Actor-producer Vishal Krishna appeared before the Egmore court in Chennai today for allegedly evading Rs 1 crore in service taxes applicable to his production company, Vishal Film Factory.
According to sources, the actor did not pay taxes amounting to Rs 1 crore and had been receiving notices seeking response for service tax evasion since 2016. He failed to respond to summons or appear before the tax department, so a case was filed in the Economic Offences court in Egmore recently.
Vishal appeared before the court this afternoon. Further details are awaited.
Vishal Film Factory is a production, distribution and music company established by Vishal in 2013. His first production was director Suseenthiran’s Pandiya Naadu, starring him and Lakshmi Menon. He later produced movies such as Naan Sigappu Manithan, Ambala and Kathakali, and distributed Pattathu Yaanai and Jeeva. Some of his recent films are Mysskin’s Thupparivalan, PS Mithran’s Irumbu Thirai and the Lingusamy directorial Sandakozhi. These movies were box-office hits, and Vishal Film Factory also distributed Yash’s Kannada film KGF in Tamil Nadu, which released alongside five Tamil movies in December last year, but earned an estimated Rs 23 crore on day 1 alone.
Vishal currently has the Sundar C directorial co-starring Tamannaah and Aishwarya Lekshmi under production. As reported recently, he is also planning a sequel to Thupparivaalan 2, which is also likely to be produced by him.
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The actor has been busy with the elections to the Nadigar Sangam, held on June 23. He contested for the post of general secretary once again with president Nasser’s team ‘Pandavar Ani’. The elections were held after many controversies and a date and venue for the counting of votes is yet to be known. On July 8, the Madras High Court will hear the case against of the alleged illegal termination of 61 members from the council and further announcements will be made after that.
Meanwhile, elections to the Tamil Film Producers’ Council is also expected to be announced soon. The council is presided by Vishal but is currently run by a special officer who was appointed by the government due to alleged misappropriation by Vishal and the office-bearers.