The Madras High Court has restrained the release of Karthi starrer Vaa Vaathiyar pursuant to a plea made by the Official Assignee of the High Court accusing the production house Studio Green, helmed by K.E. Gnanavel Raja, of not having settled its dues fully to businessman Arjunlal Sunderdas (since dead) who had been declared as an insolvent and had left behind several liabilities.
A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan wrote, “There shall be an order of interim prohibition against the respondent not to release the movie Vaa Vaathiyar till December 5, 2025” and directed the High Court Registry to list the present execution petition along with other connected petitions for further hearing of the matter on December 8, 2025.
The High Court had passed a similar prohibition order with respect to actor Suriya starrer Kanguvaa too in November 2024 and allowed the release of that movie only after Mr. Gnanavelraja deposited ₹6.14 crore. The Official Assignee had taken out filed another petition now to prevent the release of Vaa Vaathiyar on December 5, 2025 unless the producer pays ₹21.78 crore.
The dispute was related to a litigation that dates back to 2011 when Mr. Gnanavelraja had entered into an agreement with the businessman Sunderdas for co-producing a movie by investing ₹40 crore each. As per the agreement reached between them, Sunderdas had invested ₹12.85 crore before backing off from the project and deciding not to involve in the production anymore.
