Shankar issues statement after Aascar Ravichandran's claims about 'Anniyan' Hindi remake

On April 15, 2021, director Shankar took to his official Twitter handle and responded to the allegations levelled up against him by producer Aascar Ravichandran over Anniyan’s remake rights. In the statement, Shankar reiterated that the rights belong to him and highlighted that he was credited for the plot and screenplay of the Tamil film at the beginning. It was on the same day that Anniyan's producer stated that the Hindi remake of Anniyan was illegal and further claimed that he still owns the rights of the story. On the same day, Shankar’s ex-assistant director, Arivazhagan, also shared the statement and said that he stands with the director, in the caption.

Shankar issues statement after Aascar Ravichandran calls Anniyan Hindi remake illegal

The statement of the director reads, “I am shocked to receive your mail dated 14.04.2021 stating that you own the storyline of the movie Anniyan. In this context, I submit that the movie was released in the year 2005 and everyone associated with the movie was aware that the script and storyline belong exclusively to me and in fact, the movie was released with the tag: story, screenplay and direction by Shankar”. “I have not assigned in writing any script or screenplay to any person, and continue to retain the right to exploit the script in any manner I deem fit”. “As the admitted author of the literary work, my rights cannot be interfered with under any circumstances”, he added.

“I am rather surprised to see the reference to late Sri Sujatha, as he was engaged by me to write dialogues for the film and was accordingly credited. He was not involved in the script, screenplay or characterisation in any manner, and there is no scope beyond his engagement as a dialogue writer”. “Given that the script vests with me, I am absolutely entitled to exploit the same in any manner I deem fit”. “In fact, you/your entity does not have the right to remake or make any derivative rights for Anniyan, as the said rights have not been granted to you in writing. In the absence of any assignment in writing from me, there can be no basis whatsoever to even assert that the storyline vests with you”, wrote Shankar.

The director continued, “You as the producer have gained substantially from the success of the film Anniyan, and are needlessly trying to unjustly enrich yourself even in my future endeavours which have no correlation to you”. “Needless to state, I can only hope good sense will prevail upon you after this clarification, and you will stop agitating such baseless claims”. He concluded, “This reply is issued without prejudice, and to clarify the actual situation of me as a director and writer being subject to such avaricious and illegal claims to needlessly attempt to jeopardise my future projects”.

Alongside Arivazhagan, Chimbudevan, who has worked as an assistant director to Shankar, also extended his support. The hashtag ‘#ISupportDirectorShankar’ started trending on the microblogging site. Furthermore, it was only several days ago that Shankar and Ranveer Singh announced the Hindi remake of Anniyan with Pen Movies.