TAG Entertainment Private Limited Represented by its Managing Director Mr.T.G.Venkatesh, [12/23, 10:44] Sekarreporter 1: [12/23, 10:41] Tag Cinema Advt: Ayalaan movie release stayed [12/23, 10:42] Tag Cinema Advt: Justice Anand Venkatesh [12/23, 10:50] Tag Cinema Advt: Advocate B.Rajapandian counsel on record for TAG ENTERTAINMENT PVT LTD

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
(Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction)

O.A.No. in of 2021
C.S.No. 719

TAG Entertainment Private Limited
Represented by its Managing Director
Mr.T.G.Venkatesh,
No.1, 2nd Lane, B.N.Road,
T.Nagar,
Chennai 600017 of 2019
…. Applicant/Plaintiff

Vs

(1) Mr.R.D.Raja,
Managing Director
24AM Studios Private Limited
Old No.17, New No.35,
The South Gate, KasturiRangan Road, Alwarpet,
Chennai 600018.

(2) Mr.Prabhu
Director
24AM Studios Private Limited
Old No.17, New No.35,
The South Gate, Kasturi Rangan Road,
Alwarpet,
Chennai 600018

(3) 24AM Studios Private Limited
Old No.17, New No.35,
The South Gate, Kasturi Rangan Road, Alwarpet,
Chennai 600018.

(4) Mr.Sivakarthikeyan Doss
Actor
C/o.KJR Studios Private Limited
Flat No.5, 4th Street, Rapid Skyune,
No.8/14, Sri Krishnapuram,
Royapettah,
Chennai 600014

(5) Mr.Kotapadi Jayaram Rajesh Director
KJR Studios Private Limited
Flat No.5, 4th Street, Rapid Skyune,
No.8/14, Sri Krishnapuram,
Royapettah,
Chennai 600014

(6) Mrs.Dhivya
Director
KJR Studios Private Limited
Flat No.5, 4th Street, Rapid Skyune,
No.8/14, Sri Krishnapuram,
Royapettah,
Chennai 600014

(7) KJR Studios Private Limited
Flat No.5, 4th Street, Rapid Skyune,
No.8/14, Sri Krishnapuram,
Royapettah,
Chennai 600014

(8) Mr.P.S.Mithran
Movie Director,
KJR Studios Private Limited
Flat No.5, 4th Street, Rapid Skyune,
No.8/14, Sri Krishnapuram,
Royapettah,
Chennai 600014

(9) The President
Tamilnadu Theater and Multiplex Owners Association,
Door no.9A/3,
Radhakrishnan Street,
T.Nagar,
Chennai – 600017 …. Respondents/Defendants
AFFIDAVIT OF THE APPLICANT

I, T.G.Venkatesh, son of Mr.Govindaswamy, aged about 60 years having office at No.1, 2nd Lane, B.N.Road, T.Nagar, Chennai 600017 do hereby solemnly affirm and sincerely state as follows:

1. I am the Managing Director in the Applicant company and as such I am well acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case. I state that I am duly authorized to swear this affidavit on behalf of my company.

2. I state that the Applicant had filed the present summary suit under order 37 Rule 1 and 2 of CPC for the following remedies:
(a) directing the 1st to 3rd Defendants to immediately pay the total outstanding amount of Rs.6,92,50,000/- (Rupees Six Crores Ninety Two Lakhs Fifty Thousands only) along with future interest @ 2.85% per month on the principal amount of Rs.5,00,00,000/- (Rupees Five
Crores only) from the date of due to till date of realization;
(b) directing the 1st to 3rd Defendants to pay the costs of the Suit and
(c) Pass such other reliefs as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case and this render justice.

3. I state that the Applicant had also filed Applications for Temporary Injunction restraining the release of the Tamil Movie “SK14” (OA.1138/2019) and by another Application for restraining the release and monetization of Tamil Movie “HERO” (OA.1139/2019).

