Puri Jagannadh, Charmee accused of cheating

Puri Jagannadh and Charmee were accused of cheating an amount worth a whopping Rs 40 cr.

It is known that Puri Jagannadh and Charmee co-produced Double iSmart, which featured Ram in the lead role. The film was released amidst huge expectations as it is the sequel to the blockbuster film iSmart Shankar. However, the film turned out to be a huge disaster.

Now, Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy, who acquired the Double iSmart distribution rights on their Prime Show banner for a whopping sum, landed in unwanted trouble. According to them, they put a condition that Puri Jagannadh should sort out the other financial losses related to Liger, etc before the release of Double iSmart ahead of 1 Aug, more than two weeks before Double iSmart release. But the issues remained unresolved, and it impacted the smooth release of Double iSmart on 14 Aug, with the morning shows getting delayed.

Chaitanya Reddy said they lost more than Rs 35- 40 cr due to the film's failure. She said Puri Jagannath and Charmee came to her virtually begging and indulged in emotional talk to bail them out to ensure the film release on 15 Aug 2024. She said that if they didn't, Puri and Charmi's career would come to an end and when they promised to make films in future and also promised to make films in case of Double iSmart failure. She said when she insisted on the agreement be rewritten, they just gave word of mouth making several false promises.

She said they finally agreed to release the film to their emotional blackmail, but once the release of the film, and the huge disastrous outing, Charmee blocked her number and Puri Jagannath changed his number. She said finally when they traced them and met them in Mumbai, Charmi demanded a whopping Rs 15 cr as remuneration , 50% share in profit and also story of their choice to make another film with them. She said they conveniently went back on their compensation promise.

---- Pramod Nandivada