CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday restrained film actor and producer Vishal Krishna Reddy from releasing movies - either produced or financed by him - in cinema theatres or OTT platforms until he deposits Rs 15 crore in the account of the high court registry as per a single judge’s order.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders while disposing of a letters patent appeal filed by Vishal challenging the single judge’s order passed on September 9, 2022.
The single judge had directed him to deposit Rs 15 crore in the registry’s account after hearing a petition filed by Lyca Productions which claimed the actor owed Rs 30 crore by way of taking over his debt of Rs 21.3 crore from Gopuram films of Anbu Chezhian.
The single judge, considering the totality of the circumstances and after considering the commercial costs, held that the endeavour (depositing the amount) has to be made in order to ensure that the litigant (Lyca) should be in a position to realise substantive amount within reasonable time, the bench said.
It added that the single judge had only ordered to deposit Rs 15 crore by way of fixed deposit with the registrar general, given the fact that Vishal had received Rs 23 crores through releasing two of his movies.
Noting that the single judge has not specified the action to be taken in case of failure to deposit the money, the bench modified the order to incorporate clause iv-a of loan agreement to the order.
This clause provides for Lyca to have the “first lien” as collateral security on all the rights, titles, interests in all the future film projects and its associated rights, produced or financed by Vishal Film Factor or Vishal Krishna until the loan amount is fully settled.
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