The Madras High Court has rejected a petition filed by actor and producer Vishal Krishna Reddy, popularly known as Vishal. He had appealed to have his name removed from a civil suit filed by actor TR Silambarasan, aka Simbu, seeking Rs 1 crore in losses from film producer S Michael Rayappan. Vishal, who is also a member of the South Indian Artistes’ Association’s executive committee, has been accused of interfering in a dispute between Simbu and Rayappan.
The HC has now postponed the case till next month after rejecting Vishal’s petition.
Vishal was elected as the General Secretary of Nadigar Sangam, officially known as South Indian Artistes’ Association, in 2015 after he led a campaign against the previous committee. In 2017, Vishal was elected as the President of the Tamil Film Producers Council.
The relationship between Simbu and Michael Rayappan has deteriorated after the movie Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (AAA) turned out to be a massive flop.
AAA, starring Silambarasan, released in June 2017 and turned out to be a big failure at the box office. A few months later, the film’s producer, Michael Rayappan and director, Adhik Ravichandran, publicly spoke about Simbu’s rowdy behaviour and interference during the shooting.
They claimed that the production of the film was delayed by two months as a lot of actresses refused to work with Simbu owing to his unprofessional behaviour. The duo also alleged that the actor insisted that the team relocate from the finalised location in Madurai, since he did not like the climate there.
Earlier, in his complaint filed with the Nadigar Sangam, Rayappan had sought a compensation of Rs 20 crore from Simbu. He also alleged that Simbu only worked for 27 days out of the total 60 days as mentioned in the contract.
The conflict between Simbu and the film directors is not new. In 2014, during the production of Idhu Namma Aalu, he changed his hairstyle, which annoyed the film’s director, Pandiraj.
Silambarasan also disclosed to the media that Idhu Namma Aalu was his production and that no one should question his involvement in the film. Later, Pandiraj also clashed with Silambarasan’s brother, Kuralarasan, who was the music composer of the film, for the delay in the film’s music.
