Malayalam smash hit movie Drishyam’s Tamil remake, titled Papanasam, has had a variety of legal troubles but the most prominent among them was the petition filed by Dr Satheesh Paul claiming that Drishyam was a blatant rip off of his novel Oru Mazhakkalathu.
Jeethu Joseph and team who made the original movie have of course denied this but the legal proceedings have continued. There was even a day when the entire Malayalam movie was screened in court for evidence processing.
Meanwhile, Papanasam was actually taking shape with new cast members being announced and the hype surrounding the flick increasing day by day.
But now the Ernakulam Additional Sessions Court has passed a judgement temporarily stopping the Tamil flick’s production. It seems the court has indeed found grounds for a case of copyright violation and/or intellectual property theft.
However, the court has also provided a provision wherein the shooting may continue if an amount of money or a guarantee of such an amount is paid to Dr Satheesh Paul, as a kind of compensation.
Dr Paul, was according to himself, planning to make a movie of his own based on the novel.
Some questions do remain unanswered though – like how come Dr Paul waited for more than 8 months or so before recognizing that the blockbuster hit in Malayalam resembled his own novel… Something Jeethu Jospeh pointed out as suspect.
In any case, as of now, Papanasam’s fate is undecided. The movie was to star Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Haasan as the protagonist and his real life spouse Gauthami as his on screen wife. Niveda Thomas, the young Malayali actress was to play their daughter.
Kalabhavan Mani was announced as the villainous cop and Asha Sharath would reprise her role from the Malayalam flick.
Only the days to come will decide how this legal mess turns out…
Meanwhile, keep following Chitramala for more updates from tinsel town!
