Sridevi owes us money: Puli producers

The makers of Tamil superstar Vijay-starrer ‘Puli’ on Monday claimed that actress Sridevi, who played an evil queen in the film, owes them Rs 20 lakh and contrary to her reports, they don't owe her a single penny.

Sridevi had filed a complaint at the Mumbai Producer's Council alleging that the producers of ‘Puli’ owe her Rs 50 lakh. In a four-page statement, producers Thameens and PT Selvakumar said they signed the veteran actress out of respect and agreed to pay Rs 2.7 crore as her salary along with Rs 30 lakh as service tax.

"We were paying her as per the agreement she had signed at the beginning of the film. However, in the final stages of production, Sridevi's husband Boney Kapoor asked us to pay her extra as we were planning to release the film in other languages too," read the statement. The statement said Boney Kapoor told the filmmakers that Sridevi would only come to the shoot if she was paid extra.

"After much deliberation, we decided to pay her 20 percent of the film's Hindi satellite rights, which was Rs 55 lakh, and Rs 15 lakh for the dubbed Telugu version," the statement added. It was at the behest of Boney Kapoor, who convinced them that Sridevi has very good market in Hindi, that the makers decided to release the film in Hindi.

"We had hired three costume designers for 'Puli', but Sridevi insisted that we sign Manish Malhotra, and we paid him Rs 50 lakh. She also convinced us to pay Rs 8 lakh for the marketing designer for the film's Hindi version," read the statement. "She owes us money," the statement concluded.