The Madras High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Lyca Productions, payable to actor Vishal, while dismissing the civil suit filed by the banner over alleged non-payment of a loan by the actor, The Hindu reported.
According to Lyca Productions, Vishal had taken a loan of Rs 15 crore from producer and film financier Anbuchezhian of Gopuram Films, to make his 2016 film Marudhu. When the actor could not repay the loan, the amount he owed, with the interest accrued, increased to Rs 21.29 crore. Following this, in September 2019, Vishal made an agreement with Lyca for the latter to takeover his liability on the condition that he would repay the banner with 30% interest.
In addition, the agreement also stated that the banner would have “a lien over all his future projects until the debt was cleared.” Vishal had also agreed to pay Rs 7 crore to Lyca a week before the planned release of his film Thupparivalan 2 in March 2020 and settle the rest by December that year.
However, Vishal submitted that the film could not be completed and released on time due to lockdown restrictions.
He further said that Lyca had filed the lawsuit when another film of his, Chakra, was released in February.
Vishal also submitted that the loan could only be discharged when the banner submits evidence of having settled his liabilities with Anbuchezhian.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Justice G Jayachandran observed that apart from a lien over Vishal’s future projects, the agreement also stated that there should be no opposition from the actor’s side when any legal action is taken to recover the dues. The judge doubted if such a clause was permissible and said these terms reminded him of “Section 2(d) of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, which defines the term Bonded Debt.”
The judge then recorded Vishal’s submissions and said that the validity of the terms of the agreement would be decided when the suit gets taken up for final disposal. Till then, the actor was directed to deposit 50% from the proceeds of Chakra to the account of the civil suit. The court also ordered Lyca Productions to pay Rs 5 lakh to Vishal towards costs in the suit.
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Following the judgment, Vishal tweeted, “Always believed that justice will prevail and truth will triumph. The false case against me and Chakra movie filed by Lyca has been dismissed by the Hon High Court of Madras today and [the court has] ordered them to pay a penalty of Rs 5 lakh for foisting a false case and harassing me.”
This is not the first time Vishal has been embroiled in legal issues. Ahead of Chakra’s release, the Madras High Court had passed an interim stay on the release after the producer of Vishal’s previous film Action (2019), R Ravindran of Trident Arts, had filed a copyright claim. However, the stay was later lifted.
Ravindran had also filed a plea seeking compensation from Vishal after Action (directed by Sundar C) performed poorly at the box office. But the court asked the matter to be settled through arbitration.