District court stays release of ‘The Fakir Of Venice’

Pune: A local court has stayed the release of Farhan Akhtar-starrer ‘The Fakir Of Venice’.

Thirsty Crow LLP, the co-producer of the movie, who had filed a petition in the matter, claimed that the film’s director Anand Surapur was trying to release the film without the knowledge and consent of the company, which owns the film’s distribution rights. The movie was recently issued a U/A certificate by the CBFC. The stay order was issued on November 27.

Tejas Deshpande, partner, Thirsty Crow LLP, earlier filed the case with the Pune district court after learning that Surapur, along with others, was planning to release the movie.

District judge J T Utpat restrained the director and his firm, Phat Phish India Private Limited, Mumbai, from releasing the film and has given 90 days to invoke arbitration in the case, Deshpande said on Saturday.

Deshpande said the film director approached him through a common friend saying that he needed Rs 3 crore to complete the film’s post-production work, including music and soundtrack by A R Rahman.

According to Deshpande, he agreed to purchase the film’s distribution rights as well as release the film by initially investing Rs3 crore and Rs 6 crore later to cover printing, advertising and other expenses, as demanded by the director.

A deal was executed between Deshpande’s CrimsonCobalt Media Pvt Ltd and the director on March 15, 2014, in Pune and they incorporated Thirsty Crow Films LLP, wherein the director brought the film and all its present and future rights, title, interest and the intellectual property rights as its capital contribution. This was valued at about Rs6.3 crore or the actual expenditure incurred by it, whichever being the lower, he said.

Deshpande said that it was further decided that CrimsonCobalt Media Pvt Ltd would bring in the capital contribution of Rs3 crore in a phased manner and the same was to be utilized slowly to complete the film.

The petitioner’s counsel Ajay Gadegaonkar said, “My client paid a total of Rs1.46 crore to the director as and when he demanded. He did not take enough efforts to complete production of the film to make it ready for release. He diverted the funds because of which the completion of the film got stuck. As my client was cheated, Deshpande filed an FIR with the Koregaon Park police and the Economic Offences Wing is investigating the case.”