Lyca files police complaint against Ayngaran Films Karunamoorthy; Alleges cheating of over Rs 100 crores!

In a major development, Lyca Films international, the firm that produced India’s costliest film, 2.0, today lodged a police complaint against the director of Ayngaran Pictures, K Karunamoorthy, for allegedly cheating them of a sum of over Rs 100 crore.

In a complaint filed with the Chennai Police Commissioner today, a copy of which is available with Cineobserver.in, Lyca director Neelakant Narayanpur listed a number of shocking irregularities allegedly committed by Karunamoorthy while being a consultant with Lyca.

Narayanpur, in his complaint, claimed that Lyca had hired the services of Karunamoorthy as only a consultant in the year 2013. Karunamoorthy, however, spoke “honey-coated” words and won Lyca’s confidence so much that he assumed the role of sole decision maker for the firm.

In turn, he began to listen to stories, approve projects and produce films under Lyca’s banner.

Narayanpur said that the first irregularity pertained to the film Kaththi, starring Vijay, which Lyca had produced and released in October,2014.

“Karunamoorthy sold the theatrical rights of the film for the major areas in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and its overseas rights through his firm, Ayngaran International Films Pvt Ltd for a paltry sum and made huge profits for himself at the cost of Lyca.”

Similarly, Narayanpur claimed that the overseas and satellite rights of the films ‘Ennakku Innoru Per Irrukku’ and Vijay Antony’s ‘Yaman’ were sold to Ayngaran Films which in turn sold the overseas and satellite rights for a whopping Rs 95 crores. Narayanpur alleged that Karunamoorthy however paid Lyca only a paltry sum of Rs 5 crore, thereby cheating them of Rs 90 crore.

Narayanpur said that even by a conservative estimate, the loss to Lyca in the sale of overseas theatrical and satellite rights would not be less than Rs 100 crores.

Stating that only a thorough financial probe into the financial deals of Ayngaran International Films during the last couple of years would reveal the ill-gotten wealth of K Karunamoorthy and his aide Banu, Narayanpur claimed that Karunamoorthy, in a similar fashion, had failed to look after the interests of the company with regard to films like Ippadai Vellum, Dhiya and Nayanthara’s Kolamaavu Kokila. Narayanpur alleged that Karunamoorthy had “looted as much as possible and that the exact amount will be known only after a thorough investigation.”

This apart, Narayanpur claimed that Karunamoorthy had, without their knowledge and concurrence, entered into an agreement in 2018 to produce Vandha Raajavathan Varuven, starring Silambarasan and directed by Sundar C. The project ended up making a loss of Rs 14 crores for Lyca, Narayanpur stated.

Also, Karunamoorthy had, without approval and the knowledge of Lyca, sought to produce the Kamal Haasan-starrer Indian 2. This, Narayanpur claimed, had resulted in a loss of Rs 4.35 crore to the company.

Going on to list a number of other alleged irregularities, Narayanpur claimed that this was just the tip of the iceberg as after Karunamoorthy’s sacking, they were getting information about the borrowings made by Karunamoorthy in the name of Lyca productions. These people were demanding repayment as promised by Karunamoorthy, Narayanpur claimed.

He urged the police commissioner to order a thorough investigation into the alleged financial misdeeds of K Karunamoorthy and his associate Banu and take all steps needed to recover the amount due from K Karunamoorthy and his financial entity, Ayngaran Films.