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Chennai: Within 24 hours of its announcement, actor Ranveer Singh’s next movie – a Hindi adaptation of Tamil film Anniyan – was called ‘illegal’ by producer Vishwanathan Ravichandran who released an open letter to director Shankar on social media claiming that the rights of the movie and the story lie with him. Later on Thursday, S Shankar gave an equally strong response claiming that the rights to the story of Anniyan lie with him, and he can exploit the story however he wants to.
S Shankar, who has worked with superstar Rajinikanth in Enthiran, 2.0, and Sivaji The Boss, got Ranveer to do the role originally played by Vikram in Anniyan. The announcement was made by the actor on his social media accounts in a grand manner. However, V Ravichandran claimed that he bought the rights to the story of Anniyan from late writer Sujatha Raganathan who was credited with the dialogue-writing of the film. However, in his response to the producer, Shankar mentioned that it was him solely credited for writing the ‘story, screenplay’ and ‘direction’ of the film. “Everyone associated with the movie was aware that the script and storyline belong exclusively to me and, in fact, the movie was released with the tag: Story, Screenplay, and Direction by Shankar. I have not assigned in writing any script or screenplay to any person, and continue to retain the right to exploit the script in any manner I deem fit. As the admitted author of the literary work, my rights cannot be interfered with under any circumstances,” said Shankar.
Ranveer Singh’s Anniyan Remake is Illegal: Producer V Ravichandran in Open Letter to Shankar
The director added that late Sujatha’s association with Anniyan was not beyond the scope of the ‘dialogue writer’ and she never owned the story rights. “He was not involved in the script, screenplay or characterisation in any manner, and there is no scope beyond his engagement as a dialogue writer. Given that the script vests with me, I am absolutely entitled to exploit the same in any manner I deem fit,” he said.
Shankar went on to call Ravichandran’s open letter an ‘illegal claim’ and an attempt to ‘jeopardise my future projects’. He was quoted as saying, “In the absence of any assignment in writing from me, there can be no basis whatsoever to even assert that the ‘storyline’ vests with you. This reply is issued without prejudice, and to clarify the actual situation of me as a director and writer being subject to such avaricious and illegal claims to needlessly attempt to jeopardise my future projects.”
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Earlier, in his open letter, the producer also claimed that he helped Shankar and showed faith in him when he was struggling with bad phase in his career. He wrote, “Still I have provided you the opportunity to Direct the film Anniyan, after which you gave regained the lost ground, only because of my support. It is a sorry state of affairs that you have conveniently forgotten the same and without even informing me, you have tried to reap the accolades of my successful movie ‘Anniyan’ by associating yourself and adaptation of Hindi version of the same.”
The Hindi remake of Anniyan is set to go on the floors in mid-2021 and the film is scheduled to release by the end of next year of the beginning of 2023.
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