The Madras High Court has refused to grant an injunction against the OTT release of the Tamil action film Valimai, in the case filed by the producer of Metro (2016) alleging that several portions of the Ajith Kumar-starrer were copied from his film.
Produced by Boney Kapoor under his Bayview Projects banner in association with Zee Studios, Valimai was released in theatres in February. Recently, the makers announced that, post its one-month theatrical run, the film will now have its digital premiere on ZEE5 on Friday.
Written and directed by H Vinoth, the film features Ajith as a cop trying to break down a drug and chain snatching racket run using unemployed youth. Also starring actors Huma S Qureshi, Karthikeya, Bani, Sumithra, Achyunth Kumar, Raj Ayyappa, and Pugazh, Valimai opened to mixed reviews, but was particularly praised for its bike stunts.
In early March, producer J Jayakrishnan had moved the Madras High Court alleging that Valimai is a substantial copy of his 2016 Tamil film Metro.
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In his suit, the producer had claimed that Metro introduced a new plot to the Tamil film industry, connecting the themes of unemployment, chain snatching, and drug racket. The Metro producer further said that he had received calls and messages from people who told him that Valimai had several elements lifted from his film, and when he watched the Ajith-starrer himself, he too found a lot of similarities. He, thus, demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore from Vinoth and Kapoor.
However, in the latest hearing of the case, Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that, on first impression, there appeared to be no case made out by the producer of Metro for copyright infringement on the part of the makers of Valimai. Thus, the court refused to grant an injunction against the release of the Ajith-starrer on the OTT platform.