The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Rajinikanth’s wife, Latha Rajinikanth’s firm Mediaone Global Entertainment to pay Rs 6.2 crore to private company Ad-Bureau, which financed Kochadaiiyaan, within 12 weeks.
The court also ordered the firm to pay back the interest for the Rs 10 crore loan it took from Ad Bureau, which distributes films. Further, failure to repay the amount on time would hold Latha Rajinikanth, who is Mediaone’s director, liable to personally settle the amount, the court stated.
The SC also ordered Latha to inform the court by noon when the remaining amount would be repaid to Ad Bureau.
In April 2014, Ad Bureau loaned Mediaone Rs 10 crore, when the film faced a cash crunch during the post-production works, said a ToI report. The report added that Latha Rajinikanth signed as the guarantor for the loan.
Kochadaiiyaan, which released in 2014, was a box-office debacle.
Ad Bureau moved the SC two years later, alleging that Latha had not repaid Rs 6.2 crore to them.
Kochadaiiyaan, directed by Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth, used ‘photorealistic performance capture technology’ in the film.
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone starred as the leading lady in the film.
In the first weekend alone, the movie made Rs 30 crore in India, and Rs 12 crore overseas. However, ticket sales nosedived after that and the movie eventually bombed at the box-office. This put the producers in great debt as the movie was made on a budget of a whopping Rs 1.25 billion, according to a report by The Hindu.
(This article was originally published on The News Minute)
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