Thinkal Menon (BOMBAY TIMES; February 21, 2020)

Producer P L Thenappan, who holds the rights of K S Ravikumar’s two-decade-old Minsara Kanna, was planning to sue the makers of Academy Award-winning film Parasite on the grounds of ‘story theft’. Now, we have learnt that, with the help of his lawyer, he had an intimation mail sent last Wednesday to director Bong Joon Ho and the production company of the South Korean movie, seeking an explanation.

Easwar Kuppusamy, a Madras High Court advocate, who is appearing for Thenappan, says that they will initiate legal action against the makers if they fail to get a response to their mail by next Wednesday. He says, “We have provided them with details of Minsara Kanna. They can’t deny that they have lifted the basic plot (from the Tamil film). There are several films which have similar ideas, but an entire family going to a rich family’s house and deceiving them is Minsara Kanna’s plot. The only difference is that Parasite doesn’t belong to the romantic genre.”

What happens if the Parasite team doesn’t respond to the intimation mail? Easwar answers, “We will then send a legal notice to the director and the producer through Korean Embassy. We will also be informing the Academy Awards team about this. If they accept charges of plagiarism, further action will be decided. As this is a dispute between Indian and Korean production companies, we may also involve a forum of foreign advocates.” The lawyer continues, “But I foresee an amicable solution if they admit to having lifted the plot. Then, it’s up to the producer if he wants to demand monetary compensation.”