After much strife, filmmaker Shankar and Lyca Productions, the banner backing Indian 2, his upcoming sequel to the 1996 Kamal Haasan-starrer, have patched up their differences and smoothed the way for work on the upcoming film to restart.
Lyca opted for an out-of-court settlement with the director on Friday, as per a The Times of India report. The banner has reportedly also withdrawn its objections to Shankar continuing his work on other projects, including his film with Ram Charan (RC15) and the Hindi remake of Anniyan.
Indian 2, starring actor-politician Kamal Haasan in the lead role, went on floors in February 2020, but production was stalled later that month when three persons were killed and nine injured in a freak crane accident on the film’s sets in EVP Film City, Chennai.
Subsequently, the film became embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle between the production house and the director.
Earlier this year, Lyca Productions moved the Madras HC seeking an interim injunction to prevent Shankar from directing any other film before completing the sequel. This came after an announcement in February that Shankar was set to direct the Ram Charan film.
Refusing to grant the injunction, the court, in April, had directed the filmmaker and the production house to resolve the issue amicably. However, talks between the two parties proved futile.
In May, Shankar filed a counter-affidavit blaming Lyca for the Indian 2 production delay. He said that the shooting was supposed to start in 2017 and Haasan had requested that the film be released before the 2019 General Assembly elections. Shankar claimed that the film was delayed since Lyca wanted to produce the project instead of producer Dil Raju. The filmmaker alleged that Lyca did not show interest in his pitch for Indian 2 initially, but later expressed interest after which he [Shankar] had to convince Raju to exit the project.
When the case came up for hearing in June, Shankar’s counsel alleged that Lyca had also moved a Hyderabad court seeking an interim injunction to prevent the filmmaker from directing any other films before completing Indian 2. However, Lyca Productions denied the allegation and stated that the issue with the Hyderabad court had “nothing to do” with the case pending at the Madras HC.
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The Madras HC finally refused to grant the interim injunction, following which the parties have now reconciled their differences amicably with the out-of-court settlement.
Apart from Haasan, Indian 2 is also slated to feature late actor Nedumudi Venu as well as actors Kajal Aggarwal, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Bobby Simha, Priya Bhavani Shankar, and Samuthirakani. The film was officially announced in September 2017 during the final episode of the first season of the reality television show Bigg Boss Tamil, which was hosted by Haasan.