Actor D. Sivakarthikeyan has moved Madras High Court accusing producer K.E. Gnanavelraja of Studio Green Films of not having paid his remuneration of ₹15 crore in full for having acted in the movie Mr. Local in 2018-19 and also not remitting Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) to the Income Tax Department.
The actor has urged the court to restrain the producer from making any further investments in the latter’s ongoing projects titled Rebel, Chiyan 61 and Pathu Thala and also injunct him from transferring any rights with respect to the three movies either to film distributors for theatrical release or to Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms.
Justice M. Sundar has listed the case for hearing on Thursday. According to the actor, he had entered into an agreement with the producer on July 6, 2018, for playing the lead role in Mr. Local. His remuneration was fixed to be ₹15 crore to be paid in different tranches with the last of ₹1 crore to be paid before the release of the movie.
Though the movie got released on May 17, 2019, the producer had paid only ₹11 crore by then and the balance ₹4 crore remained unpaid. The balance payments did not come by despite repeated reminders. Suddenly, the actor was also slapped with a notice by the Income Tax Department on February 1 this year.
The notice was issued since the producer had failed to remit TDS for the payment of ₹11 crore. Though the actor filed a separate writ petition in the High Court challenging the notice, ₹91 lakh was deducted from his account for the assessment years 2019-20 and 2020-21 forcing him to file the present case.
