Court adjourns hearing on release of Haasan’s film

The Madras high court adjourned to Thursday the hearing of a petition seeking a stay on the release of Kamal Haasan’s Unnaipol Oruvan (remake of Hindi film A Wednesday), scheduled for release on Friday.

Production house Pyramid Saimira’s chairman Narayanan, who filed the petition, wants Haasan to refund Rs7.5 crore before the release of Unnaipol Oruvan. Saimira contended that Haasan took the money as advance for acting in the film, Marmayogi, which was later abandoned.

Saimira claimed that Haasan diverted the money he received for acting in Marmayogi to produce Unnaipol Oruvan under the banner of his own production company. Saimira entered into a joint venture with Haasan in 2008 to produce Marmayogi in Tamil and Hindi at a cost of Rs100 crore. The actor reportedly told Saimira that he would rope in Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Priyanka Chopra for the Hindi version. Saimira initially asked the actor to refund Rs10.9 crore, with interest at 24% per annum.

Haasan’s lawyers argued that the actor had spent close to Rs10 crore for Marmayogi. They said he had started shooting for the film before it was abandoned.