It’s payback time for Ajay

The Supreme Court has ordered the Madras High Court to refund the deposit paid by his father VEERU DEVGAN during Raju Chacha.

 It is great news for the producers of the film Raju Chacha (released in 2000). The Supreme Court has passed a judgement asking that the deposit of Rs 50 lakh paid by the producers (Veeru Devgan and Kumar Mangat) to the Madras High Court (1999) for protection of a forest land in the state (where the crew was shooting) be returned.

In December 1999, the Madras High Court had ordered the filmmakers to deposit the above sum after activists and NGOs protested that shooting in the forest areas in and around Udhgamandalam in Tamil Nadu would cause damage. The sum of Rs 50 lakh was fixed as the token deposit after the film’s budget was estimated to be around Rs 10 crore.

 “We were asked by the court there to pay up the money as a deposit after there were concerns raised by activists and NGOs. We paid the amount and got the permission to shoot the film,” says Kumar Mangat the associate producer of the film.

 He adds, “Initially, we were under the impression that the money would be refunded once the shooting ended and no damage was caused to the forest. But when the papers came to us, we realised that it was non-refundable. We found this strange. So we filed a case in 2000 asking the court to look into the matter and repay us our amount.” Mangat concludes, “It is great news for us. We had done nothing wrong and we are very happy with the decision.”
g_prithwish@dnaindia.net