Duo had been married to each other for 24 years.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Priyadarshan’s early Malayalam movies made moviegoers leave the theatre with moist eyes. The veteran Malayalam director, who entered the Bollywood industry too, found himself in a similar position after the court intervened to compromise the matrimonial dispute with his wife Lissy.
Lissy, a prominent Malayalam actress before getting married to Priyadarshan, had filed a divorce petition accusing the director of domestic violence.
The celebrities decided to come down to the compromise table after the intervention of Justice KK Sasidharan. Now, the couple will go for a mutual divorce, withdrawing all existing cases.
But the compromise has caused Priyadarshan his famous preview theatre Four Frames, and Lissy her stake in their second sound theatre. The director, when first approached the court, had stated that both properties were under his absolute ownership.
Lissy had maintained a strong position that the assets should be partitioned into two and one share to be handed over to her with all rights of possession.
The couple had been fighting a divorce case and two domestic violence cases, one in Egmore Magistrate court filed by Lissy and the other one in the high court filed by Priyadarshan.
With the intervention of the court, the couple has finally comes to a settlement – largely after considering the responsibility to protect their children.
Priyadarshan agreed that he will accept the mutual petition if Lissy withdrew the allegations levelled against him in the divorce petition.
A memorandum of compromise was executed by the couple on January 28, as per which they will pursue divorce by mutual consent and withdraw all pending cases and allegations against each other.
The settlement cost Priyadarshan his preview studio Four Frames Entertainment and Dubbing at Lake Area in Nungambakkam including the equipment and fixtures. In return, Lissy agreed to give her share of the Four Frames mixing studio.
The settlement also says Priyadarshan will not have any stake over the gold ornaments they declared in their wealth tax returns and a Singapore property worth Rs. 6 crores would either have to be sold or any one of the spouse can purchase the others share to claim the complete ownership of it.
Marine Drive flat in Cochin owned by Priyadarshan will also go to Lissy and so does his shares in Grand Motors Sales Corporation in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Both Priyadarshan and Lissy submitted that henceforth they would be good friends without bearing any ill will or bad blood,” wrote Justice Sasidharan in his order.
Priyadarshan and Lissy have been married for 24 years and have two children – daughter Kalyani and son Sidharthan who are studying in the United States.
Besides doing movies in Malayalam and Hindi languages, Priyadarshan has directed five films in Tamil and two in Telugu.
Priyadarshan’s Tamil movie Kanchivaram was selected as the best feature film at the 2007 National Film Awards. His other notable films are Kaalapani, Chithram, Kilukkam, Thenmavin Kombathu etc. It was his friendship with actor Mohanlal that got into movies.
He fell in love with Lissy, who was a familiar face in most of his earlier Malayalam movies, and they got married on December 13, 1990. After the marriage Lissy adopted Hindu religion from Arya Samaj.