Mediaone has dismissed rumours regarding its dispute with Latha Rajinikanth. Through a press release, Mediaone, a film promotions agency, detailed the circumstances leading to the current court battle with Ad Bureau.
Mediaone signed an MoU with Ad Bureau for a sum of Rs 20 crores in 2014. The sum was meant to be used towards post-production work on Kochadaiyyan. In return, Ad Bureau were granted distribution rights of the film in Tamil Nadu and the minimum guaranteed profit.
However, Ad Bureau only sent across Rs 10 crore of the stipulated amount. This delayed post-production work on the film by two weeks, and pushed the release date as well. Of this amount, Rs 9.2 crore has already been repaid in ‘timely’ instalments. The company says that it is willing to pay the remaining Rs 80 lakh due under the MoU. However, Ad Bureau demanded on 11/11/2014 that Mediaone pay back the original sum of Rs 10 crore with Rs 4.30 crore interest for six months. This amounts to 80 percent rate of interest. Mediaone says that this demand is in violation of their MoU, as well as the Tamil Nadu State Law that prohibits collecting exhorbitant interest. This is a penal offence and so, a criminal complaint was registered against Ad Bureau with the Police Commissioner. An FIR was filed against the company and the case is still under investigation.
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In their press release, Mediaone says that this MoU was only between their company and Ad Bureau. Latha Rajinikanth was in no way involved in it. And hence, the smear campaign staged against her is baseless. Mediaone alleges that Ad Bureau is involved in the smear campaign.
Mediaone says that only they are responsible for any and all claims listed by Ad Bureau. And that too, only if it is proved in the court.
“Latha Rajinikanth has nothing to do with the affairs of Mediaone,” Timothy Moses, director, Mediaone said.
“It is evident now that Ad Bureau is resorting to such diabolical actions to harass and arm twist Mediaone and Mrs Rajinikanth and thereby extort monies from them,” he added.