Sun Pictures, the producer of Sarkar, has reportedly reached a compromise with assistant director Varun Rajendran, who alleged that the story of Sarkar was lifted from his Sengol.
Insiders with knowledge of the issue say that Rajendran’s team and Producer Sun Pictures, and director AR Murugadoss reached a compromise on October 29. Details of the arrangement are not known yet. Spokespersons for Sun Pictures and director AR Murugadoss chose not to comment.
Varun Rajendran registered his script with the South Indian Film Writers Union in 2007. He filed a petition with the Madras HC earlier this month, seeking remuneration of Rs 30 lakhs from director AR Murugadoss and producer Kalanidhi Madan of Sun Pictures for his story. He also asked for a writing credit on the film.
The case came up for hearing today. Since Varun Rajendran ‘s lawyers were reportedly not present, the HC decided to pass over, and will deliver a verdict only after hearing Varun’s arguments.
Sarkar, starring Vijay, Keerthi Suresh, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar in lead roles, is scheduled to release on November 6. This is the third film to come out of the Vijay – AR Murugadoss partnership.
Incidentally, this is also the third time, overall, that Murugadoss has been accused of plagiarism.
Even his earlier works Ghajini, Ramana were alleged to be copies of other language films.
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The director has consistently been accused of stealing ideas to make his movies. In 2014, Minjur Gopi (now Gopi Nainar) accused the director of stealing his script to make Kaththi starring Vijay and Samantha Akkineni. Murugadoss defended himself and said that Kaththi was based on an original story. Gopi later withdrew his allegations. He went on to direct the Nayanthara starrer Aramm. He however has refused to comment on the issues faced by Varun Rajendran when contacted.
Another assistant director called Anbu Rajasekaran has filed a case against Murugadoss for plagiarising the core script of Kaththi from his short film, Thagaboomi. Rajasekaran has asked the TFPC to issue a red card to the Sarkar movie till the issue with Murugadoss is sorted out.