Court tells Telugu film producers to pay Rs 1.28 crore to Prashanth Sambaragi

Bengaluru: Businessman and producer Prashant Sambaragi was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.28 crore by Telugu film producers who sold him Kannada dubbing rights of their film Gautam Nanda starring Gopichand and Hansika Motwani.

A court in Bengaluru has ruled in favour of Prashanth Sambaragi. Tollywood producers JT Bhagwan and J Pulla Rao of Balaji Cine Media Company have been ordered to pay Rs 1,28,31,500 to Sambarai. An execution petition was sent to a Hyderabad court two days ago for the enforcement of the order.

Gautam Nanda was released on July 27, 2017. The Bigg Boss fame Prashanth Sambaragi signed a deal with the Telugu producers and paid Rs 90 lakh to the duo. But, the film producers did not hand over the rights for dubbing the film to Sambaragi. Instead, they sold the rights to someone else. Following this, he approached court.

The case trial lasted for more than 20 months and a final order in favour of Sambaragi was given by the court on August 31, directing Telugu producers to pay Rs 1,28,31,500 including interest.

Speaking to media persons, Prashanth Samaragi said, "I'm embarrassed to claim that I have been fooled. Cinema distribution is still not a systematic business. There's a lot of confusion, especially in terms of dubbing."

In spite of this setback, Prashanth Sambaragi has plans to release other language dubbed movies in Kannada. Prashanth Sambaragi is well known as a businessman, cinema distributor and acting. He participated in the last Kannada Bigg Boss reality show.