CHENNAI: The ill-fated Vijay-starrer ‘Kavalan’ ran into a fresh controversy on Tuesday as the film’s producer Ramesh Babu accused distributor Sakthi Chidambaram of criminal intimidation and colluding with the Sun TV Network to deny him payment of dues from the company.
After lodging a police complaint against the distributor, Rumesh Babu met with journalists at the Commissionerate. “The court ruled that I am the absolute and authorised producer of the film,” he said, alleging that the distributor was attempting to usurp Rs 2.75 crore that Sun TV was to have paid the producer for satellite rights of the film.
He said he had sold ‘Kavalan’ satellite rights to Sun TV for Rs 5.5 crore. The company had paid half the amount, but was dragging its feet on payment of the remaining Rs 2.75 crore. “Sakthi Chidambaram is conspiring with a few others to take the Rs 2.75 crore due to me from Sun TV and, if not, to at least delay the payment,” the producer alleged in his second plea to the CoP on Tuesday.
Rumesh claimed that when he asked Sun TV CEO Hansraj Saxena to release the payment, Sun TV held out a warning. He claimed that the distributor had forged his signature and circulated the copyrights for the film. He further alleged that, on Sunday, Sakthi Chidambaram, along with an associate Ganesh, had visited his T Nagar residence and threatened his parents who were alone at that time.