Chennai: The Madras High Court today issued notice to actor-politician Kamal Haasan seeking his reply on a petition filed by production firm Pyramid Saimira seeking to stop release of ‘Vishwaroopam’ 2.
Pyramid Saimira, represented by its director P S Swaminathan, approached the Madras High Court to restrain the release of ‘Vishwaroopam’ 2, which is slated to hit the screens 10 August.
The production company claimed that the actor owed it Rs 7.75 crore and the money could not be collected from him if the movie was allowed to be released.
According to an affidavit filed by the production house, it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Rajkamal Films International, in which the actor is a partner, in 2008 for jointly producing a movie titled ‘Marmayogi’.
Kamal had reportedly agreed to play the lead, besides writing the story, screenplay and dialogues.
He also supposedly undertook to book leading actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Bipasha Basu and Priyanka Chopra for the Hindi version of the movie and to engage popular technicians.
In pursuance of the MoU, Pyramid Saimira paid Rs 6.9 crore towards production costs and Rs 4 crore towards remuneration for Kamal.
Accusing the actor of having diverted the money for ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’, the company filed a civil suit in 2011 for recovery of production costs.
When the petition came up for hearing today, Justice C V Karthikeyan issued notice eseeking reply from Kamal and adjourned the case to Monday.