Filmmaker Shankar recently announced a collaboration with Ranveer Singh for the Hindi remake of the superhit Tamil-language psychological thriller, Anniyan (Aparachit in Hindi). While the fans of the movie and Ranveer Singh have been eagerly waiting for more developments, the producer of the original flick accused Shankar of exploiting remake rights in an open letter.
V Ravichandran, the producer of Anniyan, wrote to Shankar and claimed that he owns the exclusive rights to remake or adapt the story of Anniyan and demanded the director to immediately stop the production. In a response, Shankar has penned down a letter in reply to the legal soup and claimed that the story belongs to him and he has all the rights for the remake.
Dear Sir, Greetings for the day, I am shocked to receive your mail dated 14.04.2021 stating that you own the storyline of the movie Anniyan. In this context, I submit that the movie was released in the year 2005 and everyone associated with the movie were aware that the script and storyline belongs exclusively to me and in fact the movie was released with the tag: Story, Screenplay and Direction by Shankar. I have not assigned in writing any script or screenplay to any person, and continue to retain the right to exploit the script in any manner I deem fit. As the admitted author of the literary work, my rights cannot be interfered with under any circumstances,” the letter read.
Shankar further mentioned the role of late writer Sri Sujatha in the movie and said that he was only involved as a dialogue writer and had no scope in script, screenplay or characterization in any manner. “Given that the script vests with me, I am absolutely entitled to exploit the same in any manner I deem fit. Infact, you/your entity does not have the right to remake or make any derivative rights for “Anniyan”, as the said rights have not been granted to you in writing. In the absence of any assignment in writing from me, there can be no basis whatsoever to even assert that the “storyline” vests with you.”
“You as the producer have gained substantially from the success of the film “Anniyan”, and are needlessly trying to unjustly enrich yourself even in my future endeavours which have no correlation to you. Needless to state, I can only hope good sense will prevail upon you after this clarification and you will stop agitating such baseless claims. This reply is issued without prejudice, and to clarify the actual situation of me as a director and writer being subject to such avaricious and illegal claims to needlessly attempt to jeopardise my future projects,” Shankar concluded his letter to V Ravichandran.
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