It’s been months since distributors in Tamil Nadu have been appealing to Tamil star Rajinikanth. Their demand - that they be compensated for the huge losses incurred due to the failure of the superstar’s last release Lingaa. Now, Rajinikanth and Rockline Venkatesh, producer of Lingaa, have finally pooled in Rs 5 crore each to compensate distributors.
A press release from the Tamil Nadu Film Producer’s Council said that an amount of Rs. 10 crore has been handed over to them, which would be disbursed to the distributors and theatre owners.
Distributor Singaravadivelan spoke to The Quint and said, “We’d initially demanded Rs 35 crore and lowered it to Rs 30 crore. Though the compensation is just a third of the actual settlement we expected, we are happy with the gesture. We wouldn’t have resorted to the protests had it not been such a big loss for us.”
However, Rajinikanth’s family has been drawn into another controversy with Ad Bureau, a Chennai-based advertising company, accusing the star’s wife, Latha Rajinikanth, of ‘fraud’ and ‘double selling’.
Allegations and counter allegations continue to fly between the ad company and the production company Mediaone Global Private Limited on the matter in which Latha had reportedly taken personal guarantee to process an investment of Rs 10 crore from Ad Bureau, for a post-production partnership on Rajinikanth starrer Kochadaiiyaan, which hasn’t been paid back.