With the spectre of plagiarism looming large over most of the Tollywood’s filmmakers, television actor-turned-director Prem Sai asserted that his forthcoming film Courier Boy Kalyan is not inspired by Hollywood flick Premium Rush.
Telugu filmmakers have earned the notorious reputation for blatantly lifting ideas from the western counterparts and even the high-profile films have been labelled as copied.
For instance, Krish Jagarlapudi’s upcoming film Kanche bears a striking resemblance to Lasse Hallström’s 2010 thriller, Dear John, while Akhil’s debut film seems to be inspired (at least the posters) from James Wong’s Dragonball Evolution.
Brushing aside rumours that his upcoming bilingual is inspired from Premium Rush, director Prem Sai said they had begun shooting before the Hollywood flick had hit screens. “I registered my script with the writer’s council in 2011. Premium Rush released towards the end of 2012 and by then, we had completed about 60 percent of the shooting. Apart from the fact that the protagonists in both the films are a messenger, which is pure coincidence, nothing else is similar,” he clarified.
“It’s probably because of the rarity of the protagonist being a messenger in both the films that these allegations are being circulated around,” he added.
Courier Boy Kalyan, which stars Nithiin in the lead, was slated to release on September 11, but sources indicate that the film may be postponed to September 17 or even later, due to “financial reasons”.
Produced by Gautham Menon, Courier Boy Kalyan also features Yami Gautham in an important role.