Last week, filmmaker Shankar, who has helmed films like Indian, Robot and 2.0, had announced that he would be remaking the Tamil film Anniyan (2005), with Ranveer Singh. However, the producer of the original movie, V Ravichandran, wrote a letter to Shankar claiming that the rights to the storyline belong to him. The dispute has now reached the South Indian Chamber of Commerce (SICC).

Chairman of the SICC, Ravi Kottarakara, confirmed that V Ravichandran has filed a complaint claiming that he is the sole owner of the rights to Anniyan and that filmmaker Shankar cannot remake it.

While in his letter to Shankar, Ravichandran had said that remaking or copying the plot of the said movie without permission will be illegal, Shankar, in his reply, had claimed that he has the right to exploit the script the way he wants to and that the rights were never assigned to the producer of the film.

Talking about the dispute, Ravi Kottarakara said, “Since V Ravichandran is a member of our association, we have received his complaint, we will be writing to director Shankar, asking for his reply to the alleged complaint.” However, he also added that usually, a film’s rights rest with the producer, and pointed out that this film was released in 2005. He further said that there have been instances when a producer is paid a certain amount if a remake is made of the film. “But I would not like to comment in this case; we will wait for Shankar’s response,” he added.