Media365
Sudha Kongara, popular for directing the multiple National Award-winning Suriya starrer Soorarai Pottru, has dragged the producers of her movie to court over unpaid dues. Sudha directed Sivakarthikeyan’s political drama Parasakthi, which released earlier this year in January.
Sudha has claimed in the Madras High Court that she has standing dues to the tune of over ₹8 crore from the work she did on Parasakthi. Sudha has moved the court against Dawn Pictures, the production house behind Parasakthi, seeking payment of ₹8.39 crore along with an interest of 12%. The director has claimed that the production house has stalled her payment since February this year, nearly a month after the film released. Sudha has also sought an interim direction from the Court to restrain Dawn Pictures from releasing Paraskathi through any OTT platforms, media service, satellite channel, digital/streaming platform, cable network, or any other media, electronic or otherwise till the disposal of the main plea.
Sudha’s counsel informed the court that a total of ₹17.60 crore was to be paid to Sudha as consideration, of which only ₹9.31 was paid and the remaining ₹8.39 remains unpaid. The complainant claimed that Dawn Pictures has stated “financial difficulties” as the reason behind non-payment of the dues. It was stated in court that Parasakthi did business of over ₹100 crore at the box office and despite claiming financial issues, Dawn Pictures is already planning to release their next movie Idhayam Murali, also featuring Fahadh Faasil, set to hit the big screens on July 10. Since the plea also seeks to stall the release of Idhayam Murali till Sudha’s unpaid amount is cleared, the fate of the movie also hangs in the balance.
As the matter came up for hearing on June 30, Justice K Kumaresh Babu directed the respondent Dawn Pictures to not release the movie on satellite till July 8. The matter will come up for hearing on July 8. Meanwhile, the uncensored version of Parasakthi is streaming on ZEE5 in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada with English subtitles.
