Assets worth more than Rs 10 crore of the director of 2010 movie 'Enthiran' facing charges of plagiarism and copyright violations have been attached under the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday.
This is possibly the first attachment of assets in the country under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), on grounds of plagiarism or copyright violation while making a movie, as per officials.
A provisional order was issued on February 17 under the PMLA attaching three immovable properties of the director, S Shankar, the ED said in a statement. The total value of these assets is Rs 10.11 crore, it said.
The money laundering case stems from a complaint filed by Aarur Tamilnadan, author of a story titled 'Jiguba', against Shankar before a court at Egmore in Chennai on
May 19, 2011.
The complaint alleges that the storyline of the Tamil movie 'Enthiran' (Robot), directed by Shankar, was copied from 'Jiguba' thereby rendering Shankar liable for violations under the Copyright Act, 1957 and some sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the ED said.
'Enthiran' was released in 2010 and featured Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai as the main lead. It grossed Rs 290 crore world-wide, making it an all-time blockbuster at the time, the ED said.
The federal probe agency said its investigation found that Shankar received a "substantial" remuneration of `Rs 1.5 crore for his "multi-faceted" contributions to 'Enthiran', including story development, screenplay, dialogues, and direction.
Further, an independent report by the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) identified "striking" similarities between the story 'Jiguba' and the movie 'Enthiran'. This report, which examined narrative structure, character development, and thematic elements, lends significant support to the plagiarism allegations against Shankar, the agency said.
"Based on the substantial evidence and records in hand, it has been determined that S Shankar has violated Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957,? a violation now classified as a scheduled offence under the PMLA," the ED said.