4. It is humbly submitted that this Hon’ble Court had passed an interim order on the aforesaid Applications on 19-12-2019 wherein the 7th Respondent KJR Studios Private Limited were directed to deposit collection from theaters from Chennai and Chengalpet to the credit of
this Court until further orders. In order to ensure that the orders of this Court is obeyed the court appointed Mr.V.Srikanth, Advocate as an Advocate Commissioner and fixed a sum of Rs.50,000/- as initial remuneration.

5. It is humbly submitted that the Respondents 5 to 7 aggrieved by the said order had preferred an appeal in OSA.344/2019 the very next day and managed to get stay of the operation of the orders passed by this court vide order dated 20-12-2019 in CMP.No.27832/2019. The Respondents then proceeded with the release of the movie and exploited all the proceeds of the movie in its entirety.

6. It is humbly submitted that this Applicant having left with no other options, preferred an appeal before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in SLP.3149/2020 against the stay order issued by the division bench of this Hon’ble Court. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on 07-022020 upon hearing the Applicant herein stayed the operation of the orders passed by the Division Bench in OSA.344/2019 and paved way for the operation of the orders passed by this Hon’ble Court on 19-122019. The Applicant had immediately submitted copies of entire case papers and paid the remuneration of Rs.50,000/- to the Advocate Commissioner Mr.V.Srikanth as directed by this Hon’ble Court. Subsequently, the copy of the SLP order had also been submitted before the Division Bench separately in its hearing of the OSA.344/2019 and the Division Bench had also deferred all further hearings in OSA.344/2019.

7. I hereby humbly submit though the order passed by this Hon’ble Court on 19-12-2019 had already become very much enforceable by virtue of
the orders passed in SLP.3149/2020 and the Advocate Commissioner is yet to file his report on the collections done in the movie “HERO” and the 7th Respondent is yet to make any deposits from the proceeds of the movie that was completely exploited by them in 2019. A memo has already been filed by this Applicant confirming these facts.

8. I hereby humbly submit that subsequent to all these developments, the 5th Respondent, the owner of the 7th Respondent company had approached the Applicant and communicated his intent of settling the litigations by paying the outstanding payable as claimed in the ongoing case CS.719/2019 by using the proceeds of their next Tamil movie release “DOCTOR” produced by the Respondents.

9. It is humbly submitted that though these 5th to 7th Respondents were vehemently denying and refusing to accept the liabilities in all the connected Applications in this entire case, had presented the proposal of paying Rs.2,50,00,000/- (Rupees Two Crores Fifty Lakhs only) to the Applicant before the release of their movie “DOCTOR” and then pay the balance outstanding subsequent to the release. The 5th Respondent had also managed to release the movie in theaters on 09-10-2021 and it would be more pertinent to highlight here that this Tamil movie “DOCTOR” was released worldwide along with its Telugu dubbed version titled “Varun Doctor” and the total collections have crossed more than Rs.100 Crores as confirmed by none other than the 7th Respondent themselves in their social media announcements and by all other media reports.

10. It is furthermore submitted that though all the Respondents had relished themselves with huge returns on their investments, they deliberately failed to comply with the payment promise even after several reminders from the Applicant. Besides, the 5th Respondent had again approached the Applicant with a strange proposal of seeking Rs.45 Crores from the Applicant as against conveying the beneficiary rights of ‘DOCTOR’ movie in the deal which had been reportedly finalized between 7th Respondent and Sun TV Network Limited for the release of the movie in the online OTT platform of Sun TV Network Limited. Since the Applicant had his own apprehensions about this new proposal, it was requested that the 5th Respondent shall settle at least the first instalment of Rs.2.5 Crores payment as promised before finalizing anything with Sun Tv Network Limited. However, the 5th Respondent instead of paying the Applicant, had proceeded ahead with the Sun TV Network Limited deal without any further information to the Applicant. Having felt misled again by the 5th Respondent and with a view to seek final clarity on the settlement proposal of the 5th Respondent, the Applicant had sent a Legal Notice on 28-10-2021 to the 5th, 7th Respondent and Sun Tv Network asking them to refrain from finalizing any deal before settling the dues payable to the
Applicant. This notice was duly received by all the recipients on 29-102021.

