After Vijay's "Kaththi," Rajinikanth's "Lingaa" is facing allegations of a stolen storyline.
Ravi Rathinam, an aspiring filmmaker, has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking to stall the release of "Lingaa" claiming that the film's storyline is the same as his film "Mullai Vanam 999," which is based on the construction of Mullaperiyar dam.
Rathinam had claimed that he had uploaded a video relating to his film on YouTube and accused the "Lingaa" team of stealing the storyline. He has filed a writ petition ordering an inquiry to "find the true authorship and ownership of the single storyline," reported The Times of India.
Justice M Venugopal of the court's Madurai Bench admitted the petition and ordered issue of notice to Rajinikanth, "Lingaa" director K.S. Ravikumar, producer Rockline Venkatesh, writer Ponkumar, Director-General of Police (DGP) and also to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
According to Peter Ramesh Kumar, the counsel for the petitioner, Rajinikanth's name has been included as a respondent in the case as the actor has acquired the distribution rights of the film, reported The Hindu.
While the court has ordered notices to be issued, it has refused to pass interim orders to stop "Lingaa" team from holding the audio release function, scheduled for 16 November.
The issue comes on the heels of "Kaththi" director Murugadoss facing similar allegations. A struggling director named Minjur Gopi had filed a case against Murugadoss alleging that the director had used his story.
A video showing Gopi accusing Murugadoss of cheating and stealing his story was doing the rounds on social media sites. The director had earlier filed a case in the Chennai city civil court claiming ownership of "Kaththi" story, but the court dismissed the petition.
Gopi once again appealed to the court alleging that his story has been stolen by Murugadoss. However, on Wednesday, he withdrew his case for reasons that are not known. "This is just one of the legal proceedings and I do not want to disclose my next move as that will alert my opponent," Gopi told TOI.
Meanwhile, director Murugadoss has filed a defamation case against Gopi.
