CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed actor and film producer Vishal Krishna Reddy, the sole proprietor of Vishal Film Factory to deposit Rs 15 crore in a nationalised bank to the credit of a civil suit filed by Lyca Productions Private Limited in T Nagar, against him.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy gave the direction while disposing of the original applications from Lyca Productions, recently.
Vishal shall establish an interest bearing fixed deposit account in a nationalised bank in the name of the Registrar-General of the High Court for Rs 15 crore to the credit of the suit.
Such an FD, to be opened in three weeks, shall be for an initial period of one year and should be renewed until the disposal of the suit.
Upon establishing the FD, the original receipt shall be deposited with the Registrar-General and a copy thereof shall be provided to Lyca Productions.
The FD shall be subject to the outcome of the suit.
Lyca is permitted to produce the additional documents subject to objections by Vishal, including with regard to relevance and proof.
Vishal shall file the statement of admission/denial in respect of the additional documents within two weeks, the judge said and posted the matter for further hearing on March 22.
The principal basis on which the suit is founded, as per Lyca Productions, is a loan agreement dated September 21, 2019 between it and the actor.
The agreement recorded that the loan had been availed of by Vishal from Gopuram Films/Anbu Chezhian, who is referred to as the original lender under the agreement.
As per the agreement, Lyca had taken over the loan availed of by Vishal from Gopuram Films.
Consequently, the agreement recorded that Vishal agrees to repay Rs 21.29 crore in the manner specified in clause 5 thereof.
By way of security, the agreement provides for a first lien to the applicant on all rights, titles and interest in all future film projects of Vishal until the loan is fully discharged.
As Vishal did not honour the agreement, Lyca moved the High Court with the civil suit to recover the proceeds from the screening of Tamil feature film ‘Veeramae Vaagai Soodum’, starring the actor in the lead role.
It also filed applications with interim prayers.
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