Actor Vishal Krishna Reddy has filed an original side appeal before a Division Bench of the Madras High Court challenging a single judge’s September 12, 2023 order directing Stone Bench Films, producers of his upcoming movie Rathnam, to deposit his balance remuneration of ₹2.6 crore to the credit of a civil suit filed against him by Lyca Productions.
The appeal has been listed before the Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel on Monday, March 25, 2024. It has been filed against the order passed by Justice P.T. Asha who had found that Stone Bench Films had engaged the actor for a total remuneration of ₹8 crore for Rathnam, written and directed by Hari, but had already paid ₹5.4 crore to him.
The order was passed following a garnishee application filed by Lyca Productions which had preferred a civil suit in 2021 seeking a direction to the actor to pay ₹30.05 crore to it, along with interest at the rate of 30% per annum, for the principal loan amount of ₹21.29 crore that the production house had extended to him in 2019 to repay the debts to film financier G. Anbuchezhiyan.
