What is the controversy surrounding Vadivelu’s movie ‘Maamannan’?
The Maamannan controversy concerns a legal dispute between the producer of another film named Angel and Udhayanidhi Stalin.
Maamannan is a political thriller film in Tamil written and directed by Mari Selvaraj and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin. The film stars a cast including Vadivelu, Fahadh Faasil, Keerthy Suresh and Udhayanidhi himself. Director Mari Selvaraj revealed that the story of Maamannan is based on a true incident that he witnessed after the release of Paraiyerum Perumal. He said that the entire story is based on the core issue of the problem facing the society.
Maamannan was released today, June 29. However, the film has made headlines. The controversy around Maamannan concerns a legal dispute between the producer of another film called Angel and Udhayanidhi Stalin, the star and producer of Maamannan. The producer of AngelRamasaravanan claimed that in 2018 he made a verbal agreement with Stalin to act in his film and paid an advance of Rs 30 lakhs (Indian currency) as part of his total compensation of Rs 1.25 crore. According to Ramasaravanan, the filming of Angel was underway in multiple locations, including Chennai and Fiji, but could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Stalin’s subsequent involvement in politics as a minister. Ramasaravanan went to court after Stalin publicly announced it Maamannan would be his last film, indicating that he would no longer act in films.
Ramasaravanan informed the court that he had already spent Rs 13 crore Angel and that 80% of the film’s work was completed. He expressed concern that if Angel is not released, he would suffer a loss of Rs 25 crore. As a result, Ramasaravanan requested court intervention in the matter.
The Madras High Court refused to grant a preliminary injunction for the release of Maamannan and cited the non-merging of the right parties as the reason. The court also scheduled a separate hearing on a petition in which the court asked for instructions from Stalin to offer his time and cooperation to complete the film Angel.