The Madras High Court on Friday cleared the way for the theatrical release of Atharvaa-starrer Idhayam Murali. Justice K. Kumaresh Babu declined to issue an interim injunction sought by director Sudha Kongara, who had previously helmed Dawn Pictures’ Parasakthi starring Siva Karthikeyan.
The judge stated that Kongara and Dawn Pictures must settle their financial disagreement through arbitration. Kongara and her management firm, Undertow Professional Services Private Limited, had claimed that Dawn Pictures owed her ₹8.39 crore out of an agreed ₹15 crore fee for directing Parasakthi.
They asserted that principal photography for the film ran from January 2025 to November 2025 and that all timelines were met, yet payments remained outstanding. They asked the court to block the July 10, 2026 release of Idhayam Murali, directed by Akash Baskaran, to recover the dues.
Dawn Pictures countered that Kongara had already received ₹4.12 crore from 2D Entertainment for script work on the same project and had terminated an earlier agreement after that payment. The company said it acquired the film’s intellectual property rights for ₹5.8 crore and had paid Kongara ₹8.5 crore excluding GST. It argued that any remaining financial issues, including counterclaims, should be resolved by an arbitral tribunal rather than through an injunction on the new film.
