Rajnikanth served Madras HC notice for defaulting payment to Lingaa distributor

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday issued notice to superstar Rajnikanth on a petition seeking to restrain release of his upcoming film Kabali until the actor paid Rs 89 lakh, promised as compensation, to distributor of his previous outing Lingaa, which was released in 2014. [caption id=“attachment_2529824” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rajnikanth. PTI[/caption] Justice M M Sundresh before whom the petition by Sukra Films, a film distribution firm came up, issued notice to Tamil Film Producers Council, Rajnikanth and other respondents and adjourned the matter for Thursday. Petitioner R Mahaprabhu of Sukra films submitted that Rajni-starrer Lingaa had bombed at the box office despite assurances given by its producer Rockline Venkatesh, the director 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. Of this amount, Rs 1.70 crore was paid to Coimbatore, Erode, Nilgiri, Tiruppur (CENT) Theatre Owners Association. The balance of Rs 89 lakh was yet to be settled, he alleged. He also alleged that the Tamil Nadu Producer’s Council had failed to settle the issue. The petitioner sought a direction from the court to restrain release Kabali till the amount was settled.