The long, troubled road to release for Gautham Vasudev Menon’s spy thriller Dhruva Natchathiram: Chapter One – Yuddha Kaandham has taken another turn — this time back into the Madras High Court. The director has filed a plea asking for a 30-day extension to release the “Chiyaan” Vikram film, pushing his target from June 15 to July 15, 2026, after telling the court his team couldn’t meet the original deadline despite extensive efforts.
His application was set to be heard by Justice K. Kumaresh Babu on June 15. On the same day, a Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi was due to rule on related appeals from investors K. Punniamoorthy and K. Premkumar, who are challenging an earlier order that cleared the film for release.
How the film got stuck
The dispute, oddly, has little to do with Dhruva Natchathiram itself. It traces back to a March 2016 distribution agreement between the two investors and producer Madan Pandy of Escape Artists Motion Pictures, tied to Menon’s earlier film Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2019). When that deal soured, arbitration led to a 2018 settlement in which Pandy — a partner alongside Menon and producer Reshma Ghatala in Kondaduvom Entertainment — handed over 50% of his rights in Dhruva Natchathiram to the investors to cover his liabilities.
Using that stake, the investors went to the High Court in 2023 and secured an injunction, locking the finished, expensive film away just as its buzz was building around the release of Leo.
The April breakthrough
The deadlock eased on April 30, 2026, when Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy lifted the injunction. He noted that keeping a completed film in a vault for years helped no one, and harmed the many actors and technicians whose work stayed frozen with it.
He allowed a release on or before June 15, but with safeguards for creditors: all theatrical revenue, advances and satellite income must flow through a single monitored Kondaduvom Entertainment escrow account, overseen by advocates M.V. Swaroop and H.S. Hredai. No partner can draw any salary or profit without the court’s clearance, and old production debts must be cleared first.
That same order let Menon return to ask for more time if a release proved impossible despite genuine effort — which is exactly the provision he has now invoked.
A crowded summer
Beyond settling with creditors such as Marina Holdings and Trident Arts under the overseers’ watch, the film faces a packed box office. Ram Charan’s Peddi, the highest-grossing film of 2026 so far, has dominated screens across South India, while Mohanlal’s Drishyam 3 is holding strong. Finding a clean window for a big multi-format spy thriller — with a cast including Vinayakan, Ritu Varma, Simran and Radikaa Sarathkumar — is no small task. The June 15 court decisions will determine whether Vikram’s agent “John” finally reaches theatres or waits one more month.
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