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Shankar responds to Anniyan producer’s allegations: 'Script, story belong to me'

ByHaricharan Pudipeddi
Apr 16, 2021 10:15 PM IST

Filmmaker Shankar has released a statement in which he responded to allegations made by producer Ravichandran over Hindi remake of his film Anniyan.

Filmmaker Shankar and producer Aascar Ravichandran are at loggerheads over the Hindi remake rights of the Tamil film Anniyan. A day after producer Ravichandran threatened to take the legal course if Shankar goes ahead with the plan to remake Anniyan in Hindi, the filmmaker has responded in a statement that he exclusively owns the right to the film’s script and story.

Anniyan's Hindi remake will star Ranveer Singh, while the Tamil original featured Vikram.

On Thursday evening, Shankar released a statement in which he responded to allegations made by producer Ravichandran over Hindi remake of his film Anniyan.

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In a statement, Shankar wrote: “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 was aware that the script and storyline belong 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.”

Shankar went on to clarify that late writer Sujatha was only involved in writing the dialogues of the film and had nothing to do with the story.

“Sujatha was not involved in the script, screenplay or characterization in any manner, and there is no scope beyond his engagement as a dialogue writer. Given that the script vests with me, I am absolutely entitled to exploit the same in any manner I deem fit. In fact, 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."

Shankar pointed out that Ravichandran gained substantially from the success of Anniyan, which had released in 2005 and starred Vikram, Sada and Prakash Raj in the lead roles.

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“You 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 added.

On Wednesday, Shankar was kicked about teaming up with Ranveer Singh. He said in a tweet that only he could play the lead role in the movie.

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