Madras High Court bans 'Harkara' film a day before its release

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has issued an interim injunction to restrain the release of the film 'Harkara' before a day of the release of the film.

The plaintiff, R Chidambaram, moved to the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking to issue a permanent ban on the release of the film 'Harkara' without acknowledging his name in the credits of the film.

According to the plaintiff, he and the defendant Ram Arun Castro came to an agreement on November 21, 2014, that they both would be the joint owners and have equal shares of the film 'Oatta Thoodhuvan' (1854), which is now renamed as 'Harkara'.

The counsel, S V Vijay Prashanth, for the plaintiff, submitted that the film was screened in the Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF), Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), and Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFF) with credit to the plaintiff as director and scriptwriter of the film.

Subsequently, Ram Arun Castro renamed the film name as Harkara by adding two new scenes to the film as Oatta Thoodhuvan 1854 and credited himself as the director and scriptwriter of the film, added the counsel.

The film was slated to release on August 25.

After knowing the changes, the plaintiff moved the MHC to restrain the release of the film without his name in the credits. The case was listed before Justice PT Asha.

After the submission, the judge directed the defendant and QUBE not to release the film without having the name of the plaintiff in the credit of the film as director and scriptwriter.

Further, the judge also directed the defendant to file an affidavit on Friday and posted the matter on the same day.