"WE HAVE INCURRED LOSSES ON MANY FRONTS IN PULI" - SKT STUDIOS' APPEAL TO SRIDEVI

Recently there was an issue regarding the non payment of Sridevi’s salary for the movie Puli. Producers of the film, SKT Studios have issued a clarification in this regard which is as follows:

“We had booked Sridevi in Puli for 3 crores (2.7 crores as salary and 30 lakhs as service tax) and we have been paying her as per this. But while the film was nearing completion, Sridevi’s husband Boney Kapoor asked for extra money in crores in case we dub the film in Hindi and Telugu. But we explained to him saying that such rights are only with the producers and also told him that other stars like Vijay or Sudeep or Shruti had not asked us like this. But he did not listen to us and kept harping on his demand and said that Sridevi will come to the shoots only if this demand is met with.

Since we had erected huge sets and all the other stars were waiting, we agreed to his demand and paid 15 Lakhs during the Telugu dubbing and 20% of the Hindi satellite rights for the Hindi dubbing. This is not something that is usually done, but we went ahead and did it to complete the film. In Hindi, we had sold the satellite rights to Manish from whom Boney Kapoor had got 20%, which amounts to 55 lakhs. Whatever salary we had booked Sridevi at the beginning, we have paid that amount.

On top of it we have spent so much on her in the form of special costume designer, marketing designer etc. It is also very sad that she did not come for the Hindi and Telugu audio launch functions. We have incurred losses on many fronts in this film and added to that, tax raids compounded our problems. Therefore, we request Sridevi’s side to consider all these factors and waive the extra amount as we are not in a position to pay, while all the same we wish to state that we had paid her what we had actually booked her for”.