CHENNAI: Madras High Court has restrained the producer of the runaway hit, Jigarthanda, from selling the Hindi remake rights till June 11. This followed a petition filed by the movie’s director Karthik Subbaraj. The issue between Subbaraj and Five Star Productions’ S Kathiresan had been billowing for almost a month, before the young director sought legal recourse.
On May 21, Justice K Mahadevan issued an order of restraint against S Kathiresan selling any part of the film, as it infringed on the copyright held by the director. Kathiresan’s attorney was directed to respond on June 11. Jigarthanda was one of the runaway hits of 2014 and featured Bobby Simhaa in a career-defining role, that eventually fetched him a National Award. It also starred Siddharth and Lakshmi Menon. The film went on to become one of the top ten grossers of 2014, despite being made on a shoestring budget.
When Subbaraj first heard that his producer had approached three Mumbai-based film studios to sell the remake rights of Jigarthanda, he was shocked and promptly complained to the Tamil Thirai Iyakunargal Sangam (TANTIS). He contended that in the original agreement, 40 per cent of the profit derived from any sale of remake rights or other property was due to him — which automatically meant that he had a say in any sale and the terms therein. After four rounds of talks between the TANTIS and the Tamil Film Producers Council broke down, Subbaraj approached the court and has secured a favourable ruling. Relations between the director and producer have been strained for a while now, ostensibly stemming from disagreements over expenditure and runtime.