THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Actor Mohanlal's directorial debut ‘Barroz’ gets into a legal entanglement, with just a month remaining for its release. George Thundiparambil, a non-resident Keralite in Germany, has served a legal notice on Mohanlal, screenplay writer Jijo Punnose, producer Antony Perumbavoor and director TK Rajeev Kumar, alleging plagiarism and copyright violation. "Though Mohanlal promised to address the issue no action was taken," George Thundiparambil told TNIE.
Barroz, scheduled to be released in theatres worldwide on September 12, is based on the novel ‘Barroze: Guardian of D’ Gama’s Tressaure’, by ‘My Dear Kuttichathan’ director Jijo Punnose.
George alleged that the film's story has many similarities with his novel ‘Maya’.
"The screenplay first written by Jijo Punnoose and corrected/changed by TK Rajeev Kumar later on, contains many elements that are copyright protected. Therefore it constitute unauthorized imitation of his novel ‘Maya’, accounting to infringement of copyright," said the legal notice.
George urged the filmmakers to desist from further proceedings over releasing the film. Even after attempts to diffuse the issue, the plaintiff has decided to approach the court.
A native of Alappuzha, George currently resides in Germany. He said in the legal notice that his novel ‘Maya’ was published in 2008. The theme of the novel was based on a myth prevalent in the Fort Kochi area about a ghost referred to as Kappiri Muthappan who eventually became a demigod. Kappiri Muthappan is believed to be an African slave who was killed by his Portuguese master for guarding the latter’s treasure before he fled to Portugal. The belief was that the slave’s spirit would guard the treasures till a descendant of the master arrived and received them.
In his novel ‘Maya’ George brings to life an eighteen-year-old girl Maya as the heiress of the treasure as she is the only person who can see the Kappiri Muthappan. The slave also recognizes the girl as the heiress of the treasure.
George alleged that a copy of the novel was given to a friend and it was told that the same was handed over to TK Rajeev Kumar. Only, recently it came to George's notice that the theme of the film ‘Barroze’ is strikingly similar to his novel ‘Maya’. The notice said he found out from websites that there was an absolute violation of copyright. He also found out that the film, according to its makers, is based on a novel by Jijo Punnose. He also found the novel ‘Barroze: Guardian of D’ Gama’s Treasure’, on Jijo Punnose's blog. However, such a novel was not found on the market. Reading the five chapters published on the website, he found absolute similarity his novel Maya, in the story and characters.
Some of the similarities that he came across are - the creation of a girl character as a counter figure to the ghost, the aspect that only the girl can see the ghost, the girl is the heiress of treasure, and mention of protests against the event by radical elements right from the start in both stories, the notice pointed out.
“This is one hundred per cent plagiarism”, George Thundiparambil told TNIE. “I did not believe it when my friends told me about it. But, when I went through the novel it became obvious. Each chapter contains only one page and it is evident that this was an attempt to make people believe that the screenplay is based on his novel”, he said.
Goerge said Mohanlal had personally called him up three weeks ago. “He said he was not aware of the issue. I told him that I have no issue with him as my opposition was only towards the novel. Mohanlal asked for a copy of my novel, and I made arrangements to deliver it. Even though he said that he would reach back, it didn’t happen. That's why we decided to move to the court”, George said.
Meanwhile, TK Rajeev Kumar told TNIE that since legal proceedings are underway in the matter, he would not comment on the issue.
Jijo Punnoose refutes charges. In his reply to the legal notice, Jijo Punnoose dismissed the charges. He said he wrote the novel ‘Barroze: Guardian of D’ Gama’s Treasure’ out of a passion for making films and not for public sales.
It was intended as a viable conduit to International Studios for Global Production in English and Hispanic languages done in India. The printed novel was sent to actor Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington and Idris Elba to play the lead role. "In mid- 2018 a Malayalam language version (with the Negroid ghost getting changed to a Malabari ghost) was made for Mohanlal to direct the Malayalam movie," said his reply to the legal notice.
Jijo Punnoose later withdrew from the project. The reply said Mohanlal and Antony Perumbavoor were forced to write a new story without Jijo's participation or consent. "Jijo intends to produce the original script in English with a Hollywood actor”, the reply further said.
Jijo also dismissed George’s contention that the treatment and expression of mythical ideas is unique to 'Maya' and are copyright protected. “It is settled law that there can be no copyright on ideas, subject matter, themes, plots or legendary facts which have already been written, displayed by other famous authors”, the reply said.