the actor stopped picking up phone calls, the producer alleged.
After various rounds of mediation, the actor agreed to do a movie with the production firm in 2018 but demanded a remuneration of ₹15 crore. A new agreement was signed in July 2018. The old agreement was cancelled but the advance amount was not repaid, the producer claimed.
Stating that the film Mr. Local did not do well in the box office leading to a loss of ₹20 crore, the producer said yet he managed to pay ₹12.78 crore to the actor and not just ₹11.11 crore as claimed by the latter. The producer said that a balance of only ₹2.4 crore was due to the actor.
