The producer of the Tamil film, Vana Yudham has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay up Rs. 25 lakhs to slain forest brigand Veerappan’s widow V Muthulakshmi.

Veerappan’s widow, Muthulakshmi had earlier appealed to the Chennai High Court in which she had objected to about 32 scenes in the film as intrusion of her privacy following which four cuts were made in the film and given a go-ahead for release.

Muthulakshmi had actually demanded to hold back the screening or releasing the film, ‘Vana Yudham’ in Tamil and ‘Attakasa’ in Kannada saying that the film had some portions that could damage the reputation of her family and they showed her husband Veerappan in bad light.

Muthulakshmi’s lawyer Mr Sanjay Hegde had said that Vana Yudham’s director AMR Ramesh and Muthulakshmi have reached a compromise in an out-of-court settlement that was urged by the Supreme Court. Mr Hegde termed it as a ‘binding agreement’ between both the parties, according to BBC.

Vana Yudham is a story based on the life of the most-feared and notorious forest bandit Veerappan. The bi-lingual (Tamil and Kannada) film stars Kishore, action king Arjun and Vijayalakshmi in lead roles.

Vana Yudham is a said to feature many members of the slain don’s gang in the cast.

The films’ director Mr Ramesh said he has met Muthulakshimi three times when the filming was going on and said he had even asked her to portray the role she played in real life. He added that he has done extensive research for the film and interviewed about 250 people for the film.

The director also stated that the film features interviews with the four men who were found guilty of a 1993 bomb blast in which more than 20 police personnel were put to death.

Vana Yudham promoted in the media as a ‘known story with unknown truths’ has been released yesterday as per schedule.