In October 2019, the makers of the Kannada film Kotigobba 3 starring Kichcha Sudeep in the lead had a 10-day shoot schedule in Poland. While the shoot has been wrapped up, the Polish crew involved in the shooting of the schedule have accused the makers of non-payment of dues. Bollywood Hungama, spoke to the concerned parties - Mr Soorappa Babu (film producer), Mr Ajay Pal (owner of Vibrant Ltd who coordinated the shoot in Poland), Studio Agart (hired by Vibrant ltd to coordinate with other vendors) - to know the story behind this.
Kotigobba 3 is an action thriller directed by Shiva Karthik. Kichcha Sudeep, Madonna Sebastian and Shraddha Das are playing the lead roles along with Bollywood actor Aftab Shivdasani playing an important role in this movie
Speaking on behalf of the Polish crew, a representative of Studio Agart, told us that Mr Babu (Producer of Kotigobba 3) had paid a certain amount to Mr Pal’s company, Vibrant Ltd, that was coordinating between the Polish and the Indian crew. He said that there is some amount left to be paid from the past six months which has been disrupted because of an ongoing dispute between Mr Babu and Mr. Pal. “There was an entire budget for the line production and Mr. Babu and Mr. Pal have not paid about 30% of what is left to be paid, which leaves a lot of entities unpaid. It left all of the actors and all of the extras unpaid. The transportation company has been left unpaid. The company that was providing chase drones and the people who were operating these vehicles have not been paid. We have not been paid for coordinating the entire production. They didn't pay for things like office space and so on. They chose not to pay for action vehicles thus far. Stagehands have not been paid and are still waiting for their money. So it's a lot of people that are waiting for their money for over half a year.”
On the other hand, Mr Babu who is the producer of the film said that he has made 90-95% payment to Mr. Ajay Pal and that the matter is strictly between the Polish crew and Mr. Pal. “Mr Sanjay Pal, brother of Mr Ajay Pal is the coordinator of the film in Mumbai. I already paid Ajay and Sanjay Pal maximum 90 to 95%. There is a discussion going on between me and the Pal brothers,” the producer said. He said that the ongoing issue is between Mr Ajay Pal and the Polish crew as he has already paid Rs. 3 crores from his side to Mr Pal’s company. Meanwhile, Mr. Babu said that he will be settling the rest of the payment which is around Rs. 25 lakhs after the current situation around the world is back to normal. He added that the Polish crew is “cheating” Mr Ajay Pal with overpriced bills.
Meanwhile, Mr Ajay Pal had something similar to say as Mr Babu. He said that any issue between him and Mr Babu has nothing to do with the Polish crew. “My company, Vibrant Ltd based in Warsaw, Poland hired Studio Agart to coordinate the film shooting as I had no previous experience in film shooting. During the shooting and specially post-shooting a lot of new or changed invoices were issued by few vendors which do not reflect the rates or other understandings which were accepted during the projection of the film budget. All invoices which were issued as per our understanding have been paid (approx 300, 000 USD) but the invoices which have overcharged Vibrant or have not been issued as per original understanding have been blocked by Vibrant. My lawyer and I have approached Studio Agart and have asked to reissue/correct some invoices. For example an invoice is issued for 40,000 Polish Zlotys but it should be around 25,000 Zlotys as per agreed rates. Studio Agart (and other vendors) is neither justifying nor ready to reissue the invoice. The only way left for us is to take the matter to the Polish court as all companies are polish. In fact it's a matter among Polish companies, and Indian film industry has nothing to do with it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Studio Agart which was hired by Mr Ajay Pal’s company to coordinate said that 300,000 US dollars were paid but the estimate was of 400,000 US dollars. “All invoices were being cleared timely until there was a cash drought and Mr. Pal began to claim that he was overcharged while also claiming that he was cheated by Mr. Babu. As of last week, Mr. Pal has claimed not to have any funds to clear payments and that he waits for them from Mr. Babu. We have proof of all of the above as well as proof that the film was completed 9% below the estimated costs and vendors were still not paid,” they said. According to Studio Agart, roughly 400 people are yet to be paid for their services.
We further got in touch with Mr Filip Jurzyk, who was responsible for drone and camera car equipment and crew. He said that from the invoice that was agreed on, he was not paid 18,499 Polish Zloty (approx Rs. 3.4 lakhs). “Every single part of my invoice is confirmed in emails, and nothing is overpriced. I even did a discount for this pathetic person. I will either die or get my money from these thieves. I will never give up. And so will a lot of other Polish people,” he said.
Mr Filip also shared with us the copy of invoices that were agreed upon. “There is nothing new in the invoice, I agreed this in emails that were sent earlier. Except the amount of overtime working hours, but this is obvious - we count overtime hours after the shoot finishes. But in the emails, I wrote that we will charge for overtime hours. So my invoice is correct, work was agreed, rates were confirmed, everything happened professionally,” he said.
Meanwhile, the whole matter will eventually reflect on the release of the film. On February 21, the teaser of the film was released on YouTube. However, it had to be taken down due to a copyright claim. The teaser was however back on YouTube weeks later. But, according to Studio Agart, the teaser was not uploaded on the official website. “If you look closely, yes, the teaser was taken down, and it never reappeared via the same channels. So yes, the actor Kichcha Sudeep, who is actually very kind gentleman, and Mr. Babu claimed that it would reappear but if you look very closely, that video never appeared on the official channels. It's still listed as being down so there is an ongoing copyright issue. And the only thing that I can say is that most definitely neither Mr. Pal nor Mr. Babu have the right to the use of the image of any of the actors because the actors have remained unpaid to be able to use the image of the actors as per standard contract. Payment needs to be made. Obviously timely, not after the film's distribution,” said a Polish crew representative.
Both the parties concerned have vouched to present documents and bills that were agreed upon to prove themselves right and are willing to take the legal route once the pandemic abates.
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