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Film director Sudha Kongara had received ₹4.12 crore from 2D Entertainment Private Limited for having written the script, screenplay and dialogues for the movie Parasakthi but suppressed the fact before the Madras High Court, Dawn Pictures Private Limited has alleged.
Dawn Pictures told the court that Ms. Kongara entered into a director’s agreement with it on July 2, 2024 for a remuneration of ₹15 crore and on December 18, 2024, she terminated a similar 2021 agreement entered with 2D Entertainment on receipt of ₹4.12 crore for the same movie.
Further, stating that it had acquired intellectual property rights of the movie from 2D Entertainment on payment of ₹5.8 crore and also paid ₹8.5 crore (excluding GST) to Ms. Kongara so far, Dawn Pictures said, the payments were made without any knowledge about the clauses of the termination agreement.
The submissions were made in a counter affidavit filed before Justice K. Kumaresh Babu who reserved orders on an application filed by Ms. Kongara to prevent the release of Dawn Pictures’ next venture Idhayam Murali, starring Atharvaa, until her dues to the tune of ₹8.39 crore were not settled by the production firm.
Senior counsel P.H. Arvindh Pandian, representing Dawn Pictures, argued that the director’s agreement reached between his client and Ms. Kongara must not be seen in isolation to determine the rights and liabilities of the parties and urged the court to look into the interconnected agreements too.
He said, Ms. Kongara had initially entered into a director’s agreement with 2D Entertainment on June 6, 2021 for a remuneration of ₹12.5 crore. However, the project did not take off with 2D and hence, she had approached Dawn Pictures with a request to take over the production.
Ms. Kongara assigned all her rights over the movie to 2D Entertainment on December 18, 2024 and Dawn entered into a copyright assignment agreement with 2D Entertainment on December 20, 2024 for acquring the rights and becoming the producer of Parasakthi released on January 10, 2026.
Claiming that the termination agreement clearly states that the director assigns her intellectual property rights, moral rights and exploitation rights to the producer on receipt of full and final payment of ₹4.12 crore, Dawn Pictures said, it ended up paying ₹8.5 crore to her without knowing about these clauses.
The production house also claimed to have suffered losses because of the leakage of the movie during the course of production in November 2025 forcing it to engage specialised anti-piracy agencies to remove the leaked content from digital platforms. It said, the leak had also diminised the OTT sale value of the movie.
A script writer too had filed a copyright suit just days before the theaterical release of the movie claiming the script to have been actually written by him, and the production house had to spend considerable amount of money towards legal expenses in opposing that copyright suit.
Therefore, asserting that the financial consequences arising out of the interconnected transactions necessarily require adjustment and accounting before an arbitral tribunal since there were counter claims too, Dawn Pictures contended that Ms. Kongara could not, in the meantime, seek any interim relief such as an injunction against the release of Idhayam Murali.
English (US) ·