KriArj Entertainment's legal woes continue as Bombay HC orders Prernaa Arora's company to pay dues

After engaging in a legal battle with Abhishek Kapoor for Kedarnath, and with John Abraham (and his JA Entertainment) for Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, Prernaa Arora’s and Arjun N Kapoor’s KriArj Entertainment finds itself in tricky waters again. _Read: Kedarnath, Parmanu: A timeline of KriArj Entertainment's legal tussle with Abhishek Kapoor, John Abraham_ [caption id=“attachment_4463931” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Prernaa Arora. Image from Twitter/@koimoi[/caption] According to a report by DNA, the production company was sued by Gothic Entertainment for non-payment of dues over films like Parmanu and Padman under section 9. On 23 May, the case was up for a hearing in front of Justice SJ Kathawalla of the Bombay High Court. It is reported that Gothic Entertainment was not part of the hearing that happened on 11 May where legal matters between KriArj and JA Entertainment were taken into consideration. According to the report, Prernaa’s company owes around Rs 18.32 crore to Gothic Entertainment. Also, KriArj’s cheques — amounting to Rs 17.15 crore — to Gothic have bounced, thus worsening the situation even more. Gothic has sued KriArj under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and also filed complaints with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Prernaa’s company, adds the DNA report. At the hearing, on 23 May, Justice Kathawalla ordered KriArj to deposit Rs 5 crore of the Rs 18.32 that it owes to Gothic within three weeks. SPE (Sony Pictures Entertainment) Films India is required to deposit the money owed to KriArj for Padman. But, SPE, which is said to have already deposited Rs 5.45 cr, is set to file an affidavit, ‘stating the deposits in lieu of Padman,’ according to the DNA report With all these legal matters, KriArj (which emerged as a strong production house with films like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Pari) has had to withdraw from many promising projects like Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Fanne Khan.