Netrikkan controversy hots up

Producer Pushpa Kandhaswamy, daughter of late filmmaker K.Balachander, who heads the prolific banner Kavithalayaa, has hit back at ace writer, director, actor and theatre personality Visu, who recently warned of legal action if the rights for the 1981 blockbuster Netrikkan, bankrolled by Kavithalaya and written by him, were assigned to a third party without proper permission from him.

Visu’s threat came in the wake of speculation that Dhanush would be doing a remake of Netrikkan, in which his father-in-law Rajinikanth starred.

Visu had demanded to know whether Dhanush had acquired the rights to remake the film, and asserted that the production house did not have the authority to grant such rights without his permission. He also said he would approach the courts if the reports of Dhanush doing a remake of Netrikkan turned out to be true.

Visu had further alleged that he had not got ‘justice’ from Kavithalaya in a similar case earlier, with respect to the film Thillu Mullu.   

Reacting to Visu’s comments, Pushpa Kandhaswamy has said, “Several sections of the media have reported that Mr. Visu has said he has not been compensated as a writer in the licensing of the Tamil remake rights of Netrikkan. He has been falsely accusing Kavithalayaa and its officers of various infringements. Mr. Visu’s statements are without merit and have been made without any verification of real facts.”

She adds that “As the producer of the film Netrikkan, Kavithalayaa is the absolute owner of all the copyrights related to the said film. We have not assigned the Tamil remake rights of the said film in favour of any third party, and will adhere to its agreements by compensating the required parties if any assignment happens in the future. The right to use only the title, Netrikkan, has been given to a third party and this right exclusively belongs to Kavithalayaa.”

Talking about Thillu Mullu, she said, “We are not even parties to the action said to have been initiated by Mr. Visu in respect of the film Thillu Mullu. Kavithalayaa asserts that they have at all times adhered to the agreements with writers/authors and there has been no violation whatsoever in the eyes of the law.”

The present controversy started when Dhanush, in a recent interaction with the media, said that he was interested in acting in a remake of his father-in-law’s Netrikkan. Speculation followed that his pair would be Keerthi Suresh, daughter of Menaka, who had acted opposite Rajinikanth in the original film, which saw Superstar in a dual role.