Malayalam filmmaker Sanju Surendran claimed that he had obtained sanction from S Hareesh to make a film based on his book Aadam.
A district court in Thrissur has issued an interim order against the screening of Hindi movie Karwaan, which was slated for release on Friday.
The court invoked Section 55 of the Copyright Act to grant the injunction, acting upon a petition by Malayalam filmmaker Sanju Surendran and others. Respondents in the case were film director Bejoy Nambiar, actor Akarsh Khurana and film producer Ronnie Screwvala.
Surendran claimed that he had obtained sanction from S Hareesh to make a film based on his book Aadam. The movie, Aedan, had been screened in several places and festivals including International Film Festival of Kerala in 2017. He claimed he had noticed similarities with Aedan in the story, location, character, object and treatment in the trailer of Karwaan, which infringed upon the copyrights of the petitioners.
Hareesh is also the author of Meesha, which was recently withdrawn from a magazine following protests. The court said the respondents were restrained from screening or publicly exhibiting any movie picture which contains the story, theme and screenplay having substantial similarity with the petitioner’s movie Aedan.
However, actor Dulquer Salmaan on Thursday posted on Facebook that “contrary to reports, Karwaan is releasing all over Kerala on August 3”. Armour and Sword Legal Associates, which represented Surendran, said they would approach the High Court on Friday.