Sarkar faces fresh legal trouble with just a week left for its release in India. Writer Varun Rajendran, who had slapped a plagiarism complaint against the film earlier this year, has since filed a case against the team with the Madras High Court. He has asked for his petition to be heard by the bench as soon as possible, following which a date has been set. Sources tell us that the case will be heard today.
Varun Rajendran, alleging that the movie is a blatant copy of his Sengol, submitted a complaint to the South Indian Writers Association earlier this year and said that AR Murugadoss, the director of Sarkar, had plagiarised his script (registered with SWAN in 2007) to make Sarkar.
Bhagyaraj, President of SWAN, was leading the efforts to determine if Rajendran’s accusations were true. It is believed that he has decided to support Rajendran in the issue. There has been no official confirmation yet.
Rajendran has thus far refused to comment on his allegations to Silverscreen. AR Murugadoss, when contacted, maintained his innocence and said that justice will ultimately prevail.
Anbu Rajasekar, an aspiring film director, also has plans to file a complaint against AR Murugadoss, actor Vijay, Kaththi cinematographer George C Williams, producers Subhaskaran and Karunamoorthy with the Chennai city police commissioner today.
In his conversation with Silverscreen, Anbu said that he sent his short film based on the plight of Tamil Nadu’s farmers titled Thagaboomi (Parched Earth) to AR Murugadoss in a bid to secure the position of an assistant director in his next film. The short film has themes that are strikingly similar to that of AR Murugadoss’ Kaththi, said Anbu. “I emailed AR Murugadoss asking for a job with him. I directed Thagaboomi in 2012 and I had attached it to the email. I wanted to show him what I was capable of. So I sent my work.”
Anbu said he received no response. Shortly thereafter, Kaththi was announced. The film drew inspiration from his short film, alleged Anbu. He repeatedly sought legal help but his efforts were to no avail as AR Murugadoss and Lyca Productions’ formidable PR team closed ranks around them.
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“In this case, the Tamil Nadu police are my only option. I will meet the commissioner and ask him for help in my case. I have named five people in my complaint but the main culprit is AR Murugadoss. He has cheated me of my hard work.”
Anbu Rajasekar added that he will ask for a ban on a movies directed by AR Murugadoss.
The spokesperson for Sarkar and Sun Pictures, the production company financing the project, is optimistic that the case filed by Varun Rajendran will be decided in their favour.
This is not the first time that AR Murugadoss has been accused of plagiarism. The director was accused by Gopi Nainar of stealing his script to make Kaththi. The allegations were later withdrawn by Gopi, following which Kaththi released.