11. I hereby humbly submit that the 5th Respondent had then immediately issued 5 cheques to the Applicant on the same day in the following manner from the Current Account bearing number 5555599999 belonging to the 7th Respondent, KJR Studios:

Cheque No Amount Bank and Branch
002461 Rs.50,00,000/-
002462 Rs.50,00,000/- Kotak Mahindra Bank,
Teynampet Branch
002463 Rs.50,00,000/-
002464 Rs.50,00,000/-
002465 Rs.50,00,000/-

12. I hereby humbly submit that the Applicant was completely taken aback by the manner in which all these cheques were handed over to them. The 5th Respondent had requested the Applicant to send a messenger to collect the cheques and while handing over those cheques, the 5th Respondent had executed an unilaterally prepared undertaking letter and obtained acknowledgment from the office assistant of the Applicant. It was really shocking that though the 5th Respondent had been in constant interaction with the Applicant through phone calls and WhatsApp messages for his entire settlement proposal, the 5th Respondent did not even choose to share any prior information regarding his requirement for such a written arrangement. The 5th Respondent did not even bother to share the draft of that letter thereby directly denying any justifiable opportunity for the Applicant to offer his views. This does confirm the malafide intention of the 5th Respondent behind issuing such cheques through some covering letter aptly worded to suit their requirements. It is clearly evident through interactions between the Applicant and the 5th Respondent that this covering letter was the last-minute afterthought of the 5th Respondent perfectly enacted to hoodwink everyone as if a mutually accepted settlement has been reached.

13. It is further submitted that the Applicant had immediately and strongly registered his protest on the very same day for such an unfair action on the part of the 5th Respondent. Thus, it is clear that the undertaking
letter dated 29-10-2021 can never be treated anything more than a mere voluntary admittance of liability by the 5th & 7th Respondents and not as any mutually acceptable settlement arrangement between the parties herein since neither it was approved nor signed by the Applicant, being the necessary party.

14. I hereby humbly submit that the 5th Respondent subsequently paid an amount of Rs.50 Lakhs through RTGS on 11-11-2021 to the Applicant as if confirming that the process of settlement has been initiated. It is hereby confirmed by the Applicant that subsequent to this transfer and leaving a gap of almost a fortnight, the first cheque bearing number 002461 was presented for encashment only on 23-11-2021 but the same was unexpectedly dishonoured by the banker of the 7th Respondent due to insufficient funds on 25-11-2021.

15. It is further submitted that the malevolence of the 5th Respondent could be clearly evidenced by the fact that even in the cheque dishonour episode their banker had initially confirmed that the cheque was on hold due to “INSUFFICIENT FUNDS IN ACCOUNT” and then subsequently after discussing with the 5th Respondent the same banker had reported the reason for cheque return as “DRAWERS SIGNATURE DIFFERS”. The interactions between the 5th Respondent and their banker also does confirm the real malafide intentions and manipulating capabilities of the 5th Respondent. The Applicant had separately sent a Legal Notice for initiating appropriate criminal actions against these 5th and 7th Respondents.

16. It is further stated that this Applicant has been unquestionably deceived yet again by the Respondents by offering some unrealizable cheques with the sole intention of clearing the way to achieve their objectives of releasing all their movies, including but not limited to the upcoming “AYALAAN”, without any form of legal tussles at the same time denying all the justifiable payments to this Applicant. Thus, the Applicant had to send another notice of demand on 02-12-2021 calling on the 5th & 7th Respondents to pay the entire outstanding amount immediately but the Respondents 5th, 7th and 3rd Respondents though received the notices have not offered any kind of reply to the Applicant till today.

