‘Writers’ Union is here to help us’

He said that after the Supreme Court judgment came in his favour after he was accused of plagiarising the story of Superstar Rajinikanth’s Lingaa (2014).

“Justice has won. We did not pressurise any one at any point in time to win this case. To all aspiring filmmakers. I would advise that they register their stories first and take the help of Writers Union in case they are accused of plagiarism.” The story of Lingaa revolves around the hero building a dam for the people in the pre-independence era. An aspiring director Ravirathnam from Madurai filed in the Madurai sessions court that the story has been copied from his movie Mullaivanam 999.

There were widespread reports that Lingaa was a box office dud and that Rajinikanth had to pay out of his pocket to the producer of the film Rockline Venkatesh. Ravikumar rubbished those rumours and said, “Lingaa was a commercially viable venture at the box office. The audience response to the film was amazing”. Lingaa had Sonakshi Sinha, Anushka Shetty , Santhanam, Radha Ravi, Jagapathy Babu in important roles. AR Rahman had composed music for the film.