Thangalaan: Madras HC Allows The Release Of Vikram Starrer After Producer Deposits Rs 1 Crore As Per Court Order

Chiyaan Vikram starrer Thangalaan had found itself in legal trouble, days before its release in the theatres. Well, as reported by the Free Press Journal, the film’s theatrical release was approved by the Madras High Court after producer K.E. Gnanavelraja complied with its direction to deposit Rs 1 crore into the account of the Official Assignee of the High Court. The film is all set to release on the big screes, globally, on August 15. 

According to the report by the media publication, the submission was made by the lawyer for producer Niranjan Rajagopal, that the money had been placed with the Official Assignee as per the court’s directive, which was noted by the Madras High Court Division Bench. The bench was reportedly made up of Justices G. Jayachandran and C.V. Karthikeyan.

The report further adds that the court stated that there shall be no impediment to releasing the movie on Thursday. For the unversed, there was an agreement between Gnanavelraja and businessman, Arjunlal Sunderdas, who passed away, in 2011, to co-produce a movie by investing Rs 40 crore each. In the agreement the latter had invested Rs 12.85 crores before deciding to back off due to paucity of funds. 

It was in 2014, the the Madras HC had reported declared Sunderdas insolvent and directed the Official Assignee to take stock of his assets and liabilities. It was done so, so that the people who had deposited money in his real estate and finance companies, could be repaid their dues. It was during the assessment that the Official Assignee found out that Gnanavelraja had to repay Rs 10.35 crore to the insolvent.

The Official Assignee filed an application before the High Court in 2016 to seek a direction to the producer, so that he would repay the amount with 18% interest from 2013. While the Division Bench had allowed the application in 2019, the producer didn’t comply with the order. It was then that the Official Assignee moved to the High Court periodically, before the release of every movie produced by the filmmaker.

As per the reports, the Official Assignee filed an execution petition, which sought to attach to his new films Thangalaan and Suriya starrer Kanguva. On Monday, the Division Bench had ordered that both movies would be released only after the producer deposited Rs 1 crore each. The report adds that the filmmaker has subsequently filed a complain report on Wednesday to obtain Tangalaan’s release.