Madras High Court clears decks for release of Udhayandhi Stalin-starrer Maamannan on June 29

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu refused to grant an interim injunction restraining the release of the movie, as the film producer Rama Saravanan of OST Films, who had filed a civil suit, had impleaded the wrong entity as a respondent

A stills from the Tamil film Maamannan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Madras High Court on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 cleared the decks for the release of Udhayanidhi Stalin and Vadivelu-starrer Maamannan on Thursday, June 29. It refused to issue an interim injunction restraining the release of the movie, and dismissed an application in this regard by the producer of another movie titled Angel.

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu agreed with Senior Counsel N.R. Elango that the applicant had wrongly impleaded Red Giant Movies, a partnership firm, as a respondent to the case as the producer of Maamannan was actually Red Giant Movies Private Limited which was a completely different entity.

The judge held that the interim injunction could not be granted due to non-joinder of proper parties. He, however, clarified that separate orders would be passed by the evening of June 28, 2023, on another application seeking a direction to Mr. Udhayanidhi to offer a call sheet and cooperate in the completing of the movie Angel.

The two applications had been filed by Rama Saravanan of OST Films that had produced Angel. According to the applicant, he had entered into an oral agreement with Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin in 2018 for acting in his movie and paid an advance of ₹30 lakh out of his total remuneration of ₹1.25 crore.

Though the movie was shot in different locations in Chennai and in some foreign locations in Fiji too, it could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and thereafter, the assumption of office as Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development by Mr. Udhayanidhi, the applicant told the court.

Since the Minister had announced that Maamannan would be his last movie and he would not act in any movies henceforth, the applicant had rushed to the court complaining that 80% of Angel was over and that he required the cooperation of Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin to complete the rest.

Claiming that he had already spent ₹13 crore on producing Angel, the applicant said, he would suffer a loss of ₹25 crore if the movie does not see the light of the day.