Actor John Abraham, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, has terminated his company's partnership with Kriarj Entertainment. He stated that the latter has no rights over Parmanu alleging material breaches including non-payment.
Abraham's production house JA Entertainment published a trade notice in a city paper on Sunday, declaring that it was ending its partnership with Prerna Arora's Kriarj Entertainment.
"Delay in payments/non-payments, have caused delays in the post production work after the film's principal shoot was completed by us in time and on schedule last year," it said in another statement today.
Kriarj said in a response that JA Entertainment's decision was "invalid and illegal".
"Please note that the said termination is illegal and invalid. Our rights in the film as a joint producer/presenter and owner of all rights are fully secured, we have always fulfilled all our commitments till date and have clear intent to continue doing so," Kriarj said.
The production house, which has just emerged from a legal row with filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor over "Kedarnath", accused JA Entertainment of not fulfilling its commitment to complete "Parmanu".
JA Entertainment said it was terminating the agreement after "days of trying to resolve the issue".
"We have fulfilled our commitment at every stage of this project and intimated Kriarj in writing from time to time. We have been waiting and asking for payments at every stage. Our payments have either been delayed or we have received wrong UTR number. Cheque payments have been stopped time and again."
It also claimed that there was no response from Kriarj over the distribution plan, despite being asked repeatedly. This led to the film being postponed thrice.
Hinting at Kriarj's controversy over "Kedarnath", JA Entertainment said its bad reputation was also the reason it terminated its relation with the company.
"Given the above, and in the best interest of the film, we have terminated our contract with Kriarj Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and will soon announce the release schedule. Any future attempts by Kriarj to jeopardize the film or defame the production house and/or the film, like they have done in the past with other films, will compel us to initiate legal proceedings against them."
Kriarj, on its part, said it has instructed its attorneys to move necessary authorities for seeking justice against the breaches committed by the company and Abraham.
"After making substantial payments to them JA Ent has kept making unreasonable demands for money from us which are completely outside the scope of their initial understanding with us. This has made it abundantly clear that they are trying to defraud us by now attempting to wriggle out of a legally binding contract with us which is not only unlawful but also unethical," the company said.
(With PTI Inputs)
