John Abraham’s upcoming film Parmanu has been locked in a tussle between its producers, JA Entertainment and KriArj Entertainment. The film was supposed to release in February, but will now release on May 4.
However, KriArj has filed an FIR against John Abraham and his company for various criminal offenses including cheating, breach of trust, fraud, misappropriation of funds and copyright infringement.
John and his company have been accused of duping KriArj for crores of rupees invested towards the production of the film. However, Abraham stated that KriArj has been faulty in their payments for Parmanu’s production.
The statements from Abraham’s company read, “Our payments have either been delayed or we have received wrong UTR number. Cheque payments have been stopped time and again. Delay in payments and non-payments have caused delays in the post-production work even after the film’s principal shoot was completed on time last year. Despite repeated follow-ups, the distribution plan for the film has not been shared and there has been no transparency in their dealings with third parties.”
While Prernaa Arora, head of KriArj Entertainment, asserted, “John Abraham pegged the budget of Parmanu at Rs 35 crore which was way too high for a film which had no stars except John Abraham, and even that is disputable. Anyway, of that 35 crore we’ve already paid John Rs 30 crore, Rs 3 crore will be paid on delivery. It’s just the remaining Rs 2 crore that we at KriArj have been pleading with Mr Abraham to forgo. But he is not willing to budge. Instead of understanding the economics of this project, he accuses me of not understanding the dynamics and economics of film production. Excuse me, I grew up in an environment of film production. I don’t need anyone questioning my capabilities as a producer.”
