In a rapidly developing case involving a ferocious ownership tussle between actor-producer John Abraham and Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment over the film Parmanu, Prernaa has now filed an First Information Report (FIR) against John and his production company.
The FIR has been registered by Khar police station in Mumbai against John Abraham and his company JA Ent after a criminal complaint was filed by KriArj Entertainment for the commission of various criminal offences including cheating, breach of trust, fraud, misappropriation of funds and copyright infringement. Prernaa has alleged that John and his company has duped KriArj Entertainment out of the crores of rupees invested by KriArj Entertainment towards the production of the film Parmanu.
Earlier, John's production house published a notice in a leading daily terminating their contract with KriArj, which read:
"KriArj has committed material breaches which left us with no choice but to terminate in the interest of the film. We would like to state that this extreme step has been taken by us after days of trying to resolve the issues at hand in the best interest of the release of the film. We have fulfilled our commitment at every stage of this project and intimated KriArj in writing from time to time. We have been waiting and asking for payments at every stage."
John’s team has accused KriArj of delay in payments and non-payments that has caused delays in the post-production of the film and has warned KriArj of legal action if they jeopardise the film or defame the production house.
Responding to allegations made by John about delays in payment on her part, Prernaa says, “John Abraham pegged the budget of Parmanu at Rs 35 crore which was way too high for a film which had no stars except John Abraham, and even that (John’s stardom) is disputable. Anyway, of that 35 crore we’ve already paid John Rs 30 crore, Rs 3 crore will be paid on delivery. It’s just the remaining Rs 2 crore that we at KriArj have been pleading with Mr Abraham to forgo. But he is not willing to budge. Instead of understanding the economics of this project, he accuses me of not understanding the dynamics and economics of film production. Excuse me, I grew up in an environment of film production. I don’t need anyone questioning my capabilities as a producer.”
Attempts to contact John Abraham were met with a stony silence. Parmanu was scheduled to release on 6 April but has now been pushed to 4 May.
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