The Madras High Court on Friday restrained Thenandal Studios, represented by its director N. Ramasamy, from using the title Mersal for its upcoming Tamil movie starring actor Vijay.
The interim injunction was granted till October 3 on a civil suit preferred by A. Rajendran of Film Factori.
Justice Anita Sumanth passed the interim order after the petitioner claimed to have registered a similar title Merrasalaitan, as well as Naan Merrasalaitan, with the Tamil Film Producers Council in 2015.
Mr. Rajendran also claimed to have been renewing the registration every year after the payment of necessary charges.
In his affidavit, Mr. Rajendran said that he had selected the title Merrasalaitan in 2015 for launching his son as a hero in the film industry.
However, he came to know through the producers’ council that the title had already been registered by Green Apple Pictures owned by Mohammed Sadiq in 2014.
NOC obtained
Immediately, a no objection certificate was obtained from Mr. Sadiq to transfer the registration to the name of Mr. Rajendran. In the meantime, the latter registered the script of his movie with the South Indian Film Writers Association and reportedly commenced the shooting on August 22 last year. “While that being so, I was shocked to know that there was another film titled Mersal , starring actor Vijay. On seeing the film’s advertisement material released on June 20, 2017, I filed a complaint with the Tamil Film Producers Council by a letter dated June 21, 2017 along with proof of registration of the title Merrasalaitan in my name,”he said.
