Actor Dhanush has filed a civil suit in the Madras High Court against actress Nayanthara, her husband and filmmaker Vignesh Sivan, and their company Rowdy Pictures Private Limited. The case concerns the alleged unauthorized use of visuals from Dhanush’s 2015 production, Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, in Nayanthara’s Netflix documentary, Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale.
The suit, filed through Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films Private Limited, also names Los Gatos Production Services India LLP, a Mumbai-based entity associated with Netflix. Dhanush’s team has sought the court’s permission to sue Los Gatos, invoking specific provisions of the Letters Patent. The court granted the request, citing its jurisdiction over the matter, and issued a notice requiring Nayanthara to respond in the next hearing.
This legal dispute follows Nayanthara’s public accusation that Dhanush harbored a personal grudge by withholding permission to use footage from the film. She claimed that after editing the documentary to exclude the contentious material, Dhanush served a legal notice demanding ₹10 crore for allegedly using three seconds of behind-the-scenes footage.
The controversy comes amidst reports of tension between the actors, who avoided interacting during a recent wedding in Chennai. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, a pivotal film in both Nayanthara’s career and personal life, marked the beginning of her relationship with Vignesh, whom she married in 2022.