K.S. Ravikumar, director of the Rajinikanth-starrer Lingaa , has denied the allegation that he had stolen the script of an aspiring filmmaker, K.R. Ravi Rathinam of Madurai. The latter made the claim in a writ petition filed before the Madras High Court Bench here last week.
In a counter-affidavit filed on Tuesday, Mr. Ravikumar said the script was penned by S. Ponkumaran of Chennai, who had registered himself with the South Indian Film Writers’ Association in 2010 under the title ‘King Khan.’ “Though the basic storyline of the eighth respondent [Mr. Ponkumaran] has been taken for this film, the screenplay has been done by me, and several other original elements have been added to it… Hence, the allegations levelled by the petitioner are not only false but also mischievous,” he said.
Pointing out that the petitioner claimed to have uploaded his story, based on the construction of the Mullaperiyar dam, on YouTube only on February 24, 2013, Mr. Ravikumar said: “No one can claim right over the theme of a hero constructing a dam and protecting it from anti-social elements.”
Further accusing the petitioner of filing the case with the intention of gaining undue publicity and holding the filmmakers to ransom, the director said a criminal complaint reportedly lodged by the petitioner with the Director-General of Police and other officials did not make out any offence.
“ Lingaa has been produced with a huge investment running into several crores of rupees and is tentatively scheduled for release on December 12… This flimsy and vexatious litigation has been … filed in the Madurai Bench only to harass the filmmakers and force us to pay ransom to the petitioner,” he said.
Mr. Ponkumaran also filed a separate, but identical, counter-affidavit endorsing Mr. Ravikumar’s statement as the case will be heard by Justice M. Venugopal on Wednesday.
