Actor presents for recovery of loan of ₹21.29 crore along with interest in 2019 during the hearing of a civil suit filed by Lyca Productions
Actor presents for recovery of loan of ₹21.29 crore along with interest in 2019 during the hearing of a civil suit filed by Lyca Productions
Actor Vishal Krishna Reddy on Friday told the Madras High Court that he has absolutely no assets to disclose in court and has suffered huge losses in the film industry. It was submitted during the hearing of a civil suit filed against him by Lyca Productions, recovering a 2019 loan of ₹ 21.29 crore along with interest.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamurthy, by the production firm in his counsel V. The actor was summoned after an application through Raghavchari to punish him for not complying with the interim order passed by the court on March 8 to deposit ₹15 crore in credits. Till the disposal of the civil suit.
After receiving the excuse of personal appearance twice on the grounds of being injured during the shoot of a film, the actor appeared on Friday. When the judge asked him why he did not comply with the March 8 order, he replied that that order was appealed against and hence he had not deposited the fixed deposit for ₹15 crore.
The judge said that he had given sufficient time to pursue the appeal and stay the order. However, when no such stay was granted, the actor will have to deposit the money at the earliest, he said. The actor claimed that he had no money to deposit and is now acting in films without any remuneration.
He also said that he had lost ₹18 crore in just one day due to non-sale of Over the Top (OTT) platform rights for one of his films. Stating that he sold the rights of the latter film for Rs 17 crore, he said that the money was used to settle the loss caused by the failure to sell the rights of the earlier film.
The actor also claimed that Lyca owed Rs 7 crore towards Goods and Services Tax (GST) and that his GST registration number was blocked due to non-payment of such. Stating that registration was extremely necessary for his film business to continue as he had to sell the rights to his films, he said that the production firm had ruined his career.
Taking strong objection to such a statement, Mr. Raghavchari said that his client had actually taken the loan amount given to Ambuchezhiyan of Gopuram Films to save the actor’s career. “He is saying that we ruined his career but the truth is that we saved his career and he is now refusing to discharge his obligations,” the lawyer replied.
When the judge wanted to know whether Mr. Vishal was trying to convey to the court that he had ended his acting career forever and had no means of securing a claim to the firm’s production, the actor replied. replied in the negative and said that he was definitely continuing to act in films and was trying to come out of the financial crisis.
In such a case, it was up to the actor to come up with a viable plan to secure the claim amount in a civil suit, the judge said and directed the actor to file an affidavit by September 9, showing the property owned by him. And plan to give some guarantee for a claim. He clarified that if the actor does not have any assets, then such a statement should be made through an affidavit.