HC stays release of Raveena Tandon's 'Maatr'

Mumbai: Bombay High Court has stayed the release of actor Raveena Tandon's comeback film 'Maatr', which was scheduled for release on April 21. The exhibition of the movie was stayed after a private financial institution YT Capital Pvt Ltd field a petition at the Bombay High Court against the film's producer Anjum Rizvi and has also made T-series, the film's co-producer, a party.

While hearing the petition yesterday, Justice Gautam Patel of the Bombay High Court noted that YT Capital Pvt Ltd had obtained an order in their favour against the film producers in an earlier petition where an amount of Rs 2,44,71,718 was due from Rizvi and had not been paid to the company.

The court noted that "an Agreement for co-production dated September 22, 2014 made it clear that the Decree Holder (YT Capital) would not only have a lien on the previous films but all future feature films or television serials of Rizvi and that these would not be released or distributed till the debt was paid." YT Capital had given this loan to Rizvi in 2014 for the movie Katha, which never released.

Rizvi never paid this amount back, which is why the company has had to take such coercive action. The court noted that makers of 'Maatr', which is scheduled to release this month, had been issued summons but they never appeared before the court. The company is seeking an order of restraint against the release of this film and a court-appointed receiver till the debt is paid. The film 'Maatr', starring Raveena Tandon, Alisha Khan and Madhur Mittal is about a mother whose daughter is raped and dies, while the mother carries on with her fight to get justice.

The petitioner had requested that the court should pass an order restraining the producers from parting with the release prints and/or negatives of the film. The company also wants the court to pass an order restraining Rizvi from selling or creating any third party rights whatsoever in the negatives of his previously released seven films - John Day, India Metro, A Flat, Fast Forward, A Wednesday, Ahista Ahista, Charges: A Joint Effort as well. (UNI)