Loan default case: Madras High Court temporarily restrains actor Vishal from releasing his films

The Madras High Court on Wednesday restrained Tamil actor Vishal Krishna Reddy from releasing any films until he creates an interest bearing fixed deposit worth ₹15 crore in connection with a suit moved by Lyca Productions for recovery of ₹21.29 crore from him. .A Bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy dismissed an appeal filed by Vishal challenging a March 2022 order passed by a single-judge of the High Court that had directed the actor to create such fixed deposit with a nationalised bank..As per the suit, in 2019, Vishal had borrowed ₹21.29 crore from a third party. Lyca agreed to take over that loan and in return, Vishal was to repay the principal amount to Lyca with an interest of 30 per cent. However, Lyca filed a suit in the High Court claiming Vishal had failed to repay the amount..Vishal's counsel, however, told the Bench that Lyca had undertaken to take over the loan, but it had never actually discharged such loan on his behalf.Counsel for Lyca told the Court that the single-judge's order had been passed after going through the bank statements of both parties and ascertaining that Lyca had paid ₹21.29 crore towards discharging Vishal's loan..The Division Bench agreed that the single-judge's order was in consonance with the law. Therefore, the appeal filed by Vishal had no merit, the Court said. It, however, said that the single-judge should have added an injunction clause in case Vishal failed to comply with its order. Therefore, the order needed to be modified to that effect, it said. Vishal was thus restrained from releasing his films until he created the fixed deposit. "Thus, there shall be a clause (iv-a) to the effect that failing compliance of the above direction, there shall be an injunction against the defendant from in any manner releasing in cinemas or OTT platforms or in any mode whatsoever all or any of the feature films/ film projects produced or financed by the defendant in any manner whatsoever, pending disposal of the suit. Thus, while we do not find any merit in the appeal, it is necessary to add the above default clause in the order," the order said..Advocate A Chidambaram appeared for Vishal, while Senior Advocate V Ragavachari and advocate Hema Srinivasan represented Lyca..[Read order]