Vadivelu acted as hero in 'Eli' directed by Santhosh Dayalan and produced by Sathish Kumar. It is said that the film's budget went beyond what was planned and Sathish had to procure a loan of rupees one and a half crores from a friend Ramkumar promising to repay it back as two crores including the interst. Vadivelu reportedly provided collateral signature for the amount.

'Eli' released in 2015 flopped miserably and the content was so bad that critics wrote of the end of Vadivelu era in Tamil cinema. For the past three years Ramkumar had tried to get back his loan amount to no avail. He filed a case against Vadivelu and Sathishkumar and the cops have arrested Sathish and since he has no means of repayment their focus is now on Vadivelu.

Vadivelu already is mired in the controversy as he stopped working on '24 AM Pulikesi' produced by Shankar and directed by Chimbu Devan citing petty reasons. Shankar had approached the Nadigar Sangam and Producers Council demanding that Vadivelu either complete the film as agreed or pay back the nine crore rupees spent so far on his salary and shooting.