Script theft claims continues in Kollywood circle

Goli Soda
Cinematographer-turned-director Vijay Milton’s recently-released sophomore effort Goli Soda came in for all-round praise but then came the story theft allegation, which somewhat dampened the euphoria around it.

KI presents some of the films that have come under the scanner on account of the same charge…

Goli Soda

A blogger, named World Cinema Fan, accused Milton of having used the story of another writer, Viswamitran, who had spent months in Koyambedu researching on the place and the people, without crediting the person. However, the director vehemently denied the charge and mentioning that he had nothing to hide, he even shared the blogpost that had the allegation on his social networking pages.

Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya

Veteran filmmaker K Bhagyaraj filed a suit against the makers of the Santhanam film stating that it was adapted from his 1981-film Indru Poi Naalai Vaa without his permission. Finding merit in his case, the court ordered the makers to include a thanks card to the director in the title credits of the film and also mention that the story is inspired from the earlier film.

Thaandavam

Ponnusamy, who has assisted Radhamohan, claimed that he had met a studio head and given him a script about a visually-challenged man plotting revenge, which the studio had made into Thaandavam with director Vijay. The producers and Vijay clarified that though the premise sounded similar, the two films were different. However, some office bearers in the Directors’ Union resigned, condemning the “injustice meted out to Ponnusamy”.

Pandiya Naadu

Soon after the release of Pandiya Naadu, Bhuvana Rajan, a one-time assistant of Suseenthiran, alleged that the director had taken two of his story lines and combined them to create the film. Suseenthiran rubbished the claim saying that he had only used one input from the former in the film. He stated that Bhuvana Rajan was trying to seek publicity using his name and added that he will file a complaint against him in the Directors’ Union.

Gravity

It is not only Tamil films that have come under the story-theft charge. S Paranjothi, an assistant director in the Tamil film industry, claimed that the Hollywood film Gravity was, in fact, lifted from his script. He claimed that he had narrated a story to an Indian distributor of Hollywood films from Australia, and had even registered his script at the Writers Guild of America in 2011, and alleged that the makers had tweaked his script to come up with the Oscar-nominated film.

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