17. It is humbly submitted that the 5th Respondent had used this illogical undertaking letter dated 29-10-2021 merely to deceive everybody including Sun Tv Network Limited and achieved the release of the movie ‘DOCTOR’ in their OTT platform. Now the same Respondents are paving the way for releasing their movie “AYALAAN” which is the project of the 3rd Respondent previously known as “SK14” as clearly stated in OA.1138/2019 filed by this Applicant earlier. The 3rd Respondent had made a public announcement in the social media Twitter on 03-022020 using their Twitter handle @24AMSTUDIOS and the same is reproduced here:
“We are super excited to share, #SK14 starring our very own @siva_Karthikeyan, directed by @Ravikumar_Dir has been titled #Ayalaan ….”
It is further confirmed that this Tamil movie may be released by the Respondents any time and the date of release is still being finalized by them and there has been no official confirmation as to the release of this movie yet.

18. It is further submitted that the 5th to 7th Respondents have managed to mislead this Hon’ble Court and achieve release of the movie “HERO” in 2019 itself and exploited the proceeds completely without even bothering to pay any amount towards the pending dues even after there is clear admittance of liability by the 1st to 3rd Respondents and a court order to deposit the proceeds. The 5th to 7th Respondents have been clearly denying their involvement in this issue all along but now the same 5th to 7th Respondents have DIRECTLY ADMITTED THE LIABILITY to pay the outstanding dues payable to this Applicant through several WhatsApp messages sent to the Applicant and even in their own undertaking letter dated 29-10-2021 with the subject line as ‘Sub: Undertaking letter to pay a sum of INR 5,00,00,000/- (Indian Five Crores only) towards the loan payable by 24 AM Studios Private
Limited-reg.,”. This undertaking letter now undeniably confirms to this Hon’ble Court that ALL the Respondents have been dishonestly misleading this entire case for the past TWO YEARS and managed to shrug off all their liabilities till this day thereby severely punishing this Applicant just for genuinely lending them the necessary financial assistance when there was a need for them. This unpardonable mischievousness of the Respondents in trying to make a mockery of the judiciary absolutely deserves nothing less than a very severe condemnation by this Hon’ble Court alongside imposing heavy exemplary costs.

19. It is also confirmed in the undertaking letter that the 5th & 7th Respondents shall pay the amount of Rs.5,00,00,000/- during release of the movie “AYALAAN”. However, the 5th & 7th Respondent have now made it very evidently clear, through their acts of dishonouring the cheques and still courageously getting ahead with finalizing the release
of the movie “SK14” named as “AYALAAN”, that there will not be any settlement of dues unless this Hon’ble Court reprimands the merciless arrogance of the Respondents by preventing them from releasing any movie whatsoever including but not limited to the movie “AYALAAN” unless the entire dues of the Applicant is paid forthwith along with future interest till date of realization.

20. I humbly submit that if this situation is allowed to prevail then all the Respondents will stand to gain several crores of rupees as profits from the irreparable losses being caused to this Applicant and hence the Applicant has approached this Hon’ble Court seeking an order of injunction not to release any movie including the movie titled “AYALAAN” from the 1st to 7th Respondents till the total suit amount is paid to the Applicant along with all applicable interests and costs.

21. I submit that the Applicant herein has made out more than a prima facie case in hand and the balance of convenience is completely in favor of the Applicant. The Applicant had served notices and issued sufficient time and opportunity to the Respondents before filing this Application. If the Hon’ble Court does not grant an interim order of injunction now based on the facts stated herein and the direct admission of liability by the Respondents, the Applicant will be put to seriously irreversible hardships and losses.

22. Therefore it is hereby humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to pass an order of Ad-interim Injunction restraining the 1st to 7th Respondents, their servants, agents or anybody claiming through or under them from in any manner whatsoever either producing, releasing, distributing, exhibiting or exploiting any movie henceforth including but not limited to releasing the Tamil movie “AYALAAN” anywhere in Tamilnadu or all over India either by taking prints or through any distribution companies or delivering the prints or through OTT/satellite rights or in any form of the said Tamil movie to anyone for release until the entire suit amount along with future interest and exemplary costs are paid to the Plaintiff and thus render justice.

Solemnly affirmed at Chennai
On this the day of December 2021 BEFORE ME
and signed his name in my presence

Advocate, Chennai