The much-awaited release of Suriya-starrer Kanguva on Thursday now hinges on the ability of its producer K.E. Gnanavelraja to deposit ₹20 crore, on or before Wednesday midnight, to the credit of the Official Assignee of the Madras High Court.
A Division Bench of Justices G. Jayachandran and C.V. Karthikeyan ordered that the movie, also starring Bollywood actors Bobby Deol and Disha Patani, should not be released as scheduled on Thursday without depositing the money within the stipulated time.
The orders were passed on an application filed by the Official Assignee urging the court to modify an order passed by it on August 12 permitting the release of Kanguva on deposit of just ₹1 crore. The applicant insisted that the producer should be directed to deposit entire liability of ₹26.34 crore.
The dispute related to the litigation dates back to 2011 when Mr. Gnanavelraja had entered into an agreement with businessman Arjunlal Sunderdas (since dead) for co-producing a movie by investing ₹40 crore each. As per the agreement, the businessman had invested ₹12.85 crore before backing off from the project.
Subsequently, in 2014, the High Court declared Arjunlal Sunderdas as an insolvent and directed the Official Assignee to take stock of all his assets and liabilities so that hundreds of people who had deposited money in his real estate and finance companies could be repaid their dues.
While conducting an assessment as directed by the court, the Official Assignee found that Mr. Gnanavelraja had to repay ₹10.35 crore to the insolvent, and therefore, filed an application before the High Court in 2016 seeking a direction to him to repay the amount with 18% interest from 2013.
The Division Bench allowed the application in 2019 and directed the producer to repay the entire liability of ₹10.35 crore with interest to the credit of the Official Assignee. Though he took the order on appeal to the Supreme Court, the latter dismissed his appeal on September 2, 2024.
In the meantime, the Official Assignee had been filing applications after applications before the High Court for recovering the dues, before every release of a new film, but had succeeded in recovering only ₹3.93 crore including ₹1 crore recovered before the release of Vikram-starrer Thangalaan.
Though Mr. Gnanavelraja attempted to dissociate himself from Studio Green Films Private Limited, which had produced Thangalaan as well as Kanguva, and claimed to have not produced any movie in the last two and a half years, the Division Bench refused to accept his claim.
“The decree holder (Official Assignee) having waited for nearly six years after obtaining decree is unable to pay the creditors to the insolvent who are waiting for nearly 10 years after the insolvency petition was instituted. The leniency shown to the Judgement Debtor so far believing that he has bonafide intention to discharge the debt substantially, if not in full, appears to be a misplaced sympathy. Therefore, this court has no other alternative except to pass the inevitable order of restraining the second respondent to release the movie by name ‘Kanguva’ without discharging the decree,” the Bench wrote.
Published – November 12, 2024 07:40 pm IST