Bombay HC halts release of Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Officer’, over payment woes

YT Entertainment has complained about Varma reneging from written and oral promises made to them of making payment

Spelling trouble for film director Ram Gopal Varma, the Bombay high court last week stayed the release of his upcoming Telugu action sequel “Officer” starring Nagarjuna Akkineni and Myra Sarin in lead roles. The film has been scheduled to be released on May 25.

Acting on a petition filed by YT Entertainment Limited, Justice SJ Kathawalla has restrained Varma from selling, transferring, and assigning any rights of the film and releasing the film or parting with its negatives or digital prints.

YT Entertainment has complained about “the consistent conduct of the respondent (Varma) in reneging from written and oral promises made to the petitioners (YT Entertainment) of making payment.”

It has sought protective reliefs apprehending that Varma will not make payment of the balance amount of ₹1.06 crore that he had promised to pay before the release of the film, “Officer”.

On May 4, when the petition came up for hearing for the first time, an advocate representing Varma told the court that the film director-producer will remain present in the court on May 7. Accordingly, the matter was simply adjourned to May 7.

On May 7, Sudheer Chandra Padiri, a co-producer of “Officer”, appeared in the court, instead of Varma.

Padiri informed the court that a consent minutes of order had been prepared and Varma was willing to pay the sum of ₹1.06 crore to YT Entertainment on or before May 18, 2018, or before the release of the film, whichever is earlier, through an RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement).

Justice Kathawalla, however, insisted that Varma should remain present in the court and sign the consent order and accordingly, the matter was posted for further hearing at 5pm on the same day.

Varma, however, failed to turn up, prompting the court to pass the restraining order.