E-Paper
Chennai-based producers cheat Mumbai-based content aggregator of ₹1.54 crore
Content aggregator and licenser Sanjay Bachani has registered a cheating complaint against Rajarajan SN and Vishnunath Murali, the Chennai-based producers of the Tamil film ‘1945’. Bachani said the rights for the film were sold to him by the duo for ₹1.54 crore but he later came to know that they did not hold the authority to sell the rights
Mumbai: Content aggregator and licenser Sanjay Bachani has registered a cheating complaint against Rajarajan SN and Vishnunath Murali, the Chennai-based producers of the Tamil film ‘1945’. Bachani said the rights for the film were sold to him by the duo for ₹1.54 crore but he later came to know that they did not hold the authority to sell the rights.
The cheating case was registered with the Khar police on March 13. The police were told that Rajarajan, who owns K Productions and primarily produces Tamil films, approached Bachani in 2019 to talk about his film 1945, starring Rana Daggubati. Sending the censor certificate of the film and saying it was ready for release, the producers said they were interested in selling the rights of the movie to a digital platform after it exited the theatres.
“On watching the final cut of the movie, I felt it would be a good contender to pitch to the OTT platforms,” the complainant said in his statement to the police. “The price was fixed at US $ 1,97,355 and the two producers wanted an outright payment.” The deal was finalised and the money exchanged hands in October 2019.
The movie was supposed to be released in the theatres in January 2020 but the release got delayed for some reasons, the complainant said. After the sale went through, he said, he began hearing all kinds of negative stories about the two producers, one of them being that they owed a production house he was working with crores of rupees. “The other production house had signed a multiple film deal with K Productions, which included the rights for 1945 as well. Their deal had been struck before the deal with me, which meant that this production house had the rights to the movie and the rights could not have been sold without its permission,” the complainant further said.
After being confronted about this, the two accused went incommunicado. This is what prompted Sanjay to approach the police in the matter.
When the ‘first look’ announcement of the film was made, lead actor Rana Daggubatti called it an “incomplete film” and said on social media that the producers had not paid his dues for the film. “The producer defaulted on monies and on completion. This is his idea of raising money in the markets by cheating more people. Pls don’t entertain this,” the actor had commented under the announcement post. Rajarajan replied to the comment, saying it was the director’s prerogative to release the movie whenever he wanted but failed to clarify the other objections raised by Daggubati.
The Khar police said they were investigating the matter after booking the two accused under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust in respect of property) and 420 (fraud) of the Indian Penal Code. “We have sought the relevant documents from their office and are awaiting them,” said an official.
