CHENNAI: Celebrating his win in the legal battle that questioned the originality of his film, Malayalam blockbuster Drishyam and its upcoming Tamil remake Papanasam that stars Kamal Haasan, director Jeethu Joseph says it was Kamal’s support that made him fight the court case.
The shooting of Papanasam was stalled last year when author Satheesh Paul had filed a suit against the producers of the movie and Jeethu for violating the copyrights of his novel Oru Mazhakalathu. “When this case cropped up last year, Kamal sir said that I should fight. I should thank him for the support,” says Jeethu.
According to Jeethu, things like these happen when a movie is on the verge of its release, “When someone files such a case, it is the producer who suffers a huge loss, because then, the shooting gets stalled, and the rents for the sets, flight tickets go to waste. Exploiting the financial crisis, those who file the case say that they will withdraw it if the producer agrees to pay them. And, in most cases producers tend to negotiate with them and give them a small amount to prevent huge loss,” he says. For Jeethu, the case caused around one-and-a-half months of delay in the shooting of the film. “We had planned, put up sets, given the month’s rent, booked flight tickets — everything together would have come to around `20 lakh loss for the producers,” he says.
“But because Kamal sir said that we should fight, we fought. I am thankful to my producers Suresh Balaje (Papanasam) and Antony Perumbavoor (Drishyam) for standing strong. If not for these people, I would have been forced to pay him. All of us fought together, which I think they never expected!” adds Jeethu. “Now, the shooting of the film is complete and we are ready for release, which will mostly be in May,” he says. While Drishyam was set in a Christian background, the Tamil version will be set in a Hindu background — and that is the only difference besides the cast, he confirms.
Though Jeethu is happy about the win, he says there is nothing to be excited about it, as he always knew that the verdict would favour him. “We had solid proof. Satheesh’s argument was that I had done my film based on his novel that released in May 2013. However, I finished writing my script in 2011. I had had my handwritten script typed and mailed to me at a DTP centre.The mail is solid proof,” he says.
While the storm has settled now, the next step forward, according to Jeethu is to file a defamation against Satheesh. “He has harassed me a lot,” says Jeethu, blaming him of character assassination and blackmailing. “However, I don’t think there is any personal motive. He would have probably thought that if he came up with a case like this, may be my producers will negotiate and pay him. When that did not happen, he took it up as a challenge. In fact, he had also sent me a message through a third party saying that if I paid him some amount, he will withdraw the case. I told him a straight ‘no’.
Jeethu and Kamal in Tamil remake of PK?
While fans await the release of Papanasam, there is yet another big news doing the rounds — about Jeethu and Kamal coming together for the Tamil remake of PK. Jeethu says, “Yes we have got the proposal, but Kamal sir and I haven’t decided yet whether we are doing it,” he says.