Chennai, The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal filed by film-maker Gautham Vasudev Menon and his production house Photon Factory, affirming a prior order directing them to pay ₹4.25 crore along with 12 per cent annual interest to R.S. Infotainment.
The ruling marks the culmination of a long-standing dispute between the two production entities over an uncompleted film project dating back to 2008.
A Division Bench comprising Justices P. Velmurugan and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi declined to interfere with the April 5, 2022 judgment delivered by Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy.
The Bench upheld the single judge’s findings that Menon and his firm were liable to repay the amount received from R.S. Infotainment, led by producer S. Elred Kumar, for a film project that never materialised.
The dispute originated from an agreement signed on November 27, 2008, under which R.S. Infotainment agreed to fund a Tamil film, referred to as ‘production no. 6,’ with a budget of ₹13.5 crore.
The agreement stipulated that the film’s production would begin in December 2008 and be completed by April 2009. It also included a clause requiring repayment with 24 per cent interest if the project was not completed within the agreed timeline.
R.S. Infotainment paid ₹4.25 crore in phases to Photon Factory. However, the project failed to take off. Although additional time was granted in February 2010, no progress was made, prompting the production house to file a civil suit in 2013 seeking recovery of the amount.
In their defence, Menon and Photon Factory argued that R.S. Infotainment had not fulfilled its financial commitments under the agreement. They also claimed that the project eventually evolved into the 2012 film ‘Neethaane En Ponvasantham’, thereby fulfilling their obligations.
Rejecting this argument, the court held that ‘Neethaane En Ponvasantham’ was produced under a separate agreement signed in July 2011 and was unrelated to the original 2008 contract.
The court further noted the absence of evidence linking the ₹4.25 crore advance to the production of the released film.
Consequently, the High Court upheld the directive requiring repayment of ₹4.25 crore with 12 per cent interest from May 2010, along with litigation costs of ₹12 lakh, bringing closure to the protracted legal battle.
