Tamil cinema is plagued by plagiarism charges. And filmmaker A R Murugadoss is seen as a habitual offender. His Ghajini, 7Am Arivu, Kathi and to-be-released Sarkar have seen allegations of story theft. Sarkar team heaved a sigh of relief when Varun Rajendran, who filed a case in the Madras High Court, withdrew his petition and arrived at a compromise. But social media is agog with memes trolling Murugadoss.
Recently, a lot of Tamil films have seen controversy over copyright issues as far as the story is concerned. Pa Ranjith’s Madras was allegedly lifted from a story called Karuppar Nagaram. Remember, assistant director Gopi filed a case against A R Murugadoss alleging that Kathi’s plot was his idea. He even filed a case in a City Civil Court. Rajini-starrer Lingaa faced a controversy when assistant director Ravi Rathnam claimed it was his story. These cases are still pending in various courts.
What is the way forward? Filmmakers should come up with genuine, own stories. And in case they are inspired by the works of any other individual, due credit should be given to them. Today, in this age of social media, anything inspired or copied comes out in the open in seconds. Also, the Producers Council, Directors Union and Writers Association should hold workshops on a regular basis. Story and screenplay writing workshops are the need of the hour.