The Madras high court on 2nd July rejected a plea from Lyca Productions to restrain Shankar from making any other film without completing the banner’s Indian 2. The HC also refused to direct Shankar to furnish a security of Rs. 170.23 crore which Lyca claimed was the cost of Indian 2 so far, if he wanted to make another film simultaneously.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar agreed with senior counsel P.S. Raman, representing Shankar, that Lyca Productions had not made out a prima facie case to grant an injunction, restraining him from working on other films till Indian 2 was completed. However, the court added that Lyca could file a civil suit for damages against Shankar if it could prove that he was the reason for the delay in completing Indian 2, he added.
Earlier, it was brought to the notice of the court that the budget of Indian 2 was Rs. 270 crore. It was brought down to Rs. 250 crore at the request of the producer, and further to Rs. 236 crore, of which Rs. 36 crore was supposed to be the director’s remuneration. Apart from this, the director was also entitled to one-third of the net profit to be made by the film after its release. Claiming that it had already paid over Rs. 14 crore to the director, Lyca insisted that he must not work on any other film without completing Indian 2.
However, Justice Kumar pointed out that the director, being a creative person, would not be able to complete Indian 2 unless the production firm fulfilled all its obligations under a written agreement signed by them in 2019. He stated that several communications produced before the court showed that the production firm had not paid the remuneration to co-actors, stunt artistes and others involved in the film. Justice Kumar also observed that Lyca did not take any steps to resolve the dispute with the director through arbitration and that only after such lapse was highlighted by the court was Justice R. Banumathi, former Supreme Court judge, appointed as an arbitrator.
The HC referred to the efforts taken by Lyca to obtain an injunction from a division bench of the high court and also a suit filed by it before a city civil court in Hyderabad to restrain Shankar from making a film with Telugu film actor Ram Charan, and said, such conduct of forum shopping could not be ignored.