Nishad Koya Lays Claim Over Story For Nivin Pauly's Malayalee From India, Says Filmmakers Were Aware

Shortly after its theatrical release, Malayalee from India appears to be on the cusp of a copyright controversy. The bone of contention in this regard, has been presented by writer Nishad Koya, who has claimed that the premise of the film is entirely inspired from a pitch he had made to director Dijo Jose Antony.

Nishad Koya lays claim on the storyline for Malayalee from India

Nishad Koya recently appeared for an interview with The Cue Studio. Koya detailed how his script was initially intended to be turned into a film with Jayasurya in the lead with Joshiy helming the direction. However, when the same failed to materialise, Jayasurya encouraged Koya to pitch the idea to Dijo Jose Antony - a pitch which was bluntly rejected by the director. Koya also claims to have Whatsapp receipts of the conversation, back from 2021.

He said, "I have the Whatsapp chat with me. In 2021, we had announced a project with this script starring Jayasurya and directed by Joshiy. However, it did not materialise due to certain issues. Jayasurya then shared the story with Dijo who seemed interested with the project. On Jayasurya's insistence, I read out the script to Dijo, who curtly rejected the offer."

Prithviraj Sukumaran had alerted Nishad Koya about Dijo Jose Antony's project

After being rejected by Antony, Koya then approached actor Prithviraj Sukumaran. It was the actor who on a hunch informed Koya that a similar film is already underway, with Nivin Pauly int he lead. He said, "I later approached Prithviraj with the same script during the shoot of his film Salaar. That's when Prithviraj informed me that Dijo was doing a similar story with Nivin Pauly. I was shocked."

Koya then immediately reached out to Antony. The filmmaker dismissed these claims assuring him that there were no similarities. However, on chancing across the teaser for Malayalee from India, Koya became doubly sure that it was his script which had been turned into a movie behind his back. He added, "I sent Dijo a voice note on Whatsapp sharing my concern. Dijo promised me the film would be entirely different except for the India-Pakistan angle. When I saw the film's teaser, I realised that the story was almost the same."