Gautham Vasudev Menon. File
| Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj
The Madras High Court on Monday (March 23, 2026) dismissed an appeal filed jointly by film director Gautham Vasudev Menon and his partnership firm Photon Factory against a single judge’s order directing them to pay ₹4.25 crore, along with interest at the rate of 12% per annum from May 2010, to another film production firm named R.S. Infotainment led by S. Elred Kumar.
A Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi refused to entertain the appeal preferred in May 2002 and upheld the order passed by Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on April 5, 2022. The single judge’s order was passed on a civil suit filed by R.S. Infotainment in 2013 accusing Mr. Menon of not having completed an untitled movie described as ‘production no. 6.’
Justice Ramamoorthy had pointed out that R.S. Infotainment and Photon Factory, in which P. Madan of Escape Artists was also one of the partners, had entered into an agreement on November 27, 2008, for producing a Tamil movie described as ‘production no. 6.’ As per the terms of the agreement, R.S. Infotainment had agreed to pay ₹13.5 crore to Photon Factory towards production costs.
The agreement also contemplated that the production should commence on December 10, 2008, and get completed by April 5, 2009. The agreement further stated that Photon Factory must pay back ₹13.5 crore with interest at the rate of 24% per annum if the movie does not get completed within the prescribed time limit since R.S. Infotainment would be the producer and negative rights holder.
Pursuant to the agreement, R.S. Infotainment paid ₹4.25 crore in different tranches to Photon Factory but the production of the movie did not commence at all. However, on February 12, 2010, the plaintiff had agreed to grant further time for completion of ‘production no. 6’ but when even that did not happen for years, the company chose to file the civil suit in 2013 claiming damages.
Contesting the suit, Mr. Menon and his partnership firm accused R.S. Infotainment of not having discharged its liability of paying the total agreed amount of ₹13.5 crore as per schedule. Nevertheless, managing to infuse funds, they also claimed that they had originally intended to cast actor STR alias Silambarasan in ‘production no. 6’ but later replaced him with actor Jeeva for the lead role in the movie.
The defendants also said, ‘production no. 6’ was given a tentative title of ‘Nithya’ but finally got released in theatres on December 14, 2012, under the title of Neethaane En Ponvasantham. In view of the release of the movie, their obligations towards R.S. Infotainment were fulfilled, they claimed. Mr. Menon himself had entered the witness box and got himself examined as well as cross examined in the suit.
However, after sifting through the oral evidence rendered by Mr. Kumar and Mr. Menon, as well as the documents related to the case, Justice Ramamoorthy found that Neethaane En Ponvasantham was produced pursuant to a ₹13.27 crore agreement entered between R.S. Infotainment, Photon Factory, and Mr. Menon on July 6, 2011, and it had nothing to do with the 2008 agreement related to ‘production no. 6.’
The judge also held that there was nothing on record to establish that ₹4.25 crore given by R.S. Infotainment for ‘production no. 6’ was used for producing Neethane En Ponvasantham. Therefore, he directed Mr. Menon and his partnership firm to repay ₹4.25 crore along with interest at the rate of 12% per annum from 2010 besides paying costs of ₹12 lakh (including ₹9.57 lakh towards court fees and ₹2.5 lakh towards lawyer’s fees).
Published – March 23, 2026 03:40 pm IST
