The Chennai High Court has directed director-actor Perarasu to pay a ‘maintenance fee’ of Rs.15,000 per month to his wife to take care of herself and their child. Perarasu, who hails from Sivagangai District’s Nattarasankottai, has made many hit movies starring Vijay and Vijaykanth including ‘Tirupachi’, ‘Sivakasi’ & ‘Dharmapuri’. He also made ‘Tirupathi’ starring Ajith in the lead.

Perarasu married Santhi of Bhavani in the year 2000 when he was still an assistant director who was trying his best to become a director. The couple has a daughter named Vridhika. It appears that at the time of marriage, Santhi’s family had paid Perarasu huge dowry in the form of cash and jewellery.

After Perarasu made it to the list of bankable directors in the industry, the couple developed irreconcilable differences among themselves as a result of which Santhi preferred to move to her mother’s place and reside there with the child in the year 2005.

Santhi then filed a writ petition with a Bhavani Court requesting it to re-unite her husband with her. Due to personal reasons, Santhi couldn’t appear for the hearings and the Court granted the divorce (on ex-parte bases) on the terms sought by Perarasu. Santhi then filed another case with the Family Court in Chennai in which she stated that she couldn’t attend the hearings as she had shifted her residence and had requested the Court to pronounce the Bhavani Court’s judgment as ‘null and void’.

While a judgment is yet to be delivered on the issue, Santhi filed a separate case seeking maintenance fee of Rs.15,000 (Rs.10,000 for self and Rs.5,000 for the child) per month to take care of herself and the child. The Bhawani Court ruled that Perarasu should pay Rs.15,000 as desired by Santhi. When Perarasu appealed to Chennai High Court seeking dismissal of the Bhawani Court’s ruling in this regard, the High Court upheld the ruling and ordered him to start paying the fee as directed.

The petition of the director was dismissed as ‘dispossed’.