After ED attaches Shankar’s properties, Enthiran director says ‘clear misuse of...'

Earlier in the day, various reports came out that the Directorate of Enforcement had provisionally attached three immovable properties that amounted to Rs 10 crore registered under director Shankar's name. The actions came as a result related to a legal battle that has been going on for a while now, with regards to copyright infringement on the director's film Enthiran.

Shankar responds to ED move on his property

For the uninitiated, ED had led a probe after a complaint was filed by a writer named Aarur Tamilnadan in 2011 before the 13th Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Egmore. He had alleged that Enthiran had many details from his story titled Jiguba and had filed the plaint under the Copyright Act, 1957.

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One of the findings from the probe, as per reports, was that Jiguba had "striking similarities" with Enthiran. It was also found that Shankar had received Rs 11.5 crore for his contribution to Enthiran in the form of story development, screenplay, dialogues and direction. Subsequently, ED had attached three immovable properties under Shankar’s name.

In response to this, Shankar in a statement, said that ED had attached three immovable properties based on “baseless plagiarism allegations” related to the film Enthiran. “Till date, there is no communication from the Enforcement Directorate regarding the attachment, but the attachment was widely circulated in Media. This action not only misinterprets the legal facts but also represents a clear misuse of the legal process,” the director’s statement said.

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‘I am disheartened by continued action of ED’

Shankar also said that with the facts spread out, he is disheartened by ED’s continued action and said it “a blatant abuse of the legal process”

Shankar’s statement also said that the allegations were already adjudicated by the High Court.
“The Court carefully examined the evidence and arguments from both sides, dismissing the claim filed by Aarur Tamil Nadan, which sought to declare him as the rightful copyright holder of the Enthiran story,” the statement read.

Enthiran released in 2010 and stars Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles. The blockbuster success has music by AR Rahman and is available for streaming on SunNXT and the OTTplay Premium app.