Ravikumar alleges plagiarism of Tamil movies in other languages

Renowned director K.S. Ravikumar has alleged that leading film-makers in many languages are keenly looking at Tamil films and are not afraid of ‘lifting’ the screenplay and stories from successful and new Tamil films. At a time when Tamil film industry is facing an allegation that most of its films are either remakes or ‘modified’ versions of successful films in other languages, Ravikumar’s allegations deserve a closer look.

Ravikumar was taking part in the audio-launch of the film Vilaiyaada Vaa directed by K. Vijayananda and starring Viswanath Balaji and Divya Padmini in lead roles. The film’s script is based on carom, a popular indoor game. The makers inform that this is the first a film based on the sport is being made in Tamil. The audio launch of the film was held on the other day in the premises of Chennai’s Prasad Laboratories.

Releasing the film’s audio-cassettes and CDs, Ravikumar said: “Nowadays, script writers are not given the respect they well and truly deserve. Kamalesh Kumar, the script-writer of Vilaiyaada Vaa, took part in the story discussion of one of my films more than a decade back. Still, he is toiling without getting a big break and isn’t finding the right platform to display his talents. He wrote the story and screenplay of Ethiri which I directed a few years back.

“The script and major sequences of the film Ethiri have been ‘lifted’ conveniently for a recent Telugu film which I saw. Ironically enough, the Telugu film was remade in Tamil starring a popular hero wherein the hero and his friends would storm into a marriage hall and ‘rescue’ the bride from a marriage she is not in favour of. By mistake, they abduct the heroine and not the actual bride. Kamalesh had also penned a script about stealing of bikes which has also been made into another film. This trend is highly condemnable,” said Ravikumar.

It’s a strange coincidence that both the films referred to by Ravikumar are Dhanush-starrers!