How Sridevi's fight with Tamil producer over remuneration earned 'money-minded actress' tag from Vijay fans

Sridevi Kapoor's journey in films started in Tamil cinema at the age of four. She acted in plenty of memorable roles across South Indian film industries, before becoming the first Lady Superstar of the Indian cinema. However, she did not act in Kollywood, where her career started, for almost three decades after becoming an established name in the Hindi film industry.

Vijay's Advice Made her Return to Kollywood
She was brought on board for Puli on the advice of Vijay and this turned out to be her last Tamil movie. Unfortunately, this project turned out to be not-so-memorable project for her as it only brought embarrassment than appreciation. The film failed to garner appreciation, but above all, she was forced to fight with the producer to recover her remuneration.

What is the Story all about?
Her husband Boney Kapoor had filed a complaint with the Mumbai's producer council that the makers of Puli owe them Rs 50 lakh after the film's release. This did not go well with the producers, who came out with a four-page letter to slam Kapoor and claimed that the makers had agreed to pay Rs 2.7 crore as her remuneration along with Rs 30 lakh service tax.

"We were paying her as per the agreement she had signed at the beginning of the film. However, in the final stages of production, Sridevi's husband Boney Kapoor asked us to pay her extra as we were planning to release the film in other languages too," read the statement.

Boney Kapoor Insisted
According to the producer's statement, Sridevi refused to come to shot until her remuneration was settled. "After much deliberation, we decided to pay her 20 percent of the film's Hindi satellite rights, which was Rs.55 lakh, and Rs.15 lakh for the dubbed Telugu version," the statement added. It claimed that Boney Kapoor insisted them to dub the movie in Hindi stating that she had a market in Bollywood.

"We had hired three costume designers for 'Puli', but Sridevi insisted that we sign Manish Malhotra, and we paid him Rs.50 lakh. She also convinced us to pay Rs.8 lakh for the marketing designer for the film's Hindi version," the statement claimed.

The producer alleged that they had already spent in crores for Sridevi's sake and despite fulfilling her demands, she did not turn up for the audio launch function of the Vijay-starrer.

Later, the issue was amicable solved, but this controversy could have been avoided as it landed her in an embarrassing situation. The fans of Vijay had slammed her on social media for acting pricey when Vijay, Sudeep and Shruti Haasan had taken a cut in their salaries after the makers faced financial issues during the release. 

In fact, she was called "a money-minded actress" by the fans. In the end, tt also did not become a memorable film as the mega-budget project bombed at the box office. All in all, her comeback film to Kollywood disappeared from theates without a trace.