Shiva, an aspiring director, has claimed that Atlee has copied and developed on the story of Thalapathy 63 from his short film based on a women’s football team. He has raised a complaint with the South Indian Film Writers’ Association and will be moving court soon, reports Cinema Dinamalar.
Unconfirmed reports state that Shiva (some reports say KP Selva) approached leading production houses with the story for a feature film, and one of the producers leaked the idea to Atlee. The Writers’ Union reportedly cannot involve in the matter as Shiva is a new member and union rules state that members have to be with them for at least 6 months before complaints can be taken up.
It must be noted that Vijay-starrer Mersal directed by Atlee, and Sarkar by AR Murugadoss, also faced plagarism charges, and the cases are currently sub-judice. The charges against Mersal were raised by producer Kathiresan, who said the script was similar to Moondru Mugam. Sarkar was accused of being plagarised from Murugadoss’ assistant director, Varun Rajendran’s Sengol.
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The spokesperson for Thalapathy 63 told Silverscreen that such claims were becoming a fashion now. “Without even knowing the story, how can the rights be claimed? Football-based films are made in Hindi, unique movies on Kabbadi are being made. Not all can come forward and say the story is theirs. Everyone has an imagination, and sometimes coincidences happen.”
He added that the issue will be dealt with by the associations concerned after the release of the film.
Initial reports said that Thalapathy 63 is a sports drama. It was later clarified that the story is also an investigative thriller with Vijay as a football team’s coach who gets framed for the murder of someone. Nayanthara stars as the female lead, Indhuja Ravichandran may play the captain of the sports team.
Shooting is currently underway in Chennai’s East Coast Road where a football stadium reportedly costing the team Rs 6 crore was constructed.
#Thalapathy63 Big Set Almost Completed.. ??? pic.twitter.com/ua4aty1Ddy
— #Thalapathy63 (@VIJAY63FanPage) March 31, 2019
Thalapathy 63 is Vijay and director Atlee’s third film after Theri and Mersal, both big-budget movies. The film’s main star cast also features Kathir, Vivekh, Yogi Babu, Soundara Raja, gaana singer Kapish Poovaiyaar and others. AR Rahman is the music composer, Vivek is the lyricist. The film is produced by Archana Kalapthi under the banner of AGS Entertainments.