Chennai: After a statement war, Popular actor Dhanush has dragged leading actress Nayanthara--whom he had once described as his best friend--to the Madras High Court in the form of a civil suit for using a three-second clip from the 2015 movie ‘Naanum Rowdy Dhaan’ despite not getting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from him, who is producer of the film.
The National award winning actor Dhanush, who had already issued a legal notice to her demanding Rs 10 crore as damages for using the clip in the Netflix docu-drama, ‘Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale’ released on November 18, filed the civil suit through his production firm, Wunderbar Films which had produced the movie.
Besides Nayanthara and her husband and filmmaker Vignesh Sivan, Dhanush also sued their production company Rowdy Pictures Pvt. Ltd., and Los Gatos Production Services LLP, the Mumbai-based entity through which Netflix operates.
When the civil suit came up for hearing, Justice Abdul Quddhose after hearing preliminary arguments from both the sides and without going into the merits at this stage, allowed the application grant leave as a major part of the cause of action had taken place under the territorial limits of the High Court’s jurisdiction.
The dispute between Mr. Dhanush and Ms. Nayanthara came out in open a few days prior to the release of her docu-drama on November 18 when she posted an open addressed to Dhanush on her X handle.
In the letter, she said that she had sought a NOC from Wunderbar Films to use some of the songs, visual cuts, and photographs in her docu-drama as it was during the shoot of that movie love blossomed between her and Sivan’s.
She said even after of repeated requests, Dhanush had not issued the NOC and expressed shock over the legal notice issued by him seeking Rs 10 crore damages for using just 3 second visuals and said she would face it legally.
Interestingly, the movie in which she played the female lead against Vijay Sethupathi, was not only important in her career but in her personal life too since it was during the shoot her love for Sivan blossomed.
Hence, she was particular about having the visuals and her outrage at Dhanush’s long delay and denial.
Both she and Sivan had justified using the visual clip on the ground that it was already available on social media.
