CHENNAI: The threat of having loud, raucous distributors protesting outside his Poes Garden house appears to have pressured Superstar Rajinikanth into laying the Lingaa issue to rest. According to highly placed sources, the actor and Lingaa’s producers Rockline Venkatesh held an emergency meeting on Wednesday night and handed over the agreed compensation of Rs 10 crore to the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC).
“After the distributors threatened to hold the protest, Rockline Venkatesh got in touch with Kalaipuli Thanu and they handed over the agreed settlement at night,” said a source with the Producers Council. This will effectively end the 100-day mudslinging battle that has been going on, ever since Lingaa released.
On Thursday morning, the warring distributors were called in for a meeting chaired by Kalaipuli S Thanu, the TFPC’s new chief.
“There was some discussion on how to divide it but we finally managed to reach an agreement. He showed us the cheque and assured us that the promised amount had been given. Since we have lost a lot of time and money already, we agreed and have withdrawn the protest,” said R Singaravadivelan, distributor of the Tirunelveli circle.
After Lingaa was declared a loss in late December, distributors and producers have been agitating and demanding compensation for their losses since. After a round of accounting was done, the loss suffered by the producers was set at Rs 38.5 crore for Tamil Nadu. A round of discussions resulted in a reduced compensation of Rs 10 crore, but there was a prolonged delay in handing that amount over. “Part of the delay was because theatre owners and distributors have been fighting about how much share each of them will get. So finally, it has been decided that Rs 6.5 crore will go to the theatre owners and Rs 3.5 crore will be given to the distributors. It is a fraction of what we lost, but it is the best we can hope for,” he added.
In a late development, a statement from the TFPC said in a very polished manner that the money had been received 10 days ago, and thanked the Superstar for having settled the money as promised. “That is merely eyewash, but the money has come so we don’t really care,” said a distributor from Salem.