Warned of “contempt of court” if it bounces in the legal tussle with Zee over his directorial debut
Sunil Baghel (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 24, 2019)

The Bombay High Court on Friday warned actor-politician Prakash Raj of contempt of court with respect to his directorial debut, the yet-to-be-released Nana Patekar, Tapsee Pannu and Ali Fazal starrer Tadka. During the hearing, Justice K R Shriram stated that if his Rs 2 crore cheque bounces, Raj will be held accountable for “aggravated contempt of court” since he has already been made aware of his action. The “action” referred to non-payment of Rs 5.88 crore, with added taxes, to Essel Vision—a Zee Group company.

Raj had given an undertaking to the court in April this year that he will pay the entire amount by July 15. He was responding to a suit filed by Essel against the production house Movie Makers and its officials, Sameer Dixit, Jatish Verma, Swiss Entertainment Pvt Ltd. Akshay Communications Pvt. Ltd. and Movie Makers is owned and managed by Dixit and Verma. The latter is Raj’s brother-in-law.

Advocate Hiren Kamod claimed that Movie Makers had signed a MoU with Essel in March 2016, following which Rs 4.25 crore was paid for the film, half the production budget. Essel was supposed to own 60 per cent of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the film and exploit it alone. Essel approached the court citing breach of the MoU.

During one of the hearings in April, Raj agreed to return the amount, with interest and any other taxes applicable additionally, by July 15. He also agreed to deposit documents of two of his personal properties with his lawyer Manish Vig, in case he could not repay the amount within the stipulated period.

Essel moved court last month, saying that since Raj had defaulted on paying the money, a court receiver should be appointed to sell the properties and recover the money. Raj had sought more time and finally arrived on Friday with a Rs 2 crore cheque. Essel has now agreed to give him time till February for the balance amount. However, a hearing is scheduled for on August 30 to ascertain that the cheque has been cleared.