Exim Bank takes Latha Rajinikanth's land

CHENNAI: After waiting five months for interest on a loan for the Tamil movie Kochadaiyaan, creditor Exim Bank taken possession of a property owned by superstar Rajnikanth’s wife Latha in Sriperambudur near Chennai.

In September this year, it had issued a notice to Latha about the dues. On Friday, it had put up a possession notice for the land in newspapers.

The Export-Import Bank of India had sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the motion-capture movie that the ace actor's daughter Soundarya debut-directed. The loan was given to Mediaone Global Entertainment Ltd, a public-listed company that had produced and sold the movie to Eros International. Latha had offered the land as surety to Mediaone.

The movie was an ambitious project made at a cost of Rs 125 crore. It had animated recreations of Rajnikanth and Deepika Padukone in the lead characters, and Oscar-winning AR Rahman set the music. It was launched in 4,000 screens across the world. It also had a delayed launch.

Mediaone had also gone for another loan with Oriental Bank of Commerce for Rs 18 crore that has been repaid, said J Murali Manohar, Director at Mediaone. "We have been paying interest for the last 18 months. The interest component itself would have touched Rs 4.5 crore," said Manohar.

Manohar was unable to put an exact number on gross collections, but said this non-payment was due to a cash flow crunch. Although it had sold the movie to Eros, Mediaone will also gain portion of distribution proceeds. "The Japan sales haven't come, and since this was global launch -- we had launched in the US, Europe, and Japan -- it will take some time for us to get our money back," said Manohar.

If the situation turns worse, Mediaone, which has assets of its own, may have to raise loans against its properties to service this loan, Manohar said.

Latha Rajinikanth was not immediately available for a comment.