With KriArj Entertainment lodging a criminal complaint against John Abraham and his company JA Entertainment, it was natural for the actor to file counter complaints against KriArj and its head, Prernaa Arora.
A few days ago, Arora had got the teaser of their co-production Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran blocked.
Late last night, JA Entertainment issued a statement saying it had filed three complaints against Arora and her company for cheating, breach of trust, and defamation and for offences under the Information Technology Act. The complaints were filed at the Khar police station in Mumbai.
In the statement, JA Entertainment spoke of the nature of their contract with KriArj.
"John Abraham, through his production house JA Entertainment Pvt Ltd, signed a co-production agreement with Prernaa Arora’s company KriArj Entertaiment Pvt Ltd wherein KriArj agreed to pay Rs35 crore to John’s company to cover the cost of production, fees of all actors and other production-related expenses and also agreed to bear the print and advertisement expenses (P&A) for Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran against which John had agreed to assign the exploitation rights and 50% IPR [intellectual property rights] of the film to Prernaa’s company," the JA Entertainment statement said.
In an interview to Cinestaan.com earlier, Arora had said the contract with JA Entertainment was for Rs35 crore and KriArj had already disbursed Rs30 crore. Of the remainder, Rs3 crore was to be given 15 days before the film's release while the balance Rs2 crore was John's remaining fee which the actor, according to Arora, had agreed to forgo.
"However, after Prernaa’s repeated delays in making payments by stopping cheque payments and giving wrong bank transfer details at every stage and refusal to pay the last tranches of payment, which are critical for completing the post-production work of the film, John followed the due process as laid down by law. He first gave a legal notice to cure the breach and after Prernaa’s failure to cure the breaches, terminated the agreement to save his film," the statement said.
JA Entertainment said Arora had filed a false complaint against John and started making derogatory statements against him. The production house termed Arora's blocking of the Parmanu teaser as illegal.
“John also came to know that Prernaa had, without his knowledge, already recovered monies in excess of what she had to pay him from various third parties and yet did not pay him his dues. Aggrieved by all these acts of Prernaa and her colleagues and associates at KriArj, John has filed separate complaints for cheating, breach of trust, defamation and offences under the Information Technology Act,” the statement said.
Earlier, a source close to the film's production unit had told Cinestaan.com that the third co-producer Zee Studios has no problem with JA Entertanment or with KriArj.
Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran is due to be released on 4 May. However, the courts will now decide the film's fate.