Rajinikanth’s Producer Going To Jail Or Pay Fine?

Generally, producers who work with superstars or financially sound, and they do not have too much of an issue in financial matters. But that is not the case with the producer of superstar Rajinikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan movie. In a long-running legal dispute over the financing of the 2014 Tamil film Kochadaiiyaan, the Madras High Court has ordered producer J. Murali Manohar to pay ₹2.52 crore within four weeks to AdBureau Advertising over a bounced cheque in a loan repayment case.

Manohar’s company, Media One Global Entertainment, had taken a ₹10 crore loan from AdBureau for post-production work on the Rajinikanth starrer. When Manohar issued a ₹5 crore cheque toward repayment, it was dishonoured due to a stop-payment instruction, leading to criminal proceedings under the Negotiable Instruments Act.

The trial court convicted Manohar, sentencing him to six months’ simple imprisonment and ordering compensation, and the conviction was upheld on appeal. The High Court has now directed him to deposit ₹2.52 crore as part of the outstanding liability if he fails to make the payment within the stipulated time, his jail sentence is likely to be enforced.

The dispute reflects the serious legal consequences of dishonoured cheques and financial defaults in commercial dealings related to film financing. It has to be what kind of reaction that would be registered from the producer of the Rajinikanth film in this matter.