Madhavan seeks stay on release of 'Darling' Tamil remake

Chennai, Sep 12 (IANS) Multilingual actor R. Madhavan Friday demanded a stay on the release of Tamil film 'Avan, Aval, Athu' (He, Her, It) in complaints filed with the South Indian Artistes' Association (SIAA) and Tamil Film Producers' Council.

In his complaint, Madhavan contended that Tamil and Telugu remakes of Hindi film 'Darling' under the nomenclature 'Leelai' was attempted to be released without settling dues worth Rs.7.5 million by producer Gaurav Sharma.

According to Madhavan, Sharma was allegedly cutting corners by releasing the movie's audio and scheduling its big screen launch without the permission of the cast and director Kona Venkat.

Already a similar effort to do so in Hyderabad had been stalled by director Venkat, Madhavan added.

The movie stars Madhavan, Sadaa and Shamita Shetty.

The Hindi original directed by Ram Gopal Varma, when released last year, was declared a commercial hit. It starred Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol and Isha Koppikkar.

The remake was begun as a collaborative effort between Varma and Sharma, but the two parted ways which eventually resulted in the present disagreement.

SIAA and TFPC sources said their respective heads Sarath Kumar and Rama Narayanan would shortly hear both the sides.

Sharma was not available for comment.