The Madras high court on Wednesday ordered notice to Rajinikanth and others on a petition which sought to restrain the release of ‘Kabali’.
The plea was filed by Sukra Films, which said that the release of ‘Kabali’ should be stopped until a sum of Rs 89 lakh was paid to the company against the alleged dues over the distribution of the Superstar’s previous film ‘Lingaa’ in Coimbatore region.
In his petition, R Mahaprabhu of Sukra Films alleged that ‘Lingaa’ had bombed at the box office despite assurances given by its producer Rockline Venkatesh, director K S Ravikumar and Rajnikanth.
He also claimed that the company had a financial loss of Rs 7.45 crore in Coimbatore distribution circle alone. He submitted that Rajnikanth and Venkatesh had agreed to compensate the overall loss of the distributors and theatres in Tamil Nadu and as part of the deal, Rs 2.59 crore was allotted to the Coimbatore region. The balance of Rs 89 lakh was yet to be settled, he alleged.
It was the responsibility of Kalaipuli S Thanu, producer of ‘Kabali’ and president of Tamil Film Producers Council, to settle this issue before releasing his own movie, he said.
When it came up for hearing, the judge issued notice to Rajini and others, returnable by today.
