If everything was on track, we would have already seen John Abraham-starrer Parmanu by now. But the movie, that was supposed to come out a couple of weeks back, had been later postponed to April 6. However, apart from a couple of posters, but we have not seen any promos of the movie, making us wonder what is happening on the front. Not only is the April 6 release not happening, the makers are yet to reveal the new release date. Well, that might be because these makers are engaged in a battle of sending legal threats to each other.

Before we let you into the battle, let's explain the plot and the players here. Parmanu is based on the nuclear tests carried out by India in 1998 under the supervision of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and away from the prying eyes of USA's CIA. John Abraham and Diana Penty are playing the main leads and the movie is directed by Tere Bin Laden fame Abhishek Sharma. Parmanu was jointly produced by John Abraham and Prernaa Arora's KriArj Entertainment. The problem is with the status of the last line.

Recently, John Abraham's production house issued a statement stating that they have cancelled their agreement with KriArj Entertainment. The latter is not taking this lightly as they have now issued their side of the argument, warning such a cancellation is invalid.

KriArj Entertainment's version

"Trade notice issued by JA Entertainment claiming termination of their agreement with us for the Film Parmanu, please note that the said termination is illegal and invalid.

Our rights in the Film as a joint producer/presenter and owner of all rights are fully secured, we have always fulfilled all our commitments till date and have clear intent to continue doing so. JA Ent has also always been aware that Zee Studios are KriArj’s partners in the Film from very early stages as co-producers and also the acquirers of the Overseas theatrical, digital,satellite and music rights of the Film.

JA Ent has till date not fulfilled it’s commitment of completing and intimating us of the completion the film and is fraudulently trying to delay the release of the film thereby causing huge monetary losses and damage to our reputation. We had all our plans of promoting the film and a wide release in place and were to kick start the campaign shortly for which also there have been substantial expenses already done. JA Ent has repeatedly put a spoke in the wheel and derailed the marketing campaign which is hurting the prospects of the film and is the cause of losses being continuously caused to us.

After making substantial payments to them JA Ent has kept making unreasonable demands for money from us which are completely outside the scope of their initial understanding with us.This has made it abundantly clear that they are trying to defraud us by now attempting to wriggle out of a legally binding contract with us which is not only unlawful but also unethical. We hope better sense prevails on JA Ent as we have been only looking towards the interest of the Film and the best possible release.

It goes without saying that any one dealing with the Film or any of its rights through JA Ent will be doing so at their own risk and peril and will also have to face legal consequences.We have already instructed our attorneys who will be moving the necessary authorities soon for seeking justice against the breaches committed by JA Ent and its promoter Mr John Abraham.”

KriArj Entertainment has earlier produced movies like Rustom, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Pad Man, Pari etc. Earlier they have also been involved in another legal battle over Kedarnath with director Abhishek Kapoor over the release dates and the over-inflated budgets.

In reply to this, JA Entertainment issued another statement, where they blamed KriArj for non-payment of dues and bouncing cheques.

JA Entertainment's version

"“Termination of the agreement by us is valid and legal. Kriarj has committed material breaches which left us with no choice but to terminate in the interest of the film. We would like to state that this extreme step has been taken by us after days of trying to resolve the issues at hand in the best interest of the release of the film. We have fulfilled our commitment at every stage of this project and intimated Kriarj in writing from time to time. We have been waiting and asking for payments at every stage, our payments have either been delayed or we have received wrong UTR number. Cheque payments have been stopped time and again.

Delay in payments / non-payments, have caused delays in the post production work after the film’s principal shoot was completed by us in time and on schedule last year. Despite repeated follow up, the distribution plan for the film has not been shared and there has been no transparency in their dealings with third parties. We have till date not been privy to any signed contracts of third parties with Kriarj, if any.

JA Entertainment has time and again discussed the marketing campaign for the film with KriArj but the release dates have been pushed at least 3 times, due to delayed payments. Not only that, Kriarj without our approval has gone out and made statements giving false reasons for the delay. Our repeated follow-ups have only been met with false promises to settle the issue, thus wasting crucial time on the project. The industry knows of the track record of Kriarj. There has been a similar incident in the past with another film where they have done the same thing.

Given the above, and in the best interest of the film, we have terminated our contract with KriArj Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and will soon announce the release schedule. Any future attempts by Kriarj to jeopardise the film or defame the production house and / or the film, like they have done in the past with other films, will compel us to initiate legal proceedings against them.

We request you for your continued support to us and the film and for you to use this statement in its entirety. May we also request you to kindly refrain from any conjecture based stories or putting out unverified facts on this matter."

We do hope these parties sit down across a table and come to an amicable solution. And let us know the new release date soon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 02, 2018 03:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).