Sridevi owes us money, claim 'Puli' producers

Chennai: The makers of Tamil fantasy drama ‘Puli’ on Monday claimed that actress Sridevi, who played an evil queen in the film, owes them Rs.20 lakh and contrary to her reports, they don't owe her a single penny.

Sridevi had filed a complaint at the Mumbai Producer's Council that the producers of ‘Puli’ owe her Rs.50 lakh.

In a four-page statement, producers Thameens and P.T Selvakumar said they signed the veteran actress out of respect and agreed to pay Rs.2.7 crore as her salary along with Rs.30 lakh as service tax.

"We were paying her as per the agreement she had signed at the beginning of the film. However, in the final stages of production, Sridevi's husband Boney Kapoor asked us to pay her extra as we were planning to release the film in other languages too," read the statement.

The statement said Boney Kapoor told the filmmakers that Sridevi would only come to the shoot if she was paid extra.

"After much deliberation, we decided to pay her 20 percent of the film's Hindi satellite rights, which was Rs.55 lakh, and Rs.15 lakh for the dubbed Telugu version," the statement added.

It was at the behest of Boney Kapoor, who convinced them that Sridevi has very good market in Hindi, that the makers decided to release the film in Hindi.

"We had hired three costume designers for 'Puli', but Sridevi insisted that we sign Manish Malhotra, and we paid him Rs.50 lakh. She also convinced us to pay Rs.8 lakh for the marketing designer for the film's Hindi version," read the statement.

The makers said they spent crores just for the sake of Sridevi. Despite doing so much, she didn't even come for the film's audio launch.

"She owes us money," the statement concluded.

‘Puli’, directed by Chimbu Deven, stars Vijay, Shruti Haasan and Hansika Motwani in the lead roles.