The long-delayed release of Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Dhruva Natchathiram has received a fresh legal development, with the Madras High Court dismissing appeals filed by two investors against an earlier order that cleared the way for the film’s release.
According to the latest proceedings, a division bench comprising Justices P Velmurugan and K Govindarajan Thilakavadi dismissed original side appeals filed by investors K Punniyamoorthy and K Premkumar. The appeals had challenged an April 30 order passed by Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy permitting the release of the Vikram-starrer.
In a parallel development, Justice K Kumaresh Babu took up filmmaker Gautham Menon’s petition seeking additional time to release the film. The director has now requested that the court grant him time until July 31, 2026, to complete the process.
However, the court did not pass an immediate order on the request and adjourned the matter to Wednesday (June 17). Justice Kumaresh Babu observed that the plea would be considered after receiving and examining a copy of the Division Bench judgement delivered earlier in the day.
The legal dispute surrounding Dhruva Natchathiram stems from financial issues connected to Gautham Menon’s earlier project Enai Noki Paayum Thota. Investors Premkumar and Punniyamoorthy had entered into a distribution arrangement with Escape Artists Motion Pictures’ Madan Pandy in 2016. Subsequent disagreements over financial settlements led to arbitral proceedings.
A compromise was later reached through a memorandum of understanding signed in 2018, under which the investors were allotted 50 per cent rights associated with Dhruva Natchathiram through Madan, who was then linked to Kondaduvom Entertainment along with Gautham Menon and Reshma Ghatala.
The investors subsequently moved court in 2023 and secured an interim order restraining the film’s release, contributing to the prolonged delay of the project, which has remained unreleased for years despite multiple announced release plans.
