Parasakthi director Sudha Kongara moves HC for unpaid dues from producer

Chennai: Film director Sudha Kongara moved Madras high court seeking direction to Dawn Pictures, the makers of her movie ‘Parasakthi’ starring Sivakarthikeyan, to release ₹8.39 crore pending remuneration. She wanted the court to stall the release of the movie ‘Idhayam Murali’ starring Aatharvaa, slated to be released by the same producer on July 10, till payment of her remuneration.When the plea came up for hearing on Tuesday, advocate Nityesh Natraj submitted that the director wanted the court to stall the release of ‘Idhayam Murali’ since Dawn Pictures has no tangible assets that could be taken as security.Recording the submissions, Justice K Kumaresh Babu directed the production house to file its response by July 8 and adjourned the hearing.According to the director, she was promised a total remuneration of ₹15 crore for directing ‘Parasakthi’, with a 15% share of profits as a bonus.

However, the production house has so far paid only ₹6.71 crore, she said.Pointing out a critical provision in the agreement signed by the director and the producer, she added that they had categorically agreed that the intellectual property rights and all ancillary rights of the movie would be transferred to the production house only upon the director's full receipt of remuneration.Therefore, she wanted the court to direct Dawn Pictures to pay the pending dues with 12% interest from Feb 8. She has also sought the court to restrain the producer from releasing ‘Parasakthi’ through any OTT platform, satellite television, or any other digital streaming platform as an interim measure.She further sought the court to direct Zee5 to deposit the money payable by it to Dawn Pictures for obtaining the OTT rights of the movie and to appoint a court receiver to collect and hold the money pending disposal of the litigation.